1932-33 Essex Terraplanes by Hudson
“On the sea that’s aquaplaning, in the air that’s aeroplaning, but on the land, in the traffic, on the hills, hot diggity dog, that’s Terraplaning!”
In 1932 Amelia Earhart christened the car as the Essex Terraplane. Notice the car did not have a griffin hood ornament in 1932. Some owners of the 1932s added the griffin at a later date.
​The Essex automobile was more expensive than the cheaper Fords and Chevrolets and as a result sales of Essexes were declining. In 1932 Hudson started the Essex Terraplane line of automobiles in an effort to compete with the lower priced Fords and Chevrolets.
In the middle of the 1933 production cycle Hudson began downplaying the Essex name and referred to the car only as a Terraplane. From 1934 to 1937 the cars were Terraplanes. As 1938 approached Hudson decided to end the production of the Terraplanes. In 1938 the cars were known as Hudson Terraplanes and the product line was discontinued at the end of 1938.
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Over the years there have been various references to the model of these cars. I once tried to get my title changed to show the manufacturer as Essex and model as Terraplane (e.g., Chevrolet Corvette) but the DMV clerk did not want to change the title. I have seen references to the model as being the body style (e.g., sedan, coupe), the series (e.g., KU), the production designator (e.g., Special Six, Deluxe Six), and Terraplane.
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In my personal, biased, opinion this 1933 griffin is the most attractive of all hood ornaments.
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Trivia: The griffin on the Terraplane was smaller than the griffin on the Hudson
Much of the information about the Terraplanes on the following pages is from the book, History of Hudson by Don Butler. This is a nice book to add to your library.
Below is information on how to get the most benefit from the gallery picture views on the other web pages.
Notes on the picture galleries:
1. Double click on a picture within a gallery and the view will go to a full-page view. In this case I will use the center newspaper article.
2. This is the full-page view. Some pictures will fill the screen. I enlarged this view to demonstrate the text might not be easy to read. You can scroll through the pictures using the arrows on the side of the screen; you can also use your curser keys. There is a download icon in the lower left corner of the picture.
When in the full-page view you can press the escape key or click on the two arrows (or X) in the upper left corner, and it will take you to a combined view with the picture and the description.
3. The combined view includes the full description. Since this article was hard to read, I included the full text from the article.
There are two icons in the upper left corner. The double arrows, or X, will leave the combined view. There is also a download icon in the upper left.
In the upper right is another X, which will return you to the original page.
Are you interested in doing your own research? Here are some great resources:
California Digital Newspaper Collection (ucr.edu)
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Would you call a Chevrolet Corvette a General Motors (Hudson, e.g., "Look dad, there goes a General Motors"), a Chevrolet (Essex), or a Corvette (Terraplane)? Most people today call these 1932-1933 cars Terraplanes. My grandfather and father always called our car, "The Essex." Was it left over from the Essex being a higher priced car?
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Do you own a Terraplane? It would be great to get your Terraplane in the registry and a picture posted in this web site. Please note that the only way to know how many Terraplanes exist is to provide me with your car's VIN. Currently 1/3 of the cars recorded in the past are missing the VIN. There is no way to know how many of these cars have been listed multiple times, and they cannot be tracked as they change hands. To record your car in the registry, and to have your favorite picture posted please go to the Registry page.
Unique keywords to help you search for this webpage include:
The car is a "Terraplane"
Those familiar with racing know that "Terraplanesgo4it", and "Terraplaneswin"
And you might be a "Terraplanelover"
Use the quotation marks to tell Google you want an exact match