29 Jan The Only Way Is Essex

The Essex was an affordable brand of automobile introduced by the Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, the name stemming from a department store magnate Joseph Lowthian Hudson, who, together with eight other Detroit businessmen, put  up the necessary funds for the company’s formation in February 1909.  In 1918, the Essex Motor Company, a wholly owned entity of Hudson, was created to produce a small car that was affordably priced. The cars were built by Essex from 1918 to 1922, then by Hudson between 1922 and 1933. The name was chosen after Hudson officials scoured a map of England in pursuit of a name with some snob appeal. A long-running UK TV series, The Only Way Is Essex, supports this decision…

Essex Motors went so far as to lease the old No.5 Studebaker auto factory in Franklin Avenue, Detroit for the production of the car. Ninety-two cars were built in 1918 but were sold as 1919 models. Initially, Essex marketed a line of touring cars (open four-door cars with canvas tops), which was the most popular body style of cars in production at the time. Proving durable, their capabilities were checked upon and confirmed by AAA and the United States Post Office. In 1919, an Essex completed a 50-hour, 3 037,4-miles (4 888,2 km) endurance test in Cincinnati, Ohio, at an average speed of 60,75 mph (97,77 km/h). In August 1920, four Essexes (two starting from each coast) completed an average four-day, 22-hour, 32-minute across-America trek with each car carrying a pouch of mail. The early Essex cars also captured many hill climb records. In a special Essex race car, Glen Shultz won the 1923 Pikes Peak Hill Climb.

Part of FMM’s extensive collection is a 1922 Essex Tourer. New features introduced included a drum-shaped fuel tank, wider doors with front hinges, and repositioned spark plugs on the right side of the engine. It is powered by a 2 951 four-cylinder engine with overhead intake/side exhaust valves that delivers 41 kW at 2 800 r/min. The chassis carries solid axles front and rear supported on semi-elliptic leaf springs. Mechanical brakes operate on the rear wheels only.

The Essex is generally credited with starting a trend away from open touring cars design toward enclosed passenger compartments. While Henry Ford is credited with inventing the affordable car, it was Essex that made the enclosed car affordable when in 1922 a closed coach was introduced. Priced at $1495, it was only $300 above that of the touring car, and the lowest-priced closed car in America. But by 1925, the coach was priced $5 below the touring car…

In 1929 the Essex contributed to over 300 000 Hudson sales, placing the company third in the industry. More than 1,13 million Essex automobiles were sold by the time the Essex name was retired in 1932 and replaced by the Terraplane. That year the Essex Motor Company was dissolved and the cars officially became a product of Hudson.

FMM’s 1922 Essex Tourer is currently part of the 20-car ‘All American’ display that can be viewed in Hall C.