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THIS HUDSON RESTOMOD STRIKES THE PERFECT BALANCE OF PRESERVATION AND MODIFICATION

- SCOTT EVANS

The long, black coupe sits in a pool of sunlight washing down through a gap in the overpass above us. The engine burbles a classic V-8 refrain from hidden tailpipes as the headlights and hood ornament glow like candles in a winter window. An elbow rests on the open windowsill, but the driver is obscured by deep shadow. Surely, we’ve either stepped back in time or onto the set of a film noir.

Then all hell breaks loose.

The engine roars, its supercharger screaming over the exhaust and careening off the concrete walls. The spinning rear tires compete in the race to damage our hearing as the car becomes one with a cloud of smoke then emerges in a fury.

This isn’t the ’40s, that’s not Humphrey Bogart, and that’s no ordinary hot rod. It’s the 1949 Hudson Derelict Coupe by Icon.

The exhaust note was the tell. It wasn’t the smooth hum of a Hudson straight eight, and it sure wasn’t the straight-six that accompanied this 1949 Commodore down the factory floor. No, the syncopated mumbling that presaged the verbal assault could only be a Chevy V-8. But this is no carbed 350 crate motor, either. It’s a 638-horsepower LS9 from a C6 Corvette ZR1.