1/16 Hudson Miniatures 1903 Cadillac Old Timers - With Aftermarket Suspension Leaf Springs
Wood and Plastic Model Kit, Box Condition: Exc
Dated 1949 and very highly detailed and prefabricated for that time. Large scale kit measures 7 inches long when built. Features plastic wheels, plastic correct-for-this-car aftermarket suspension springs, steering and lamps, die cut and factory machines wooden parts and a small number of metal and accessory parts. The kit has never been started. Inventoried and NOTE: missing headlamps, which are cylinders and can be made from stock wood or plastic. All other parts have been inventoried present including highly detailed plans/instructions. Please note, there are adult notes written on the plans to improve the accuracy of the model. The owner of these kits was a keen researcher and actually won a Hudson Miniature Old Timers Model Building Competition. The 1903 Cadillac was the very first production Caddy and the car that began the legend. This particular model was capable of 30 mph with four passengers. Its 11 hp engine could negotiate a 45% grade with ease. The car was first test driven on Oct 17, 1902. In January of '03 it was taken to the New York Automobile show where orders for 2286 were placed. By mid week, Cadillac announced that were 'Sold Out.' This makes sense when you realize that in 1903 all cars had a rough machine-shop or 'garage' fit and finish; the new Cadillac looked like a Jewel in comparison. Later that year the Cadillac placed or won challenges and reliability contests worldwide and earned the status of 'Standard of the World.' Hudson Miniatures created a very popular line of automobile kits in a constant 1/16 scale shortly after WWII. The kits sold very well...so well that you could argue that Gowland & Gowland borrowed Hudson's subject matter for their ground-breaking 'Highway Pioneers.' The Hudson Miniatures 'Old Timers' even spawned a line of imitators, with Fador's 'Smallster' being one of the better in quality. Sales did drop on the appearance and popularity of the much smaller (and less accurate) Gowland/Revell 'Highway Pioneers' in 1951. When the all-injection molded Gowland kits proved not to be a passing fad, Hudson quickly planned and released his own all-plastic, small-scale competition called 'Lil' Old Timers Quickie Kits.' The kits were of excellent quality, but it was too little too late. Additionally, sales of the excellent wooden kits faltered further in the next few years with the introduction of accurate, 1/24 and 1/32 all-plastic cars in the mid 1950s. This forced Hudson to discontinue the wood kits and the plastic line was sold to Revell and subsequently re-released. Today, these excellent, big 1/16 kits are often the only model available of these early automobiles. In the mid 1960s Aurora thought so highly of Hudson Miniatures that they purchased the wood kit assets and released a very small number of these in all-plastic models.
This item has been sold.
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