In 1934, Hupmobile phased out the “cycle fender” cars and introduced their second Raymond Leowy-designed body style, the Aerodynamic series. Much like Chrysler’s Airflow, it was a polarizing style choice. The six cylinder 421-J and the eight cylinder 427-T were basically the same mechanically as the previous model K and I cars.
These rooftop publicity shots were taken at the Greer-Robbins dealer in Los Angeles. This is a 421-J with Olympic divers, swimming champion/ Tarzan actor Buster Crabbe, and The Sultan of Johor.
Personally, these re better looking than the Airflows. Although I like both designs.
@mparadise I agree. Always been a fan of the pilot house windshield.
I like these cars Travis! Post some pictures of the 3 window. Isn't there a guy in Michigan or Ohio hoarding all of them?
@alsancle Very few of the coupes out there. I’m not even sure if any eights are left. Here’s a fixer upper. That’s a 521-J with the revised grille.
@Hupp31 Something about the front end in the Tarzan picture was bothering me, not sure what untill I saw this picture. It was the front bumper, the car looks better without it.
@Hupp31 That is very very cool but I too smart now to fall for it.
@alsancle There is a club member in Michigan with 3 coupes, a J, T, and a G. That 527-T would be the only eight cylinder coupe that I’m aware of. There are less than 10 aerodynamic coupes in the club in total.
@Hupp31 As hard as finding a good 126" car!
@alsancle Even worse if you want an eight. The T would be the one to have, but beggars can’t be choosers. A model J is the next best thing if you still want to have the pilot house windshield in a six.
@Hupp31 That is cool. Wow.
@alsancle Another coupe at a 1936 auto show. Unfortunately, we can’t see enough of the car to see if it is a six or eight.
@Hupp31 Love it!
Another J coupe. I imagine the profile of a 427 or 527-T coupe would have been striking with 6” more hood.
@Hupp31 Longer hoods make everything look better. 72" inches is the magic number prewar but 99% of the cars are under 68".
Here is a 527-T with the 1935 style grille. Of course, people are blocking it but the door on the hood identifies it as the eight. These are all Hupp sales managers here and I can only assume that they’re not looking at the 1935 sales numbers because they’re still smiling.
@Hupp31 Travis, what size was the 8?
@alsancle 303 ci. Same as the model I but I believe these used downdraft carburetors.
The model J and T were carried over into 1935 with only the grille facelift, like the 527-T on the right. Since the company was broke at this point, they made two new models on the cheap in 1935, the 518-D six and the 521-O eight. It seems that they used the new extended grille shell to allow squeezing the engines into a shorter chassis. The 521-O , like the one seen here on the left, was basically a 521-J that they shoehorned the eight from the 527-T into. 475 Model O’s were built, 3 are left.
A 1935 521-O from the Dave Romani collection. This car can be seen in the photos that @SteveMackCT posted of the Belltown car show.
During the 1935 model year, the most affordable aerodynamic model was introduced as a desperate attempt to boost sales. The 518-D used a shorter 118” wheelbase and a revised 6 cylinder engine. It used the same add-on grille shell as the model O eight cylinder. To cut cost, the pilot house windshield was replaced with a single pane. They actually sold a decent number of these, 6,274, which was more than any one model had sold in one year since 1931. There are two 518-D sedans and a 521-O here.
For the 1936 model year, the aerodynamic models were given another facelift. The 618-G six cylinder evolved from the model D and the 621-N evolved from the model O. Both had a waterfall style grille treatment. Production was limited in 1936 and barely even happened in 1937 when the company was on the ropes. This photo of a 618-G shown on a test course was doctored up in 1930’s photoshop style.
Another doctored up advertising photo showing the panoramic windshield. I’m skeptical that it actual offered much wider of a field of vision than the single pane. But it does look cool.
@Hupp31 Travis, I agree. Not sure it helps with vision but it looks cool. Similar to the Panhard design of the same year.
@alsancle There’s a brand that we need to start a thread on. Lots of interesting cars.
Travis, I'm sure you are on top of this?
@alsancle I did see that one. The original post was a couple years ago so I’m not really sure what’s going on with the car now. The 36-37 G coupe definitely looks nice, I like that later grille style. Finding one in an eight cylinder N would really be the holy grail. But I think only a couple N’s exist.
@alsancle They need to lose the skirts on this one, but that’s a sweet looking car.
A couple of press photos that were given to sales managers. Prices were the lowest they had ever been but it was too little, too late. Only a few cars would be built in 1937 when the company had no funds to keep production going. These would be the last aerodynamics.
1934 421-J
A 1934 427-T, bodied by Saouctchik
@Hupp31 do you know Fred Mehr? He posted these to Facebook.
No, I don’t know him but that ‘35 coupe is very nice.
