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Only a small number of the stock car version of the Hudson were produced with the "Smokey's" logo on the front fenders. Here is the story behind this edition according to FM designer Raffi Minasian: I don't think this is giving away any secrets, so here's the real deal. I did this car from head-to-toe and captured every detail as well as I could for 1:24. Having owned a '49 Hudson and a '51 Hornet myself, I felt I had a fair knowledge beyond my already rounded general automotive knowledge.
I researched the Marshall Teague cars and found very few photos of original cars which showed detail on the front fender. I found some ref. for the car that included "Smokey's" on the front fender and so I added it to the car. On a last minute change which included the consent of the estate of Marshall Teague, the widow Teague made us take off any reference to Smokey from that car. According to the widow, she claimed that "Smokey wasn't nothin' but a tire chager for Marshall. He went on to do somethin' himself later, but he had nothin' to do with Marshall's cars or winnin' in the early '50's".
Her insistance and later our further research revealed that the car never ran in '51 with "Smokey's" on the fender and so we pulled it to make it as authentic as possible. The widow supplied us with correct and clear photos of the car from '51 and it was easy to add the PURE PREMIUM logo on the front fenders, but several cars had to be reworked and some got away with the "Smokey's" logo. These are VERY RARE and if you have one, keep it because it has one of those stories that makes it interesting to future collectors. (06/27/1999)
(06/12/1999)
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