Roscoe "Rod" Hoffman was an independent engineering consultant in the 30s, and not much is known about this car, but the body is a unibody made of steel stamped out by Budd, and the engine is a 60-degree water-cooled overhead-valve X-8.
It was made to explore a takeover bid for the Hudson Motor Car Company way back in the 30s, by some guys named the Fisher brothers, who came up with a shell corporation called the Norwalk Corporation, who were looking for a halo car as a means of showing the rest of Detroit they had big ideas for the Hudson brand, so they hired Hoffman to go to town on a design for an advanced automobile.
That entire situation flamed out, and Hoffman held on to this car until 1961 when he gifted it to Brooks Stevens, with whom Hoffman had collaborated on the fiberglass-bodied Porsche-powered Paxton.
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2019/06/20/despite-lingering-mystery-of-its-origins-rod-hoffmans-x-8-receives-automotive-heritage-award
That's a 1935 Hoffman X-8 prototype. The X-8 referred to the 8 cyl engine design in an X layout.
ReplyDeleteYes, you caught me among the many minutes between working 3 posts simultaneously... some times I just post images with a fast headline to be placeholders, and clear some image space, and then go back and add info, links, more images, and spend a bit more time researching. That was this morning... busy busy busy. I even made banners
DeleteToo bad there aren't more of them, that would make an awesome little resto-mod.
ReplyDelete