Decades before the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, there was another potent factory hot rod in the company’s product line: the 1933 Essex Terraplane 8.

The man above stepping into a Terraplane 8 is Roy D. Chapin, co-founder of the Hudson Motor Car Company in 1908 and a force behind the Terraplane. A Hudson junior brand introduced in 1932 to replace the Essex, the Terraplane (branded as the Essex Terraplane its first two years) was a stylish, low-priced six-cylinder car positioned  almost directly against Ford and Chevrolet. (See our feature here.) There was one notable divergence in this product plan, however, produced for only a single year: the 1933 Essex Terraplane 8, with a powerful straight-eight engine under the hood.

The Terraplane 8 shared its 113-in wheelbase chassis with the Terraplane Special Six and Deluxe Six, with a layout that was totally conventional: box-girder frame with X-bracing, beam axle at the front, live axle at the rear, parallel leaf springs all around. The four-wheel mechanical brakes were Duo-Servo by Bendix. The six-cylinder and eight-cylinder Terraplanes are similar on the outside, too. The easy way to identify the Terraplane 8 is by its GM-style vent doors in the sides of the hood. The six-cylinder ’33 Terraplanes have louvered hoods.

Under the hood is where things got interesting. Here was an L-head straight eight displacing 243.9 cubic inches, with a 2.94-in bore and 4.50-in stroke—extremely undersquare, the fashion at the time. Essentially, this was the 254.1 CID inline eight found in the senior Hudsons with the same stroke, but an even smaller bore. Another key difference: a more modern and efficient Carter W-1 downdraft carburetor replaced the senior Hudson’s Marvel updraft carb. Pistons were silicon-aluminum with a 5.8:1 compression ratio, producing a combination rated at 94 hp at 3,600 rpm.

Five basic body styles were offered, in standard or deluxe trim: roadster and coupe (with or without rumble seat), a convertible coupe, a two-door coach sedan, and a four-door sedan. Prices ranged from $565 to $745. But in the specification charts, we take special note of the curb weights:  The lightest was the roadster at 2,410 lbs, while the standard coupe weighed just 2,485 lbs. With 94 hp on tap, that gave the Terraplane 8 a phenomenal power-to-weight ratio of 25.6 lbs per hp, significantly better than a Ford V8. This made the Terraplane 8 one of the hottest cars on the road, especially in the low-priced class.

Indianapolis 500 veterans Al Miller and Chet Miller (not related) tore up the record books in 1933 with the Terraplane 8, taking victories at the Pikes Peak and Mount Washington hill climbs and setting 72 speed and hill climb records, including an 85 mph mark for stock cars at Daytona Beach. Many of the records would not be eclipsed until after World War II. Gangsters took notice of the Terraplane 8’s exceptional speed, too. While both Clyde Barrow and John Dillinger wrote letters to Henry Ford praising the performance of  his V8,  Dillinger reportedly said that actually, he preferred the Terraplane 8.

After just one year the Terraplane 8 was discontinued, for reasons never explained, evidently. Perhaps it was considered redundant in the Terraplane lineup, since, as Hudson boasted in its ads, “the only car faster than a Terraplane 6 is a Terraplane 8.” Or maybe it was decided that the Terraplane 8 might cut into the sales of the senior Hudson Pacemaker straight eights. For the next two decades the company focused on producing solid, high-quality vehicles for everyday use, until 1951 and the introduction of the Fabulous Hudson Hornet.