Hupmobile Série R 1922, Estados Unidos

Hupmobile Série R 1922, Estados Unidos
Fotografia

Robert Craig Hupp had a resume in the automobile industry that included work at Olds, Regal and Ford. He built his own experimental car in 1908. It was a light two-passenger runabout that was introduced to the public as the Hupmobile Model 20 at the 1909 Detroit Automobile Show.

The car was immediately successful and aided in establishing a company that would flourish for years to come.

The company attracted a talented group of individuals that helped with the series production which had begun in 1908. Larger cars were introduced in 1912 with the seven-passenger, 134-inch wheelbase Model N introduced in 1916.

After World War I, the company returned to smaller and lighter car production with the series R, which was its bread-and-butter vehicle that would carry the company into the mid-1920s.

The Hupp motor company never achieved a mass market but in the 1920’s was a relatively successful Detroit-based medium-sized manufacturer. Its best year was 1929, when more than 50,000 were built and, in all, the company produced more than 560,000 cars during its 33 year history. One point of difference for Hupmobile was the use of sliding gear transmission, rather than the planetary gears of cars such as the Model T.

The model R was the fifth type built by Hupmobile, using the four cylinder 16.5 hp engine, which was rather less than Ford offered at the time. Model R production ran from 1917 to 1925, after which it was replaced by the eight-cylinder Model E and the six-cylinder Model A. All subsequent Hupmobiles were either six or eight cylinder cars.

Hupmobile grew in strength during the 1920s and, in 1928, bought the Chandler Car Company of Cleveland, Ohio, building cars both there and in Detroit until 1936. However, the Great Depression years of the 1930’s were particularly depressing for Hupmobile, and the company closed the Detroit factory from December 1935 to July 1937.