In the case of the stock HUDSON 308 torque and HP curve, yes, 1800 rpm @ 60 would give optimal mileage, but with a Hydramatic you would need a 2.73 final drive ratio, like Walt Mordenti used and swore by in his old '53 Coupe. With OD, you would need the 4.10 ratio. As you can see. Hudson with it's standard ratios of 3.07 for Dual Range Hydramatic, and 4.55 for OD had about 11-12% plus margin to keep the available wide open throttle HP a bit higher for somewhat better speed holding on up gradients.

5

Yep. Walt always flew right by me on the Laughlin economy run. We all missed him this year. It was a fun run for a distance of 158.6 miles from Twenty Nine Palms, CA to Golden Nugget Motel in Laughlin, NV. Everyone had a great time sharing stories and wondering how well their mpg turned out. That was the anticipation all day until next morning when trophies were presented at 10 o'clock Sunday morning. I got lucky Walt was not there and I receive a 1st place trophy averaging 17.354 mpg, 4.1 mpg increase from last run the Hornet made 2 tears ago. The 52 Hornet has Twin-H 308, hydro, 28 inch tires with 3.07 gears. Because of speedometer error when the speedo reads 55 it is really only 49 mph at 1805 rpm. That was the speed/rpm I tried to maintain during economy run. Two years ago I ran at 40 (really 36 mph) which was only 1326 rpm The Hornet ran great the whole trip from home to Laughlin and back home was 647.2 miles. I'm glade Bettie and I stayed over until Monday to avoid stop & go traffic Sunday. The HOV lane on I-10 was moving along at speedo 85 MPH (really 77 MPH) all the way. That was a little unnerving passing so many cars barely moving in next lane hoping none changed lane right in front of me. Kenneth, next year I may try moving the speed up to speedo 60 mph (actually 53 mph) will be 1953 RPM hopefully improve up hill performance and MPG. 20 MPG? Ha Ha Ha Because most Hudson speedometers show higher speed than actual speed is why I asked the question using rpm and torque as a constant factor. Not all engines in it's class will produce the same torque however without a dyno the factory TORQUE/RPM for given engine will be a good starting point. I believe there were 11 or 12 Hudson's and a few brand X's that participated. You all are welcome to participate next year and have a good time.