Hupmobile Skylark History

On February 8, 1938, with the factory shuttered by a labor dispute and finances exhausted, Hupmobile's management made a desperate gamble: they purchased the production dies of the Gordon Buehrig-designed Cord 810/812 — one of the most beautiful American cars ever built — for $900,000. The plan was to graft the stunning coffin-nose styling onto a conventional Hupmobile rear-drive chassis powered by a 245-cubic-inch inline-six producing 101 horsepower, and sell it as the Skylark at a mid-market price. Designer John Tjaarda reworked the Cord's signature nose to accept conventional upright headlights in place of the original retractable units.

Lacking adequate production facilities, Hupmobile partnered with the equally ailing Graham-Paige Motor Company. Both firms shared the Cord dies; Graham built all the cars at its own plant while selling a nearly identical version as the Hollywood. Thousands of enthusiastic orders and deposits came in when the Skylark was announced, but production delays ran on for years and most customers had canceled long before deliveries began in 1939.

Only 319 Skylarks were built before Hupmobile halted production in the second week of July 1940. Graham's Hollywood reached just over 1,400 units. On November 1, 1940, the Hupp Motor Car Company entered bankruptcy reorganization, ending 31 years and 561,664 vehicles. The Skylark name resurfaced — entirely unrelated — when Buick adopted it for a 1953 show car and then a 1954 production model.