Detroit Iron in Superleggera Clothing.

Byline: BILL McGUIRE

In Detroit, the city of gray flannel and gray iron, Frank Spring must have cut quite a figure. The son of a wealthy San Francisco land baron and a doting Parisian mother, Spring was raised in Europe. Worldly and urbane, he slept on the floor, practiced yoga and studied Eastern philosophy, while his taste in machinery was equally esoteric. Spring's personal transportation ranged from Mercedes Gullwings to Beechcraft Staggerwings, and big, fast Vincent and Ariel motorcycles. After serving as general manager of the Pasadena coachbuilder Walter M. Murphy Co. from 1923 to 1931, he became director of styling at Hudson, a position he held until the company was absorbed into American Motors in 1955.

With his continental perspective, Spring was an enthusiastic supporter of light European cars. Hudson's full-size models were solid performers, but massively over-engineered. The 1953 Jet was Hudson's postwar compact, intended to compete against the Rambler and Henry J. But when the Jet arrived tall, homely and a quarter-ton overweight, Spring was crushed with disappointment. In Hudson lore, it is said Spring was offered the glamorous Italia project as compensation. Another story has it that Hudson, hoping to transfer its success in stock car racing into victory in the Carrera Panamericana, planned a series of 25 special lightweight cars to meet the event's homologation rules.

Between May 1953 and mid-1954 26 Italias were built: one prototype and 25 "production'' cars. Stock Jet chassis were shipped from Hudson's Detroit plant across the sea to Carrozzeria Touring of Milan, where custom bodies to Spring's design were fitted using Touring's special Superleggera construction. Italian for "super light,'' the technique employed hand-formed aluminum panels hung on a superstructure of thin-wall tubing.

Among other companies, Alfa Romeo and Aston Martin used Superleggera construction for lightweight racing models until Touring closed in 1967. But the Jet's unit construction dictated the production ...