Hupmobile Automobiles

The Hupmobile automobile, product of The Hupp Motor Car Company, has a history dating from 1909. Founder Robert C. Hupp and his brother, Louis, set out to compete with former employers Olds and Ford in 1908. Their creation, the Hupmobile, dropped one of the family p's from its name on the way to 345 Bellevue Avenue in Detroit, its first rented home. Their first car, the Model 20, was introduced at the 1909 Detroit Auto Show.

Born in 1887, Robert Craig Hupp was a Grand Rapids native and witness to the birth of the American automotive industry. He worked continuously in the automobile industry from 1902 until his early death in 1917.

The first Hupmobile sold for $750, had an 86" wheel base, and a 17-horsepower 4-cylinder engine. Sales exceeded 5,000 cars within a couple of years. Robert Hupp was always interested in plowing profits back into the improvement of the quality and performance of the company's cars - so much so that his investors quickly became worried about profitability. By 1911, his backers and Robert Hupp had had enough of each other. Robert sold his stock after only two years of being in business.

Undaunted, Robert proceeded to make electric automobiles in the newly-formed RCH Electric Car Company (He was barred from using his family name by a prior non-compete agreement). This company continued 2 years beyond the death of Robert Hupp.

Meanwhile, Hupp Motor Car Company continued to grow and thrive. Expanding to a larger plant in 1924, and in 1928 bought the Chandler-Cleveland Motors Corporation (Chandler Motor Cars). By now, the much bigger Hupp was churning out more than 60,000 units per year, and gave the likes of Chevrolet and Ford some real competition. But the tendency to build too many models, abandoning its mid-sized 4-cylinder "bread and butter" cars, resulted in a loss of the economy of scale.

The company soon acquired the rights to a new 8-cylinder engine. Always known for reliability and the early Hupmobile Lifetime Guarantee, these 8-cylinder engines proved problematic and less reliable. This and the upcoming stock market crash of 1929 served to put the best days of the makers of the Hupmobile behind them.

The Hupp Motor Company remained an innovator and was known as a maker of quality automobiles right up until its final model, Hupmobile Skylark, hit the roads just prior to 1940. Such innovations included elliptical-spring suspension, oil coolers, "free wheeling", Pres-To-Lite headlamps, and of course, the push to build bigger and more powerful cars than those of its competitors.

The other founding brother, Louis Gorham Hupp, outlived his younger brother by 44 years, and lived to see the entire drama play out for Hupp Motor Car Company. Louis died in December of 1961 at the ripe old age of 89. By that time, the name of Hupmobile had become so odd-sounding that entertainment characters such as Hugh Beaumont (as Ward Cleaver in "Leave it to Beaver") made frequent and humorous reference to his family's relic Hupmobile. Billy Wilder also dredged up the name in the movie "Some Like it Hot".

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