THE SEARCH FOR THE SUPERSONIC
‘WORKERS LIFTED THE BODY OFF THE SUPERSONIC, FITTED IT TO THE HUDSON CHASSIS AND CREATED THE HUDSON PROTOTYPE’
Had Buck Rogers travelled the streets of America in 1949, the Fageol Supersonic would have been his ride. It was conceived as a high-speed car to blaze across America’s burgeoning highways, larger than life, powerful, and streamlined beyond imagination. Whereas Rogers was a science fiction traveller with rocketships and ray guns, the Supersonic was real – until it disappeared. For the past 72 years its tale has been retold with shifting histories, confusion, and outright deception. While the existence of the Supersonic in 1949 is beyond doubt, precisely what happened to this roadgoing spacecraft has remained a mystery.
Lou Fageol was president of Twin Coach Co, and heir to a family fortune earned in the bus and trucking industry. His firm boasted revenues of $34.6million in 1947. Not only was he a transport mogul, he was also a celebrated sportsman, winning hydroplane championships and fielding Indy 500 entrants. His wild 1946 twin-engined Indy car qualified second but crashed early. In 1948 he returned with something equally staggering… an Indy car powered by a bus-derived engine.
While other 1940s bus manufacturers were using available powerplants, Fageol wanted something superior. He spent months in California working with experts designing his multi-purpose dream engine, which would combine reliability and high performance. The resulting cast iron Fageol-6 was an efficient, high-compression straight-six masterpiece, with overhead valves and an overhead camshaft, built entirely
