Video: The 1950 Nash Rambler Conquers Pikes Peak

Nash Motors was eager to demonstrate that its new compact Rambler was a real, go-anywhere automobile.
When it made its debut in April of 1950, the Nash Rambler was the first in a wave of compact postwar automobiles from the Detroit carmakers that would soon include the Henry J, the Aero Willys, and the Hudson Jet. And from the start, Nash made a deliberate effort to demonstrate that its Rambler was a small car, but it wasn’t a cheap car. Trim and appointments were first-class, and the only body style available at first was a roll-back cabriolet with fixed side glass that Nash called a Convertible Landau. At $1,808, the Rambler was the lowest-priced convertible in America, but the price was still hundreds more than a stripped-down Ford or Chevy sedan, and the Nash marketing campaign was designed to show that the Rambler could do anything a Ford or Chevy could do.

With the title of this piece, we may have oversold the video a little. A more realistic header might be “Nash Rambler saunters up Pikes Peak” or “Nash Rambler strolls up Pikes Peak.” The car didn’t compete in the famous hill climb but merely made a demonstration run to the top of Zebulon Pike’s mountain. In the beginning of the video, there’s an odd little editing hiccup where the name of a “well-known automotive historian and publisher” has been deleted. We’re betting he was Floyd Clymer. Anyway, the new Nash admirably shows its stuff on the mountain run, with the little 173 CID sidevalve six showing plenty of spirit. Video below.

Article courtesy of Mac's Motor City Garage.