First, we’ll admit that even we had to look this one up. Robert Hupp and his brother Louis started the Hupmobile Company, in Detroit, Michigan, in 1908. Robert had previously worked with both Oldsmobile and Ford and figured he could do them one better. Remarkably, the company survived until 1940 but then disappeared.

Despite its apparently mediocre history, the company was the first in North America to start building all-steel bodies – in 1912 – and, via a dealer in Minnesota, provided the startup vehicle for what would become the Greyhound Corporation in 1914.

Ultimately crippled by the Depression, the company struggled on for another ten years before the business was wound up. You may note in the videos below that one refers to the car being a 1937 Hupmobile. This would seem to be a typo, as the company suspended manufacturing that year, after selling some manufacturing facilities and awaiting the arrival of a new line of cars for 1938.

So, as many of us can appreciate, Chevrolet’s LS1 engine is in plentiful supply, widely used and supported by aftermarket manufacturers and, quite frankly, an ideal engine for powering anything from Camaros to, well… Hupmobiles. So that’s what our intrepid hobbyist thought as well. If you think that Hupmobiles are in limited supply, you can imagine that replacement engine parts or gasket sets for them are about as easy to find as shark fingers.

In the videos below, you’ll find two dealing with the first startup of the LS1 motor. The other is a video walkaround tour of his Hupmobile, which at that point had certainly seen finer days. While many project cars are based on more recognizable cars, like a ’32 Ford or ’49 Mercury, you do have to admire those who strike out in a different direction. They must have heard the advice from Will Rogers – a celebrity from that same era – to “Always drink upstream from the herd.”

Walkaround:

Startup:

Startup Part 2: