Auto industry
Stephen I. Fekete
1883–1956
· automotive engineer, Hudson chief engineer
Budapest-trained engineer whose balanced-crankshaft patent sat at the heart of Hudson's 1916 Super Six; later Hudson's chief engineer in Detroit.
- Born
Hungary- Died
Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan- Birth name
- Fekete István
- Also known as
- Fekete István · Stephen Ivan Fekete · S. I. Fekete
- Detroit years
- 1911–1956
- Field
- Auto industry
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
István Fekete graduated from Budapest's Royal Joseph Technical University and worked for Westinghouse's French subsidiary before crossing to America, where he started at Olds Motor Works and spent a short time at Buick around 1909. In 1911 he joined the young Hudson Motor Car Company, whose big plant on East Jefferson Avenue at Conner had opened the year before. By 1915 he was assistant chief engineer, and that June he filed a patent for a dynamically balanced crankshaft, granted in December and assigned to Hudson. Counterweights let the 1916 Super Six turn faster and run smoother, and it became one of Hudson's best-known models. Fekete also patented engine, frame and transmission parts for the Essex, Hudson's lower-priced line, and served as Hudson's chief engineer in the late 1920s before leaving the company in 1929. He died in Grosse Pointe Park in June 1956.
Highlights
- Joined Hudson Motor Car Company in 1911
- US Patent 1,165,861 for a balanced crankshaft, granted December 28, 1915
- His counterbalanced crankshaft went into the 1916 Hudson Super Six
- Patents for Hudson and Essex engines, frames and transmissions, 1915–1931
- Hudson's chief engineer in the late 1920s
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1911–1929
Hudson Motor Car Company Jefferson Avenue Plant
Demolished · 1910–1954
Hudson's Albert Kahn–designed factory at Jefferson and Conner, where the Super Six was engineered; production ended in 1954 and the plant was demolished in 1959–1960.