In My Humber Opinion

Lee Miller has a soft spot for Humbers. The owner of a 1961 two-tone grey over red leather Super Snipe while on duty in Britain with the US Air Force in the 1970s, he's kept an eye out for them ever since. Familiar to him was a 1964 model that sat for ten years, unmoved, three blocks from his Florida home - until he went to take some better photos in the summer of 2003 only to find it gone.

More remarkable was finding this 1952 Humber Super Snipe Touring Limousine in a St. Petersburg junkyard about a year ago. Purchased as a project by the yard owner, it has become sidelined in favor of a Bentley restoration. In need of lots of work, it has the traditional English walnut interior trim, leather seats and a division window. The hood ornament, hub caps and fender skirts (spats) have been removed, but go with the car. (It is currently for sale; if you're interested, call Steve at +1 727-423-2571.)

The Humber was kind of a British Buick, flagship of the Rootes Group, whose siblings included Hillman, Sunbeam (-Talbot), and Singer. Established in 1868 by Thomas Humber to build bicycles, Humber, Ltd, made the transition to motor cars in 1898, selling out to the Rootes brothers, William and Reginald, in 1930. The Snipe and Pullman models of the 1930s were joined by a smaller Hawk after World War II.

I have some personal experience with the Hawk. My aunt and uncle toured Europe in one in 1956, taking delivery in London and bringing it home to the USA at the end of the summer. Basically a four-cylinder Super Snipe, it was devoid of walnut but possessed of typical British accoutrements of the period. I distinctly remember learning the intricacies of shifting, in which the column-mounted lever was pushed away-and-down to start in second (first gear was for pulling stumps), pulled near-and-up for third, then straight down for "top gear." Reverse required pulling out on the knob, pushing toward the dashboard and then way down toward the floor. (This illustration has been "flopped" from the factory literature to reflect the car's left-hand-drive.)

Super Snipes of the type spotted by Lee were not uncommon in the US during the 1960s, the wrap-around windshield and quad headlights expected to appeal to western tastes. When Chrysler Corporation took over Rootes in 1967, Humbers were sidelined, the last model being the Sceptre of 1968-76, basically an upmarket Hillman Hunter.Though small, Humber's following is dedicated, and includes clubs in Britain and Australia.