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78-678: Heynes was educated at Warwick School from 1914 to 1921 before joining the Humber Car Company in Coventry in 1922 as a student where he worked in the drawing office before becoming head of the technical department in 1930. During this time he oversaw the introduction of significant models including the Humber Snipe and the Humber Pullman . In April 1935, after the Rootes Group takeover, he

156-403: A Humber motorcycle. Later models switched to using Minerva engines, but production ceased in 1906 as there was insufficient space at the factory. Motorcycle manufacture resumed in 1908 when the new Stoke factory opened, and the new range were exhibited in 1908 at the annual Stanley show. Humber produced many new models of motorcycle in the pre-war years, but production of motorcycles ceased during

234-505: A facility for making CKD cars, to the total local fabrication and construction of vehicles, engines, and mechanicals. Denmark was a particularly strong market for BMC products in Europe. In the postwar period, the Danish government closely regulated exports and imports to maintain the country's balance of trade . High-value imports such as cars were heavily taxed. From 1963 to 1975, a company

312-764: A new Farina body style and most were renamed. These were the Austin A60 Cambridge , MG Magnette Mk. IV , Morris Oxford VI , Riley 4/72 , and Wolseley 16/60 , and in 1964 the Siam Magnette 1622 alongside the Siam Di Tella in Argentina. Most remained in production until 1968, with no rear-wheel drive replacement produced. The third and largest Farina car was the Austin A99 Westminster / Vanden Plas Princess 3-Litre / Wolseley 6/99 , launched in 1959. They used

390-663: A prototype and nine production motorcars in their new Coventry premises. In November 1896 a car was exhibited at the Stanley Cycle Show in London. They are claimed to be the first series production cars made in England. At Humber & Company's next general meeting in 1897 the managing director said they had received many letters asking if they would produce a motorised vehicle, and that they had in fact been working on this project for two years, but had delayed production until they found

468-631: A seven-seater Pullman both for the October 1929 Motor Show. For the time being the 9-28 and 20-65 hp models would continue but at a reduced price. Later Michael Sedgwick would describe the events of this era as "a levelling process comparable to the fate of Wolseley " ('s 1920s cars). Out, he said, went uncertain braking, the i.o.e. engine and superbly finished coachwork, the new cars were pure Rootes with Bendix brakes, downdraught carburettors, "silent third" gearboxes with central gear lever and hydraulic shock absorbers. The 16 hp car could cope with

546-574: A suitably reliable engine. Having now found an engine they were gearing up for production. The first Humber car was produced in 1898 and was a three-wheeled tricar of the 'sociable' type powered by a single cylinder Turrell engine. Their first conventional four-wheeled car appeared in 1901. Cars went into production in Beeston near Nottingham as well as Stoke, Coventry but to separate designs. Just as with bicycles Beeston Humber products retained their high quality image. The Beeston works closed in 1908 on

624-540: A time when British manufacturing industry was in decline and decided that the remedy was to promote more mergers, particularly in the motor industry. Chrysler was already buying into the Rootes Group , and Leyland Motors had acquired Standard Triumph in 1961 (and would buy Rover in 1967), becoming a major automotive force. BMC was suffering a dramatic drop in its share of the home market. Tony Benn , appointed Minister of Technology in July 1966, brought pressure to bear on

702-519: A world leading independent rear suspension designed by Heynes and developed with R J Knight. This unit remained the standard rear suspension thirty years in E-Type , Mark X , S-Type , 420 , XJ6 and XJ12 Series 1, 2 and 3, and XJS . The Heynes design with Walter Hassan development of torsion bar front suspension was introduced on Mark V 1947 and XK120 1948 and was used on all XK sports cars and Mark VII , VIII and IX saloon cars. A similar design

780-587: Is a thriving club, and many of these upmarket cars survive today from before the 1930s. Until 2020, the world's largest collection of the Rootes brothers' Humber cars (built after 1930) could be viewed at the Marshalls Post-Vintage Humber Car Museum in Hull . It included 21 Humber cars dating from 1932 to 1970 on permanent display, plus 24 unrestored cars. The museum has now closed for good and many of

858-526: The Austin A40 Farina . This is considered by many to be the first mass-produced hatchback car: a small estate version was produced with a horizontally split tailgate, its size and configuration would today be considered that of a small hatchback. A Mark II A40 Farina appeared in 1961 and was produced through 1967. These small cars used the A-Series engine. The mid-sized Farinas were launched in 1958 with

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936-659: The Labour British government and Minister of Technology Tony Benn , a further wave of mergers occurred in the British car industry. BMH merged with the Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC) to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC). BMC Ltd (which contained most of the operations of the former British Motor Corporation) remained a subsidiary company of BLMC after the merger, although its name

1014-785: The Nuffield Organization , owned MG , Riley , and Wolseley . The agreed exchange of shares in Morris or Austin for shares in the new holding company, BMC, became effective in mid-April 1952. In September 1965, BMC took control of its major supplier of bodies, Pressed Steel , acquiring Jaguar's body supplier in the process. In September 1966, BMC merged with Jaguar Cars. In December 1966, BMC changed its name to British Motor Holdings Limited (BMH). BMH merged, in May 1968, with Leyland Motor Corporation Limited , which made trucks and buses and owned both Standard-Triumph International Limited and

1092-596: The Rover Company to become British Leyland . BMC was the largest British car company of its day, with (in 1952) 39% of British output, producing a wide range of cars under brand names including Austin, Morris, MG, Austin-Healey , Riley, and Wolseley, as well as commercial vehicles and agricultural tractors . The first chairman was Lord Nuffield ( William Morris ), but he was replaced at the end of 1952 by Austin's Leonard Lord , who continued in that role until his 65th birthday in 1961, but handing over, in theory at least,

1170-802: The Ryton plant was originally built to produce aero engines. At Speke , Liverpool, another shadow factory opened in April 1939 assembled bombers. Armoured cars, scout cars and staff cars were made in the existing factories along with much other war material General Montgomery , Commander of the British and Allied forces in Northern Africa during the Desert war of World War II , had two specially built Humber Super Snipe four door open tourers made with larger front wings or guards, mine proof floors, special fittings and long range fuel tanks. Two cars were built for him and used in

1248-812: The Wolseley 15/60 . Other members of the group included the Riley 4/68 , Austin A55 Cambridge Mk. II , MG Magnette Mk. III , and Morris Oxford V . Later, the design was licensed in Argentina and produced as the Siam Di Tella 1500, Traveller station wagon and Argenta pick-up. The mid-size cars used the B-Series straight-4 engine. Most of these cars lasted until 1961, though the Di Tellas remained until 1966. They were replaced with

1326-685: The 1960s, the precise figures quoted may be open to challenge, but the new management's diagnosis that BMC's profitability was insufficient to fund support and new model investment to cover its disparate range of brands and models was hard to refute. Throughout the 1960s, the failure of the United Kingdom to join the European Economic Community meant that the company could not exploit the lucrative European markets due to high import tariffs, whereas BMC's key rivals Ford and General Motors both had German subsidiaries producing and selling within

1404-494: The Africa campaign against General Rommel , who used a Horch open staff car. Montgomery's Humbers were known as 'Old Faithful' and the 'Victory Car'. Both cars still exist in museums in England and are a testament to the high engineering and manufacturing standards of Humber and Rootes Ltd. The victory car drove Montgomery and Churchill through the streets of London during the VE parades at

1482-690: The Air Ministry during the Second World War. British Motor Corporation The British Motor Corporation Limited ( BMC ) was a UK -based vehicle manufacturer formed in early 1952 to give effect to an agreed merger of the Morris and Austin businesses. BMC acquired the shares in Morris Motors and the Austin Motor Company. Morris Motors, the holding company of the productive businesses of

1560-446: The BMC era, market share fell as did profitability and hence investment in new models, triggering the 1966 merger with Jaguar Cars to form British Motor Holdings (BMH), and the government-sponsored merger of BMH with Leyland Motor Corporation in 1968. At the time of the mergers, a well established dealership network was in place for each of the marques. Among the car-buying British public

1638-491: The Chrysler Corporation in 1967. The cycle industry was consolidating in the late 1880s and partners Thomas Humber and fledgling company promoter T Harrison Lambert sold their Humber Cycles business to investors who added a number of other substantial cycle manufacturers and then floated the new combine on the stock exchange. Such was the public's recognition of Humber products and their high quality and reliability

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1716-730: The E Type introduced earlier in 1961. Introducing two new models in the same year determines his great engineering and design strength from a small talented engineering team. Heynes with Sir William Lyons designed and engineered the XJ6 saloon, launched in September 1968. The model was voted best car of the year and laid the foundation for the next seventeen years. The XJ6 success was followed by XJS using similar chassis platform and V12 power units designed and initiated by Heynes before retirement. Heynes always acknowledged his engineering team which he had directed and built up from 1935 and their contribution to

1794-601: The First World War. In 1899 Humber produced a motorised tricycle at their Beeston works with a De Dion Bouton engine of 1.75 hp or optionally 2.25 hp. This had electric ignition (early De Dion Bouton engines used hot tube ignition ), and was capable of 30 mph (48 km/h). The price in December 1899 was £84. This tricycle was based on the De Dion-Bouton tricycle and built under licence. In 1896 Humber built

1872-626: The Humber Snipe bodywork only with a low final drive ratio. The other cars also became slightly bigger Hillmans with different engines and a longer wheelbase. A Humber Twelve was introduced that looked like a Hillman Minx with a painted spare wheel cover and hinged quarter lights. There was attractive work by independent coachbuilders on the Twelve chassis. The Vogue sports saloon may or may not have been designed by couturier Captain Molyneux . The Twelve's engine

1950-537: The Humber board in 1932 and began to make Humber the holding company for vehicle manufacturing members of what became their Rootes Group . By 1960 annual production was around 200,000 vehicles. Previous insistence on Rootes family control, however, may have led to under-capitalisation of the business. Building a brand new car, the Hillman Imp , proved beyond Humber and Rootes Group resources and their businesses were bought by

2028-662: The Imp's reliability. The Imp's heavy development expenses and slackening sales to USA brought about losses for the Rootes group in both 1962 and 1963. In February 1964 the owners of the minority holdings in Humber Limited (and Tilling-Stevens and Singer Motors) sold their holdings to Rootes Motors Limited taking in exchange shares in Rootes Motors. Humber and its two subsidiaries now became wholly owned subsidiaries of Rootes Motors Limited. A last major activity of, by then, Lord Rootes ,

2106-518: The Midlands . Austin's management systems, however, especially cost control and marketing, were not as good as Nuffield's and as the market changed from a shortage of cars to competition, this was to tell. The biggest-selling car, the Mini , was famously analysed by Ford Motor Company , which concluded that BMC must have been losing £30 on every one sold. The result was that although volumes held up well throughout

2184-531: The Specialist Division. This basic structure remained in place right up until the creation of the Austin Rover Group in the early 1980s, by which time BLMC had been nationalised and renamed British Leyland Limited (later just BL plc), although by this time both Jaguar and Land Rover had been placed in their own independent subsidiaries which were separate from the old BMC/LMC divisions. Following

2262-537: The UK. The two Rootes brothers remained in control of their group from their adjoining suites of offices in Devonshire House, Piccadilly . The ground floor Rootes showroom on Piccadilly is now an Audi showroom. Imp and Chrysler The success of BMC 's Mini made Rootes speed the development of their own small car. A new assembly plant was planned but government was obliging major employers to build new plants where there

2340-753: The XK range of sports cars XK120 XK140 XK150, including full design of the C-Type 1951 followed by his monocoque body design of the D-Type 1954, followed by the E-Type 1961. Sir William Lyons was persuaded by William Heynes to enter motor racing in 1950 with XK120 works prepared, privately entered cars at Le Mans; this was followed by winning the Le Mans 24 hour race in 1952 1953 with the C Type and 1955 /56 /57 with his monocoque designed D type. Heynes continued to support private race entrants from

2418-540: The area. The new retail idea was itself turned down by Edinburgh and Glasgow councils. Regrettably, all the Bathgate factory buildings were eventually flattened, and the site was ironically, subsequently, used merely as a distribution centre for a number of other automotive manufacturers. Humber Motor Company Limited Limited was registered as a Scottish company in August 1986 then dissolved July 2007; 'Humber Motor Company Limited'

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2496-715: The cars have been sold off. Humber produced a number of aircraft and aero-engines in the years before the First World War. In 1909 the company signed a contract to build 40 copies of the Blériot XI monoplane , powered by their own three-cylinder engine, and four aircraft were exhibited at the Aero Show at Olympia in 1910. During the First World War Humber built the BR1 and BR2 engines designed for Humber by W O Bentley and more engines were built in different factories in Coventry for

2574-476: The cities: St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Milan, Athens, Brussels, Bucharest, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Buenos Ayres, Santiago, Constantinople, Algiers, Sfax, Tunis, Alexandria, Saigon, Hong Kong, Port Said and throughout the whole of South America. The chairman of the new monopoly was chairman of Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co and another director was the manager of Dunlop (France). Negotiations between the parties were completed by Ernest Terah Hooley . The ambitious new monopoly

2652-424: The control of the Rootes brothers, was amalgamated with Humber—the combine was not under the control of the Rootes brothers—but William Rootes' marketing skills had been immediately brought into play when Rootes Limited had been appointed "World Exporters". In December 1929 reviewing the 1929 year the chairman told shareholders Humber had now introduced three new models named: 16-50, for the 1928 Motor Show, Snipe and

2730-644: The creation of British Leyland – notable models being the Austin Allegro (ADO67) and the prototype version of the Austin Metro (ADO88). Most BMC-era commercial vehicles were sold as Morris, but there were sometimes Austin equivalents. Radiator badges on the larger vehicles were often BMC. With the merger of the Nuffield and Austin interests, the Nuffield Organization 's tractor range, the Nuffield Universal ,

2808-406: The cycle trade marks were sold to Raleigh in 1932. The motorcycles were withdrawn from sale during the depression of the 1930s. Humber is now a dormant marque for automobiles as well as cycles. Following their involvement in Humber through Hillman in 1928 the Rootes brothers acquired 60 per cent of Humber's ordinary capital, sufficient for a controlling interest. The two Rootes brothers joined

2886-444: The drastic redesign at that special meeting was followed by another meeting to discuss the amalgamation of Humber and its partly-owned subsidiary Hillman Motor Car Company. Hillman, the chairman explained, made one of the most popular medium priced cars and would provide a suitable partner to the distinctive Humber products. Shareholders were unanimous that the amalgamation should go ahead on the proposed terms. In 1929 Hillman , under

2964-417: The early 1920s and in addition the public were moving from pedal cycles to motorcycles as well as to cars. Rover , Singer , Swift , Triumph and Riley all gave up their manufacture of cycles. In 1925 Humber moved into the production of commercial vehicles with the purchase of Commer . In the year to 1928 Humber's chairman was obliged to report a loss for the second year running. Commer Cars' turnover

3042-515: The early casualties of the merger, as well as the introduction of the Mini Clubman , capable of being built for less, but sold for more than a standard Mini thanks to simplified ("modernised") front panels. Even the UK's best seller, the Austin/Morris 1100 , had to be subjected to an emergency cost-reduction programme which removed about £10 from the cost of each car, applying changes that included

3120-848: The end of the war. In the postwar era, Humber's mainstay products included the four-cylinder Hawk and six-cylinder Super Snipe . Being a choice of businessmen and officialdom alike, Humbers gained a reputation for well appointed interiors and solid quality. The Hawk and the Super Snipe went through various designs, though all had a "transatlantic" influence. In 1960 Rootes was the world's twelfth largest motor corporation by volume, its annual output nearly 200,000 cars, vans and trucks. They employed some 20,000 people. The group had six million square feet (557,000m ) of manufacturing space and owned nine assembly plants outside Britain. They were involved in car hire, hire purchase and driving schools and even made air conditioners. There were about one thousand dealers in

3198-478: The exceedingly good performance of one of the 14-40 cars driven by J W Fitzwilliam and his brother who had just returned from traversing 4,500 miles in central Europe including the worst roads in the Balkans. He then reported the "drastic redesign" of Humber's cars which together with improved appearance and performance and revised prices were expected to improve the products' performance in the marketplace. Mention of

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3276-480: The experimental competition section, including Briggs Cunningham in the USA with a single prototype E2A , the forerunner of the E Type, and Lister Jaguar in 1958/59 Le Mans and with the full race lightweight E Type 3.8 in 1962/63/64. A mid engined V12 race prototype XJ13 was designed 1964 and tested until cancellation of this last Heynes engineered race car during the company merger with BMC in July 1966. Heynes designed

3354-646: The factory. After the takeover of SEAT by Volkswagen, SEAT made an 'internal' resale of the Pamplona factory, formerly Authi, to Volkswagen, which soon started producing there the 'Polo'. In 1964, BMC Turkey was established in cooperation with the British Motor Corporation. The Turkish partners retained the 74% of the capital while 26% held by the UK-based British Motor Corporation. The Wilson Labour government (1964–1970) came to power at

3432-444: The first British monocoque (unitary) saloon 2.4 and 3.4 models 1955, followed by Mk 2 models with 3.8 litre XK engine. The earlier Jaguar saloon cars from 1950 Mk7 Mk8 Mk9 continued in production with 3.4 3.8 engines until 1961. Heynes was responsible for the Mk 10 saloon October 1961, which incorporated new front suspension in conjunction with a new independent rear suspension also designed for

3510-479: The industry. In mid-1965 BMC offered to buy its major supplier Pressed Steel and took control in September with 27,000 employees. Twelve months later, BMC merged with Jaguar Cars adding a further 7,000 employees. On 14 December 1966 BMC shareholders approved the change of its name to British Motor Holdings (BMH) and it took effect from that date. Little more than 12 months later in January 1968, under pressure from

3588-676: The large C-Series straight-6 engine. The large Farinas were updated in 1961 as the Austin A110 Westminster , Vanden Plas Princess 3-Litre Mk. II , and Wolseley 6/110 . These remained in production until 1968. Most BMC projects followed the earlier Austin practice of describing vehicles with an 'ADO' number (which stood for 'Austin Design Office' but after the merger 'Amalgamated Drawing Office'). Hence, cars that had more than one marque name (e.g. Morris Mini Minor and Austin Mini) would have

3666-426: The largest Cycle monopolies in Europe" and with the intention of improving the position of Humber (France). The directors expressed the greatest interest in the new industry of motor carriages and cycles for which extensive works were to be erected by the monopoly at Levallois Perret . At the time of the flotation prospective investors were told that agencies were already established in all principal towns in France, and

3744-561: The managing director responsibilities to his deputy George Harriman in 1956. BMC's headquarters were at the Austin Longbridge plant , near Birmingham and Austin was the dominant partner in the group mainly because of the chairman. The use of Morris engine designs was dropped within three years and all new car designs were coded ADO from "Amalgamated Drawing Office". The Longbridge plant was up to date, having been thoroughly modernised in 1951, and compared very favourably to Nuffield's 16 different and often old-fashioned factories scattered over

3822-411: The merger with Leyland, a review of company records undertaken with the support of the new board, author Graham Turner stated that at the time of the merger, 16 versions of the Mini were being produced, yielding an average profit of just £16 per car, while every Morris Minor sold lost the group £9 and every Austin Westminster sold lost £17. This helps to explain why the Westminster and Minor were among

3900-412: The model at a single plant, rather than splitting it between plants at Cowley and Longbridge. Because of the high proportion of auto-production costs represented by fixed costs that needed to be allocated over a planned production volume, and the use in the 1960s of investment appraisal criteria that were ill-suited to accounting for volume fluctuations and the rapidly changing value of the UK currency in

3978-413: The new owner Peugeot. A different company, the Humber Motor Company Limited, was therefore incorporated and registered as a means of pursuing this manufacturing proposal. This proposal was vetoed by the local Bathgate councillors. They preferred the idea of a huge “Sales Mall” development on the site in Bathgate, rather than support an initiative that would have involved continued manufacturing employment in

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4056-457: The omission of lead sealing from body joints (£2.40 per car), removing provision for optional reversing lamps (£0.10) and "changes in body finish" (£0.75). Rebuilding the Cowley plant to include "new automated body building facilities" saved £2.00 in transport costs per car for bodies that no longer needed to be transported from the corporation's Swindon plant and in the longer term further transport costs were saved by concentrating assembly of

4134-440: The opening of the new works at Stoke. Humber's profit went from £16,500 in 1905 to £106,500 the next year and £154,400 in 1907. On 12 March 1908 the new works was officially opened at Stoke, then just outside the city of Coventry. New buildings covered 13.5 acres and allowed for the employment of 5,000 hands. The new works was designed to be capable of producing 150 cars and 1,500 cycles per week. Another financial reconstruction

4212-467: The same ADO number. Given the often complex badge-engineering that BMC undertook, it is common amongst enthusiasts to use the ADO number when referring to vehicles which were a single design (for example, saying 'The ADO15 entered production in 1959'- this encompasses the fact that when launched, the ADO15 was marketed as the Morris Mini Minor and, later, the Austin Seven—soon replaced with Austin Mini). The ADO numbering system did continue for some time after

4290-443: The services of an external stylist. As well as the car manufacturing arms, the company had its own printing and publishing firm, the Nuffield Press , inherited from the Morris Motors group. In 1958, BMC hired Battista Farina to redesign its entire car line. This resulted in the creation of three "Farina" saloons , each of which was badge-engineered to fit the various BMC car lines. The compact Farina model debuted in 1958 with

4368-401: The stock exchange in 1887. It took the name "Humber & Co Limited" because of the high reputation of the products of one of the constituent businesses that had belonged to Thomas Humber . A financial reconstruction in 1899 transferred its business to Humber Limited. From an interest in motor vehicles beginning in 1896, the motor division became much more important than the cycle division and

4446-439: The success of Jaguar. At the end of 1969 he retired as Vice Chairman and Technical Director of Jaguar, after 35 years. Following his retirement it was reported that he intended to "devote enthusiasm to his farm whilst maintaining strong motor industry links and advising and assisting his close factory relationship with William Lyons and the Jaguar directors, F.R.W "Lofty" England and Bob Knight." Shortly before his retirement he

4524-502: The whole new organisation was named Humber & Co Limited though Humber's was not the largest component. Thomas Humber agreed to manage the whole enterprise with its works in Coventry and Wolverhampton as well as Beeston. He retired in 1892 at the end of his 5-year contract. Humber expanded into Europe and in 1896 their subsidiary, Humber (France), joined with La Société des Vélocipedes Clément and La Société des Cycles Gladiator obtaining stock exchange listings in order to form "one of

4602-429: Was a resurgence in domestic and export demand for pedal bicycles and in February 1932 Raleigh acquired all the Humber cycles trade marks. Manufacture was transferred to Raleigh's Nottingham works. Raleigh-made Humbers differed from Raleighs only in chainwheels, fork crowns and some brakework. The Ryton on Dunsmore plant which closed at the end of 2006 had originated in 1939 as one of the so-called shadow factories :

4680-424: Was a significant design as the mainstay of the company for 35 years. With Dunlop he was responsible for the Disc Brake joint development in 1952 and later Heynes following racing experience pioneered and introduced the system on all Jaguar cars. The Mk 1 2.4 saloon 1954/55 with monocoque body construction followed the forward design thinking of Heynes and his engineers, post war. This was later in 1961 followed by

4758-409: Was a tendency of loyalty to a particular marque and marques appealed to different market segments. This meant that marques competed against each other in some areas, though some marques had a larger range than others. The Riley and Wolseley models were selling in very small numbers. Styling was also getting distinctly old-fashioned and this caused Leonard Lord, in an unusual move for him, to call upon

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4836-486: Was bored out to 75 mm and powered Hillman's Fourteen and even Sunbeam-Talbot's postwar 90 . By the outbreak of war in 1939 the quite fast big-engined Super Snipe with hydraulic brakes was selling well and one model became the Army's famous second world war staff car. Humber's independence ended in 1931 when the Rootes brothers bought a majority shareholding with the financial support of Prudential Assurance . They provided their Hillman shares as part payment. There

4914-425: Was chosen by William Lyons to join SS Cars Ltd . Initially he worked on the chassis and suspension but was also responsible for increasing the power output of the modified Standard Motor Company engines then being used. He worked on development of an overhead-valve conversion for the Standard 6-cylinder engine. One of the first cars to ever have it installed was the SS Jaguar 100 . Following World War II, SS Cars

4992-441: Was completed and tested in 1966 with competitive lap times at Silverstone prior to the project being cancelled. The V12 engine continued to be developed in line with emerging emission regulations for Series 3 E-Type and XJ12 / XJS. Heynes was Chief Engineer from 1935 until his retirement. As Chief Engineer and Technical Director he was responsible for all Jaguar design / engineering from 1935 up to and including XJS. Heynes designed

5070-568: Was continued on vans for six years afterwards. In 1986, there was a private initiative to rekindle Humber as a manufacturer of upmarket premium vehicles, employing the recently closed truck and tractor manufacturing facility at Bathgate , in Scotland. This factory had been opened by BMC in 1961, to manufacture their light trucks and tractors. The original plan had been to expand their Longbridge plant for this purpose. The trucks were later marketed as Leyland ‘Redline’ The unused company name of Humber, continued to be still maintained and registered by

5148-399: Was established in Spain to produce BMC cars under licence, its name was: 'AUTHI' -'Automoviles de Turismo Hispano-Ingleses' -'Spanish-English Tourism Automobiles'. The factory was in Pamplona, Navarra, Spain, and when the production of Austin and Mini cars was discontinued, Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo ( SEAT ), owned by the state and some banks and industrial investors, purchased

5226-442: Was honoured with a CBE for his services to exports and vehicle design. His responsibilities were taken over by R. J. ("Bob") Knight (Chief Vehicle Engineer) and W.T.F. ("Wally") Hassan (Chief Engineer, Power Units), both of whom were appointed to the company's board as part of their promotion. Humber Limited Humber Limited was a British manufacturer of bicycles , motorcycles , and cars , incorporated and listed on

5304-507: Was incorporated into BMC. In the 1950s and the 1960s, BMC set up 21 plants overseas, some as subsidiaries, and some as joint ventures, to assemble its vehicles. One was British Motor Corporation (Australia) which was established in 1953 at the Nuffield Australia site on the one-time Victoria Park Racecourse, Sydney . This facility went from a marshalling area for fully imported Morris cars (Austins were up until then being assembled in Melbourne from an earlier Austin Motors establishment), to

5382-401: Was introduced on all E-Types from 1961 to 1975. His team of engineers including Harry Weslake (consultant), Walter Hassan and Claude Baily designed the 6-cylinder XK engine, that proved to be the biggest and longest lived success of Jaguar. In 1964 the first V12 engine prototypes were produced and developed and tested. A prototype race car was initiated for Le Mans . A single V12 car XJ13

5460-466: Was later changed to "Austin-Morris Ltd" - reflecting the new Austin-Morris division of BLMC, with the BMC name subsequently disappearing from public view. Within the new conglomerate, the various marques were grouped together into two main divisions, based largely on the original BMC and LMC businesses; with the former mass market BMC marques becoming part of the Austin-Morris division of BLMC, whilst LMC stablemates Rover and Triumph joined Jaguar in

5538-418: Was made in 1909. In 1911 they took over the Centaur Cycle Company. By this time a wide range of cars was produced from the 998cc Humberette to several six-cylinder 6-litre models. In 1913 Humber was second only to Wolseley as the largest manufacturer of cars in the United Kingdom. Revived by the war Humber produced motorcycles and bicycles for the War Office as well as cars. There were postwar slumps in

5616-480: Was not successful, disputes between the partners dragged through the English courts until the turn of the century. A severe economic recession in 1899 then brought about a financial reconstruction and the incorporation of a new company, Humber Limited, to continue the existing business. Humber experimented with motorcycles from their early days, and in 1899 Bert Yates won the first track race for motorcycles in Coventry on

5694-593: Was registered in England in June 2007. Four of Humber Motor Company Limited’s registered trademarks (Sceptre, Hawk, Super Snipe, Snipe) were renewed with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). The Humber name and logo are also registered trademarks There is a continuing interest in Humber and the vehicles that it produced. There are very active web-pages frequented by the fans of, and owners of, Humber vehicles. 1919–1939 Rootes Brothers 1945–1967 There

5772-610: Was renamed Jaguar . Heynes, who was appointed to the main Board of Director as Technical Director and Chief Engineer (1946), had earlier persuaded the chairman William Lyons that the company should make its own range of engines. During late war time the XK engine was designed and later developed with a launch in 1948 at the London Motor Show with the new XK120 sports car. The XK engine remained in production in 2.4, 2.8, 3.4, 3.8 and 4.2 models and

5850-423: Was substantially increased but Commer did not return to profit. The bicycle business improved but motorcycles did not. Humber cars, the product being as the chairman put it of a distinctive class, were more influenced by conditions than were mass-produced vehicles. Humber he described as one of the oldest and best known higher grade cars. The chairman, Stanley Brotherhood , told a special meeting of shareholders of

5928-484: Was surplus labour. Jaguar solved their expansion problem by buying Daimler and its Coventry plant with experienced workforce but Rootes selected a greenfield site by Pressed Steel body works near Glasgow airport in Scotland, at Linwood near Paisley. The new factory was officially opened in May 1963 and the new rear-engined Hillman Imp went on sale the next day but there were difficulties with industrial relations and, soon,

6006-429: Was the second generation of Humber Sceptre, a variant of their Rootes Arrow model. The marque was shelved in 1976 when all Hillmans became badged Chryslers . The Hillman Hunter (another Arrow model) badged Chrysler until production ceased in 1979 when Chrysler's European division was sold to Peugeot and the marque renamed Talbot . The Talbot marque was abandoned at the end of 1986 on passenger cars, although it

6084-513: Was to open sale negotiations with Chrysler Corporation . He died in December 1964. Chrysler took control in 1967. The last of the traditional large Humbers, the series VA Super Snipe (fitted with twin Stromberg CD 100 Carburettors) were sold in 1968, when Chrysler ended production. Several V8 models had been in pre-production at this time, but were never publicly sold. Several of these test examples survive today. Humber's and Rootes' last new car

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