1966 Humber Imperial Goes for a Drive
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- Опубліковано 27 кві 2022
- The Humber Imperial was Rootes Ultimate Luxury Car from 1964 to 1967, rival to the Princess Vanden Plas, Jaguars, big Rovers and second only to Rolls Royces
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What a beautiful interior! Wood and chrome, not chintzy plastic! And a over 200 cubic inch 6 cylinder, column gear shift, and a chrome horn ring too! And no damn intrusive center console! Everything I love in a car, and nothing I hate!
That was one of the last hand finished cars to roll off the production line at Rootes Group before the intervention by Chrysler! I was an apprentice at the time and was on that line for a time! The last ones all went to the Shah of Persia as I recall!
You actually working on them yourself? That's amazing! Do you have any thoughts regarding the normal snipes as compared to the imperials?
That's so beautifully kept. What a treat. Thanks to the owner, and furious of course.
What a beautiful beautiful car, I want one right now, drive it up here to Ayrshire in Scotland. 👍👍👍
That might be the most beautiful dashboard ever made. I love the square vents' contrast with the round guages. I can't imagine getting out of it.
Credit to its owner, that cars gorgeous.
7:56
@@ads214 He's sitting in the back seat during the drive too.
I agree. Almost concourse, and somebody's highly valuable asset.
Pristine
How much credit do you pay? In dollars? What a strange expression. Credit. But nobody will ever pay. Better dump that kind of credit?
Back in the 60s, a guy on our street had an Imperial. Considering it was a row of terrace houses with outside bogs, it seemed an odd indulgence. Nice motor though.
He was so rich that the Imperial was just an extension to his outside bog.
Front and rear toilets, oh yeah!
I bet he was a bookie
Was he called Mike Baldwin 😃
Yeah we had an old guy at the end corner House of our street that had one sadly succumb to rust because it was difficult or wouldn't fit in his garage he obviously thought the world of his rust bucket.
Very interesting I remember as a child a Chap around the corner owned ine in Leicester living similarly. Kept in on the street. Didn't drive it much it seemed to me. Looked wonderful inside. I remember that you didn't see that many and thus was a bit different. External styling ahead of its time but inside luxury seemed to go back to another
What a lovely old car. Perfect for a run out into the countryside on a Sunday afternoon, stopping off at a nice village tea-room for a cream tea. Marvellous stuff.
My dad bought a 1966 model around 1970 in maroon. I was in it when he clipped the back of another car on a roundabout whilst the radio was playing Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by Middle of the Road 🤣
Gorgeous. I'm very jealous of the drive and even more so of the owner. The, apparently, very fastidious owner. Rootes cars have been underrated for so long, especially given how well made they were. And this one looks like it was made six months ago. Rootes were actually quite proud of having vehicles with "doors that close nicely". And they certainly do have a "click click" railway carriage-like quality about them. What a lovely car. Thanks for the video.
Many of the better built British cars had the same quality of build. I know of a 60 year old Jaguar where the doors still "click" shut without any squeaks or rattles!
@@michaelhalsall5684 My wife has a Hyundai i30. When you close its doors they sound like a cheap Chinese fridge and the tailgate bounces back visibly when you close it. However, it never fails to go and you're far less likely to die in it in a crash than the sort of cars that I learned to drive in, so I suppose that's progress of a sort. I'd happily take my chances in this Imperial, though. Lovely car.
nice car
great film clip of a lovely car. Here in Australia the Federal government had a fleet of chauffeured Commonwealth cars. For parliamentarians in Canberra all painted white. However for other purposes & in the other capital cities they were all painted black. War veterans could call up and be driven to medical appointments or other needs for free. All registered with special white plates starting with a red Z and other letters & numerals in black ZSF-000 to ZSF-999. Most were Humber Snipes, or Humber Imperials, the rest being Pontiac Parisiennes or Ford Galaxies and most drivers were WW2 ex-servicemen. One car however was ZSF-200 the Prime ministers black S3 Bentley sedan. Kept in pristine order these black ex government service fleet vehicles were later auctioned and lived on for many years to come in private ownership. Still to be seen at car shows in the 2020's. I'm now 66yrs old, my mum bought a new MK10 Jag in november 1961, she replaced it with a new one in 1971 a 420G she kept that for several decades until a drunk hit it and wrecked it in the late 1990's. One of my school mates dads had a LWB Humber Imperial for himself & wife a Super Snipe estate car or as Australians call them station wagons. My mate Bill Stokes kept his mum's second one a 1967 Humber Snipe estate dark grey with porcelain white roof & maroon leather interior. It was a Hand-me-down in the mid 70's as Bill's first car, he has kept it all these years. My first car I bought myself in march '75 was 4.2 litre Jag mk10 in cream with maroon leather, I still own & drive that as well. There was a lot of quality that went into the top end British cars in the 1960's & with no road salt, dry weather, well maintained examples just last forever here in Australia. After near 50 years of MK10 Jaguar ownership I am never bored with it , acres of polished wood and sumptuous leather with that leather aroma. Over the years I've enjoyed my mates Humber estate too with its leather & wood interior as they take you back to what seemed like more pleasant times in the world we live in.
I think that car is stunning. Absolutely reeks of luxury. It was built nearly 30 years before I was born and I can only imagine what it must have been like to have one at the time.
Showroom condition. A leap of faith by the owner to allow 'furious driving ' to give it a workout. I'm thinking he was giving plenty of advice from the back seat.👍😉
Back in the 1960's I worked for a company where the boss had one of these. The company car I drove was a Morris Minor and one night I had a shattered windscreen. I called the company and the only car available was the boss's Imperial which he sent out to me with strict instructions to drive it carefully. The guy that brought it insisted I drive and I have never driven with such trepidation in my life. The following day my Moggie was recovered and I was actually glad to be back in it, carefree in the little motor!
What a beautiful car, the closest I got was a 1966 Singer Vogue and I'd have another one tomorrow. Good old Rootes, they kew how to build cars.
Deserves to be in a museum to preserve it. Outstanding car.
NO! These old cars need to be driven regularly. A museum is the worst place for them.
My dad had a 1965 I was seven years old at the time, but I do recall all the gadgets and the controllable ride.
Amazing to see a car kept in such immaculate original condition since the 60's!!
Now that is what i call a real car. I wish the Humber Imperial would come back.
This brought back fond memories of the Rover 90 that I had in the mid 1960s.😊 Of course the right side is the correct and logical placing for the indicator switch on a right-hand drive car.
What a gorgeous car. I'd definitely choose this over a Rover or Vanden Plas, especially since I grew up in Coventry..
That makes two of us. Worked at the Rootes Design Centre in Whitley back in the late 1960's (today, Jaguar's there, of course). Having also worked at Solihull and had the P5 finish line outside my office window, I'd be sorely tempted by a P5B Coupe...
Pure quality .I can remember nearly buying a big Humber a few years ago at an auction. If I'd pay an extra £50 it was mine . Sadly never did. Tho I do have fond memories.
Just to put it in perspective, I believe you could have bought 2 Hillman Minxes and an Imp for the cost of that Imperial in 1965.
That sounds about right. A 1965 Ford Cortina was about £800. The Minx would have been a similar price to that.
@@MarkAtkin That is what I thought, that a Minx was about £800 and an Imp around £400+. An E Type Jag was about £2,000. All cars had a special car tax which was something like a swingeing 25%, included in those prices. I used to sometimes get an American magazine, which might have been Mechanics Illustrated, and one issue carried an add for the Cortina. After converting the price into pounds, I was astonished to see that it was about £100 cheaper than here, and that's after shipping them all the way from Dagenham. It was rip off Britain back then.
@@MarkAtkin you could buy a new Mini for around 500
One of the reasons I love this channel is the fact that it humbles the canadian me that think he knows the british car industry
What an amazingly well kept somptuous machine
Elegant is the word. I use to work for the Rootes Group in Norwich as a parts salesman. A couple of weeks before I left (to emigrate to Australia) I was given a list of parts to prepare for issue for a Humber Hawk which had been in an accident. I think I almost had a whole car in pieces by the time I got through the list! The manager then informed me that they had written the vehicle off and the parts could be put back in stock. I just avoided the issue until I walked out the door just before Christmas in 1969.
I used to have a singer vogue, which was also a Roots car very similar to the super snipe.
Walnut finish with dark red leather upholstery . I broke down on a steep downward road once and I used starting handle ,with the car in reverse gear to wind the car backwards up onto the grass verge off the road ! A beautiful and very strong car ,built like a tank ! Fond memories.
My dad had a Humber Super Snipe back then, beautiful car. Loads of real wood.
I have very fond memories of my 1965 Imperial DKR 999C which I sold on about 17 years ago. Superb quality & comfort and an ultra smooth engine. One feature is a "Sport" mode for the transmission. When in drive, push the selector away from you (towards the dash) and this will hold gears 1 and 2 up to maximum revs before changing (and allowed kickdown into 1st & 2nd up to about 27mph and 55mph respectively); it makes for a complete transformation in terms of performance and will romp from 0-60 and beyond much more quickly (but at a huge fuel consumption penalty!).
Fuel consumption was never a problem with people or companies that could afford executive salloons petrol was about 2/6d (12.5p) per gallon (Imp.) then and half was fuel duty. I moaned like hell when by the late 60's it had doubled and filling my bike cost 10/- (2 gal.). The car cost around £5 (10 gal.) unless one had a Jet forecourt nearby.
@@a1c3c3u I sold it to a French guy and it went across the water. Glad it is back in the UK!
Beautiful car. I'd be happy to drive that every day of the week.
Utterly beautiful.....the luxury....the elegance....
Brought back memories, my parents had one in the late 60s. I was particularly fond of the walnut tables in the back and the little pull out reading lights.
My mom and dads wedding car on World Cup final day 1966!
That model is fantastic credit to the owner
My first car was a 1957 Hillman Minx and later I had a 1957 Humber Super Snipe. The Humber was built like a tank....beautiful automobile...cheers 🍷🍷🇨🇦
Here in the States, I've seen 4 Humbers over the past 50 years. One was an 'Imperial', sadly languishing in a Virginia Beach wrecking-yard. Wish I could've saved the whole car. I did save one of the 'Imperial' badges!
This brought back child hood memories. My dad had several super snipes. The last one new in 1964 in a two tone brown. Living in North Wales we had lots of day trips. Remember using the picnic tables on the seat backs many times.
We had two twin headlamp Snipes ( one was ex Chief Constable of Leeds car) then a blue Imperial. Gorgeous car but rotted stem to stern and scrapped over 25 years ago as were the others after a fortune spent on welding and re sprays. I can’t believe this example still exists in such original condition. Clearly somewhere without salted roads and very low mileage. A very lucky owner and a joy to bring back so many great memories.
I had a 1965 Humber Super Snipe when a university student in the late 70’s. Little known fact is that you could put a 44 gallon drum in the boot …. and close it. I named him Harold.
I'm always baffled by how national car producers were back then. A Humber would have been a total exotic in Germany and France ...
There is a guy in Germany who has shown one on UA-cam -
ua-cam.com/video/mu7EJhE2jZ0/v-deo.html
What a really appealing car! Some luxury touches that were decades ahead of competitors and so ahead that they actually look normal to us now - such as the door marker lights. Great video Matt!
I remember at the 67(?) motor show at the Rolls Royce stand a young woman saying to her suave, somewhat older companion, "it hasn't even got leather seats". He replied "no darling, that's West-of-England cloth, it doesn't make one's suit shiny". She then said, "I prefer leather", to which he replied "yes darling but you don't buy my suits".
What a wonderful car.
I actually saw a big Humber (can't say for sure what model) last Sunday at a car show. It had the partition fitted behind the front seats which caught my eye.
This car must have felt incredibly plush n its day. Even stuff like the door interior furnishings we now take for granted would have been unheard of probably for a decade or more after this car was built. I bet those skinny tyres make for a much quieter ride than in the modern equivalent.
My wife (then 18) and a few friends bought a Super Snipe for £50 with most of its last MoT still in place. It was 9 months from banger racing... which is where most Humbers ended up.
She spoke very fondly of the abundance of ashtrays and cigarette lighters.
These are big, lovely beasts.
The body styling pretty strongly reminds me of the Checker Marathon. It even has the bigger rear doors.
I assume Checker Marathon are "New York" taxis, which are built to last and are not built to follow passing fashions!
@@michaelhalsall5684 Yes, you are correct. They were a real taxi.
...exactly! the dual headlamps and 'brows' looks much like the front of the 'Checker' Marathon...I cannot imagine CRANKING that big straight six...I wonder if the owner has a crank for it?
A magnificent car, quality at its finest in 1966, some what underrated today.
What a beautiful example of these quality old cars. I worked for a Rootes garage and never saw many of these around, but one lady customer had an identical one which she kept for many years.
I loved the 'blanking plate' covering the hole in the front bumper for a starting handle. I owned the single head light Humber before this particular model.Seeing this brought back memories of a flat battery one morning.I was a lot younger back then and not concerned with using some muscle to hand crank the Humber engine.That was a very quick lesson showing me I needed a few more pounds of body weight to turn the crank handle.After three attempts I quit, luckily I lived on a street with a slight gradient and roll started the car.After that I always made sure all electrics were turned off when getting out of the car for the day. Other wise plenty of good memories...
I owned a series 2 HSS in 1969. When the battery got a bit low in winter, dad used to get inside with the key and I would assist with the handle, worked every time.
I had a hillman minx when I was in the navy in the 70's ... dud battery - but starter handle !! After a couple of goes with that handle ..... I always parked at the top of a hill!!
11- 12 seconds 0 - 60 seems very fast. My history teacher had one of these and we used to laugh at him endlessly. Looking at this beauty, it seems as though he had the last laugh...
My uncle (who was very well) off bought one and I remember him showing it to my Dad. For my Dad it was a years wages. It was absolutely beautiful so luxurious. Maroon with cream interior and he could adjust the ride. I think the body was by Parke Ward. After my uncle passed they found the car in his garage...The roof had failed and dripping water had almost completely destroyed the body work. It went for scrap...Absolutely heart breaking.
Beautiful rare car. We have a reasonable number of Super Snipes surviving in Australia but I don’t think I have ever seen an Imperial in the flesh. That Bank Manager in the back was keeping an eye on you. 😀 Like the West of England cloth upholstery. Loaded with lots of nice features.
One of my school teachers in the 1970's had a Super Snipe. Traded it on a Chrysler by Chrysler. Keeping it (somewhat) in the family.
@@railtrolley My father always admired the Super Snipe. A school mate of mine in the early '70's, his father had a Chrysler by Chrysler Hardtop with the 360 motor (I think he was the finance director for Siddons), now that was some car for suburban Melbourne!
Nice to see a slice of our motoring history like that, it's way better than the usual rust piles in farmers fields lol
My first car was a Humber Super Snipe, mine had the sloping roof line. It was dark blue and was left hand drive. I passed my driving test in it in Portsmouth. Must have weighted 2 tons, 3 speed column gear change with overdrive in 2nd and top gear. Like all Rootes cars (except the one in the video) it suffered from RUST. Wow brings back memories.
Superb cars - Humber Imperial- Super Snipe- Snipe- Hawk always admired those 60s British saloons
My Dad had a Super Snipe Estate car and that had twin headlights, I used to borrow even though I had only turned 18, I used to love it, it was just about the most comfortable car that I have ever driven and it was fast as well but I used to drive it around quite slowly because it made me feel sort of special, it sounded great with a boom, to the exhaust. What a great car.
What a wonderful car. Nice to see one in such a great shape.
When selling this car in Europe it was called the “metric”. Hehe
lol
Quite magnificent, I had the John Barry theme tune from the 60's TV series The Human Jungle starring Herbert Lom playing in my noggin while you were wafting along. Though I think he could only manage a Super Snipe. Wonderful work by the owner (yes we saw you), the car is in superb condition. That was a real treat thanks to you both.
ACTUALLY i think Dr. Corder may have had an earlier series Hawk, The imperial may have been the first UK with a vinyl roof option, something that would not start appearing in earnest both here ( & the states ) during 1967
loved herbert lom , though he was a czech he loved britain and was well pleased he lived here and didn`t go to america ,he had the most sophisticated sounding voice
Proper posh! And this cloth interior is so much nicer than leather. Beautiful car, great review Matt.
Lovely car being driven in the Worthing area. Worthing to the Long Furlong I think. Loved those Humbers.
Thanks for doing another Rootes car. Rootes do not get the credit the deserve for making quality cars with solid engineering. Your video helps to that end.
One interesting connection: even though the body detailing was patterned on the 1955-56 Chevrolet, the quad headlights and grille of these later Snipes and Imperials were patterned on the 1958 Studebaker. And Studebaker is where Raymond Loewy did his most famous design work.
Thanks for reviewing this one!
In stunning condition. Deserves to be worth £35,000 in 2020. Will only increase in value. Beautiful interior,. Superb dashboard, a credit to its owners. Museum quality.
That design 10 years old in 1966. It looks very much like a 58 Studebaker from the front.
I really like your light hearted tests. I was born in Sheffield during the war and became a car enthusiast in 1951 when a Ford V8 pilot pulled away smartly from our traffic light. We moved from U.K. to Canada in 1956 and I got serious and started a summary critique sheet of the New models even though I couldn't drive yet ending it with the '66 models in 1965. I started working on car mechanical items in 1957 pursued an engineering degree with plans to work for an Auto manufacturer. Unfortunately they were all located in in terrible locations and ended up working in the Oil and Chemical fields. For a hobby I started a mobile repair service in 1969. In the 80's I got into doing body work. I never was hugely successful at any of them and stayed at the Hobby level to the present. My parents liked the Humber cars and my favorite was the Super Snipe. Hope you keep up the good work.
My father had a 66 Super Snipe when I was very young. In Durban South Africa. I was three in fact. Black with red leather. I remember the sunday afternoon picnic's out in the countryside. I distinctly remember those fold down wooden tables in the back where I'd put my tea mug. and the huge centre armrest. I think that dash is one of the nicest slabs of wood in any car ever. Nicer than a Rolls.
I owned a mid sixties Supersnipe 3 about thirty years ago, an old army chauffeur stopped me one day & told me that the army were asked to rate & chose what they considered THE most comfortable, quiet, classy vehicle for high ranking officers and dignitaries. every year without fail they picked the Humber, over Rolls, Rover & several other high end makes of the day& I could easily see why. the level of comfort was amazing, nothing today even compares.
Magnificent car, Matt, and a very interesting review of a car and brand seldom seen. The last time I saw a big Humber is was a Super Snipe on I Drive A Classic. Just incredible. That West of England cloth was optional as a head lining in Rolls-Royce for many years, and it is gorgeous. All in all a stunning car.
My first car 80s was a 1962 Hillman Minx 1.5 straight four with four in the floor 🤣, great car, very reliable, Rootes Group 👍, no synchro mesh in first gear ⚙
Wow, this is a beauty! Never seen one before but it looks in fine fettle! The owner looks proud as punch on the back, too! I doff my cap to you, sir 👍🏻
I'm the first to comment... from Oz! These were equally popular here in Australia like all Humbers. My father worked in a senior role in a major oil company here and whilst he drove a Ford Fairmont, his boss drove a Humber Imperial. His boss and family became great friends outside work with our family so I saw his Humber a lot. Gee I loved going for a ride in that car as a kid and my abiding memory was that glorious dashboard and that slab of wood, so different from the Australian cars back then with their strong influences from the US! I think back then, whilst I didn't know it as a kid, it was that car which seeped into my DNA for a love of Brit classic cars which I hold to this day.
How many were sold here in Australia? One of mates father had a Super Snipe but I have never heard of an Imperial being mentioned - the only Imperial i knew were the odd one or two Chryslers that were about. My dad had an anniversary model ford Customline so my mate and I both enjoyed each other families car!
I believe the bodies as with all Rootes cars of the time, the body was painted at Pressed Steel (next to Cowley plant and now where BMW builds mini's) and largely trimmed before being put on a Commer truck and going to Stoke or Ryton to be mailed with its oily bits.
In the 70s as a kid i worked in a local garage serving petrol and polishing cars in the show room after school. One day a spiv rocked up in an imperial and greeted me with "sonny are you a betting man? Fancy winning a £10?" I said go on, he says " If you can put exactly a tenners worth in, Ill give you a tenner, if you cant you pay me". He must have run this rouse many times, counting on anyone that serves petrol would be totally confident in shutting off the pump dead on £10 but they would not be thinking they have to find the bloody filler neck first! Unfortunately for him he didn't count on meeting a 14 year old that had read the Lady Bird book of British cars cover to cover, I went straight to the reflector/cap and bunged a dead on £10 in, I can still remember the look of disbelief on his face. Give him his dues though he paid up, reluctantly, but yep thank you Lady Bird Books made my day.
Subscribed, like the name of the channel.....do you know furious driving is a formal charge in the Isle of Man, its their version of dangerous driving, just carries a lot more gravitas don't you think. Takes you back to a time when driving was termed motoring and hand signals didn't mean or 1 or 2 fingers vigorously raised!
Great story (and name), and yes - thats where this name came from
I have seen a beautifully copperplate-written entry in a leather bound daily diary for a small Police Station in New Zealand where the day's highlight was
"Joe Bloggs of Duntroon arrested by me at 2am today Sunday X day of Y month 1882 for furiously riding a horse on the main street outside "Bob the Builders"...
I've always been curious about the car but these are so rare you never see them up close, this may be the most detailed video on a Humber I have ever seen.
And I've always wondered why they didn't sell more? The quality seems to be on par with Rover, at least? They deserved a better fate...
The Rootes Group name put a lot of stuck up execs. off. Not HMG though, they had a lot as Ministerial cars and Forces Staff cars.
Few people could afford them.
Dad had a series of Super Snipes company cars in the 1960s. I seem to recall that they had twin carburettors which were forever going out of balance and caused the engine to run very rich.
Heavy car but the offset was "Ship-of-State" ride and the luxurious interior. In fact, as kids, when we were taken out for a ride, we used to get bored and continually demand that dad put his foot down as the sensation of travelling at 30 mph on suburban roads was like you weren't moving at all.
Why can't we have seats like those in modern cars?! What a lovely car and although quite long - but no longer than an average SUV - it's actually about the same width as my mk 5 Clio. Cars are so wide these days compared to the '60s.
My father had three Humbers in succession until as a 13 year old I convinced him to get a Rover 3.5 litre P5B saloon. So, a "round" Hawk Mark VIA of the late 50s (XUB 665), then a Hawk Series1A or perhaps it was a Series II, and lastly a Super Snipe Series IV (709 CNW). I remember egging my father on to get to 100 on the dial with the Super Snipe.
Serviced these when I worked for Rootes in Dusseldorf about 1966 - our Managing Director drove one, which had a habit of burning holes in the pistons when required to undertake lengthy trips on the autobahn, something the little VW Beetles did with ease...😉
We had a Super Snipe with twin headlights back in the early 70's. Big car with a huge boot.
A family friend had one, in midnight blue. This thing could haul two big horses in a huge old Rice Hunter trailer no problem.
Great to see a friend’s father had one and saw him use the crank handle in the rain at lights!
A fine motorcar indeed.
We did make some impressive cars then, 1966 i was still at school and remember these cars, now at 71 i have an E class with a collapsed rear subframe, Mmmmmmmmmm
Not many people know Humber made a few experimental models with V8 engines. Rootes was partly owned by Chrysler, and they fitted Dodge 4.5 liter 273 cu in V8s to 4 or 5 cars as an experiment, along with matching Torqueflite automatic gearbox. Apparently they worked very well and startled a few passing Jaguars with their performance.
Great car. I had the Super Snipe with the same body. 3 litre straight six engine and managed the ton one day. The small dash indicator lights can be rolled down to dim them. Connolly hide seats and bench front meant you could seat six people. A very rare car nowadays.
The little Bump was from 1954 Buick Roadmaster because of the location within the door architecture.
Brings back pleasant memories..... My Dad splashed out and bought a much cheaper 2nd-hand Humber Hawk in the early 60s. Body shape was very similar and many of the internal features were just the same. My seat (as a boy) was always in the middle of the bench seat. We loved it's comfort although I suspect Dad's bank manager wasn't so impressed and after a few years, he changed it for a Morris Marina.... which I didn't like, but by then I had left home..... Thanks for the video... really enjoyed it!
Let's keep those quality carpets clean-FLOORMATS, people FLOORMATS!
Just for the record, my folk's had two Snipes, the later models also had twin headlamps. Mom always moaned about the fuel consumption on the later but hey! she went and bought a Vanden plas 4 litre R after that. She never liked it and often reminisced of 'Katie' our 1st Snipe - it was all downhill anyway after the Vanden Plas, Mom stopped the expenditure and succumbed to more 'sensible' cars lol
A friend of mine had one of those, when I was a youth, I thought it was superb. ROOTS BROS built good cars, solid bodies too.
👍
I never knew about the hidden petrol cap behind the offside reflector. I've seen the petrol cap hidden behind the numberplate which pivoted down on a spring - my dad's E-reg Ford Corsair had one of those. Shame you can't have a lockable version nowadays with fuel thieves, and vandals putting sugar, urine or sand in the tank. My Dad had the sand trick when he stopped for a pee at a service station on the M1 on his way home. He got a mile or so down the road after setting off again and the engine started spluttering. He bought a lockable cap after that, even though very few people had them in the early 70s.
Love the "Noddy-Dog" 🙂!
I had one in my old Peugeot 404. Don't work with modern hatch-backs, though. . . . . But would with some Tesla's!
There you go Elon: Fit a Noddy-Dog in the back of the Model 3, with his Eyes Lighting Up when you approach the car LOL.
The last of the proper Humbers! We had a couple of the later Scepters [Arrow style] A Hillman Minx with a bit of wood! Not the same at all! The Borg Warner type 35 must be one of the most long lived and reliable automatic gearboxes ever!
This old girl with it`s glorious shiny wooden dash board is as splendid as any of the big usual marques of the highest pedigree. A pleasure to see her drive up the road all these decades later. Credit to her carers.
I Love these beautiful cars.
I learnt to drive in my parent's Humber Hawk. It was a very beautiful car and I feel looked better than the Imperial which looks like the Australian Humber Snipe.
All Rootes cars of the 1960s are interesting from the basic Hillman Imp to this luxurious Humber Imperial.
I was one of three drivers in Rootes experiments department that did the road and MIRA test track development of both the Humber Supersnipe and the Humber Hawk, plus the chance to drive some exciting cars that never got to the showrooms.
Lovely old motor. Used to like them when I was a kid.
Fabulouis very well informed appreciation of these iconic cars not sure if my father's staff car in the army was a super snipe or imperial but it was the most incredibly smooth and comfortable ride Thank you for a grand little video .
stunning car - I thought it was just a super snipe. you find the best cars!
I've always had a soft spot for the 60s Rootes cars, having owned a couple of Super Minxes including a convertible. I lusted after a Humber Sceptre back in the day!! They were a quality car, well built and smooth riding, but sadly, did suffer from the rust bug. I always felt the subsequent Hunter somewhat let the side down, opting for the very successful Cortina philosophy of a light weigh body with better fuel economy and performance. Having said that, it was undoubtedly an essential move to stay in the game at that time.
A beautiful motor, I remember seeing these in the 60's when I was a youth. They were like the working man's Rolls.
Such a gorgeous looking car. I wonder if a company brought these back out as a limited run but with a more modern engine they would fly off the shelves?
I agree...