The Humber Hawk is a Forgotten British Luxury Saloon

this is a 1966 humber hawk in particular it is a series 4a humber hawk but i'm sure that to many of you watching at least humber as a mark doesn't mean an awful lot not in 2021 anyway so today on twin camp we are going to explore what humber was then dive into the style of this american-influenced british car and finally look at the history and engineering of the hawk in particular humber was founded in 1887 as a bicycle manufacturer they produced their first four-wheel car in 1901 then switched entirely to car production in the 1920s so this early period bought much similarity to other british companies such as rover and triumph unlike rover and triumph however humber had its independence snatched away much quicker in 1930 the roots brothers took a controlling share in the company forming the heart of what became the roots group with stable mates such as hillman and comma and their headquarters at writing on dunsmore in warwickshire in order to avoid significant overlap between the root's marks humber was positioned towards the top end of the motor industry hillman's were the bread and butter of the car range and many humbers were derived from hillman's but were larger and grander humbers were the reserve of the police bank managers and government ministers this was the era of the humber hawk and its posher brother the humber super snipe both of which were produced at writing but this era didn't last long as roots was brought out by chrysler in 1967 who dropped the hillman and humber marks before retreating from europe in 1978 the group being taken over by peugeot what was once roots did survive with what would have been the talbot arizona being rebadged as the peugeot 309 writing became peugeot's uk home producing various models until it was closed in 2006. but before chrysler and peugeot humber's were big and dignified and while their owners of the time may have been stayed there's a heck of a lot of style going on here especially for a british car so into the hawk so here's the background and it's slightly confusing there were two generations of humber hawk before this one starting in 1945 and these were known by their smaller revisions the first generation as the mark one and two and the second generation as the mark iii through six this third generation humber hawk was introduced in may 1957 and just to annoy us these became known as the series one this is a late humber hog and 1966 series 4a before cries the stock production of the big humbers in march 1967 the third generation hawk was clearly influenced by american design and that's not what you might have expected from humber but it's a brilliant way to look at the late 1950s in britain through this decade there was a rush of transatlantic styling influence into the british motor industry possibly starting with something designed to be radical in the first place like the morris minor but the mature humber owner would take a few more years to be persuaded into this kind of style there is one car in particular the hawk imitates though the 1955 chevy 150 and the main styling cue that links them is this kink in the rear door breaking up the 15 odd feet of bodywork fitting this style to a british car required a heavy dose of respectability with the expressive curves of the americans the front end and side profile are the best places to see this the front is stately and imposing with its large grille and peaked headlamps and the front wheel arch is high stating its supremacy but as we move backwards the sloping roofline lends itself to a much lower rear wheel arch it isn't really worth going into all the different series of hawk as the changes were relatively minor but this series 4 car is known as a flat roof beforehand this roofline had been much more curvy with a wraparound rear screen and that was my favorite styling touch of the entire car i thought it looked brilliant and i do think it's a shame they got rid of it for the series four but it does look quite a lot more stately without all the curves at the back the best touches though are the ones that you don't notice immediately like this fuel filler cap hidden in the rear reflector the only thing that could really make this car look more american would be white wall tires and you know what i think they'd work brilliantly as i alluded to earlier humber's with a preserve of officialdom but not the upper classes a humber was driven by the middle class the well-off that knew it would make them look so but a humber was decent value as well the hawk and super sniper the closest you'll get to british equivalents of lanyards they're nowhere near as big as anything american of course but these were solid stately hunks of car the series hawk was available in three body styles the four-door saloon we see here a four-door limousine with a longer wheelbase and a divider between chauffeur and passengers and finally the best hawk the estate because estate cars are always the best cars in the estate i can see quite a lot of the citroen ds break with the wrap around rear window and rear lamps i'm not sure whether this is a good thing or not as though both these cars look great the citroen was light years ahead in technology but then again the goddess was light years ahead of everything the biggest distinction between the series hawk and its predecessor however was the construction because it was a monocoque meaning there's no separate chassis underneath the body and on the hawk estate the monocoque was the largest of any british car ever made up to that point inside that monocoque shell is a proper old-fashioned british interior it stinks of leather and the wood is a fantastic quality the tops of the doors are wood kept and have chrome door furniture at the bottom of the doors it has what looked to me like a storage for a wine bottle or more correctly a champagne bottle you know humber driver but unfortunately it's not quite wide enough for that but that definitely looks to me like it was designed to carry some form of alcohol this being a 1966 car it does get seat belts though these not being inertia real means they're practically useless we are quite towards the end of the year though of bench seating which means that theoretically you could get six people in this car quite comfortably that being said as it is a bench seat you'd be rolling about quite a lot in this front seat as you go around the corners but that can be alleviated by throwing out the center passenger and instead pulling down this lovely red leather armrest at least three trees must have been fell to create this hunk of a dashboard and for a 1950s car it is really well laid out the radio is integrated down at the bottom of course you have an ashtray and the hit controls are integrated nicely as well and unlike most 50s cars are very nice and satisfying to use of course taking center place in the dashboard because there isn't much else here is a clock and i don't know whether you can hear it just gently ticking away also unlike a lot of 50s cars it isn't just a plank of wood put on a dashboard it is well designed as well i like this twin peaks design for the gauges and for the glove box but speaking of the gauges they are obscured by this horn ring here which seems like a bit of a clumsy design speaking of the horn ring though [Music] that is a proper horn noise i shall have you know but that horn ring is a bit of a design oversight but around it is this absolutely humongous steering wheel with a very thin rim as well so the steering i suppose will be quite delicate there is no power steering on this car which surprises me a little bit considering it's sheer girth and but there isn't and the steering is done down the column by a recirculating ball steering box with this wrap around windscreen there's no real blind spot when you come up to a roundabout or anything like that so that's a good piece of design but having the a-pillar so close to you does mean that it seems like there's not very much room between you and the pillow when getting in and out of the car but again on the doors the hawk has one of the best features of any car of the 50s and 60s opening quarter light windows the back is much the same as the front in that there's lots more lovely red leather in here this car feels so well designed and built way above anything that bmc was pumping out in this era and it does feel sat back here like you're about to be whisked away on some very important business um usually ministerial business because it's a humber but you get a lovely view of the dashboard from here obviously the heads of the front occupants would be blocking that but you get another fold down red leather armrest um across the bench sheet suitable for another three people and you get plenty of leg room and plenty of knee room as well with the seat in this position i don't know really why you'd need a limousine unless you really wanted the screen between your chauffeur and yourself there is of course an ashtray in the center for not the children because this is humber children won't be in the back of a humber this is a place for business meetings this being a flat roof model i suppose you would get a little bit more headroom than in the curvier previous models but there still isn't an awful lot i'm five foot nine and there isn't that much there for anybody taller than me but you get a huge parcel shelf behind you to put your trilby hats and things like that and just the little things of course you'd expect this but the wood line kicks up with the kink in the body line it's just the nice little things like that of course there are no seat belts in the back but that just means you can cram more people in here so you could probably fit 12 of you if you really tried the boot as you may have expected is massive though half of it seems to be taken up by a spare wheel so rather restricted when it comes to loading up the bodies then again humber's were generally respectable cars all the murderers drove jags apart from the posher trimmings the hawk and super snipe were separated by what was placed under the bonnet the super snipe got a straight six but the hawk got a more frugal 2.3 liter four-cylinder engine carried over from the old hawk it has overhead valves and produces 78 brake horsepower at 4400 rpm and 120 pound-feet of torque at 2300 rpm behind it is a three-speed borgwarner 35 automatic transmission though a full speed manual was also available with overdrive if you so wished the hawk is not a quick car a manual one takes 20 seconds to get to 60 and will go on to a top speed of 83. then again this is a relatively small and underpowered engine in a rather heavy car and completely average for the era as you'd expect the hawk is rear-wheel drive and down the 110 inch wheelbase is a live axle on leaf springs again as you'd expect there is an anti-roll bar as well fitted to the series 4 from 1964. the front end is independent though with coil springs resting on wishbones with an anti-roll bar braking was drums all round on the series one though from the 1960 series two onwards front discs and servo assistance were standard and that was a good thing not only because the hawk weighed more than 1400 kilos but also because it's over 15 feet long and almost six feet wide this humber hawk is wonderfully designed its style build and trim a testament to all that was good about the best british cars of this era however its engineering and image were testament to everything that was starting to go wrong 1950s britain was class dominated it's telling that i've already mentioned it once in this video but as the world changed humber and roots didn't despite its style and comfort humber drivers were maturing in the wrong direction and there was no replacement in line roots as a whole had a bit of a disaster with the hillman imp and this line of old-fashioned big saloons was out of its depth compared to what else came along in september 1964 a hawk would set you back 1059 pounds and for context that's 61 quid dearer than the more spartan but similarly sized austin westminster and 115 pounds dearer than the 2.7 liter six cylinder vauxhall crester the citroen ds i mentioned before though much more expensive was the shape of things to come and in the uk jaguars had performance racing pedigree and great dynamics to entice buyers that were better off the greatest blow though was what rover came up with when the p6 was launched as the rover 2000 in 1963 it revolutionized the hawke's class although it was 206 pounds more expensive it was much more desirable much quicker and more refined similarly the triumph 2000 provided a more modern and more refined package with its small displacement straight six and this was only 36 pounds dearer suddenly the humber hawk was of a bygone age and with a manufacturer caught on the back foot with no money there was only one direction for humber and roots unfortunately that's the story of most of the british motor industry for all its brilliance there were just always problems on the horizon thank you very much for watching if you enjoyed the video then please give it a like and subscribe to twin cam as well but before i go i'd like to say thank you to young retro motor club the young retro motor club is a car community aimed at young retro enthusiasts and if you haven't already go and join their facebook group to come part of a 13 000 member strong community they produce a huge range of awesome stickers too some of which i have on my lovely melvin they've been kind enough to supply me with a few and i'm going to be staging a giveaway so head over to my instagram to stay up to date i'll leave links in the description and i'll have more videos coming along soon

Channel: Twin-Cam

Views: 298,272

Keywords: Cars, Autos, Motor, Twin-Cam, Twin Cam, Vehicle, Vehicles, Motoring, Rootes Group, Chrysler Europe, Chrysler UK, Rootes, Hillman, Humber, Humber Hawk, Humber Super Snipe, Humber Imperial, Classic Car, Classic Cars, 1960s, 1950s, 50s, 60s, Retro Car, Retro Cars

Id: RoOSEFn8U70

Length: 15min 22sec (922 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 10 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/John-McCue]

It was under-powered, wasn’t it?

[u/JNC123QTR]

Sounds like a Doug Demuro video ... But it isn't!