The site for Pre War Hillmans - http://hillman16.wix.com/hillman-sixteen [Copy to a friend]
HILLMAN "16"
1936 - 1937
The Hillman "16"
This site may be amended and updated at intervals - so pop back now and again. Last updated 15/10/2019
WWII & After
"Victory Car" - currently on display at
the Coventry Transport Museum
"Old Faithful" - here being used by Churchill in North Africa - now restored at the Imperial War Museum Duxford
World War II - A Lasting Legacy
A number of the pre war Hillman and Humber models (including the Hillman Minx’s) were modified by Hillman and Humber for use as staff cars by the War Department during WWII.
In fact Humber’s output was turned over to producing military vehicles and armoured cars during this time. In 1939 Humber stopped production of its “entirely” coach built models and took over the production of the Hillman “16”, “Hawk” and “80” models, improving their specification and rebadging them as the Humber “16”, Snipe and Super Snipe, the last of which had its 3181cc engine replaced by a 4086cc one.
Two open top 1940’s Humber Super Snipes ( The "Victory Car“ - M239485 and "Old Faithful” - M239459) were based on the body of the 1936 – 1938 Hillmans but were modified with armoured reinforcement, heavy duty springs and a redesigned boot. They were used by Field Marshal Montgomery and Churchill in the North Africa campaign against Rommel and during victory parades after the war.
Only one or two examples of most of the 1928 to 1938 prewar Humber and Hillman models are still in existence today, including the very rare 1936/37 Hillman “16” of which only about 700 were produced, although, probably due to the larger numbers produced (about 5000), there are around seven of the 1936 – 1937 Hillman “Hawks” still running around somewhere in the world.
After 1944 the Humber “16”, which had replaced the Hillman “16” in 1938, was rebadged as the Humber “Hawk” (with a smaller 4 cylnder 2 litre engine) alongside the "Snipe" (20 hp 6 cylinder 3 litre engine) and "Super Snipe" (21hp 6 cylinder 4 litre engine), which had initially replaced the Hillman "Hawk" and "80" from 1938, using up the stock of prewar and wartime engines.
The body style, with a few modifications, and engine types of these three Humber models lasted until 1948 after which they were rebodied - although the Humber Super Snipe, Pullman and Imperial models still carried elements of the older prewar Hillman body style into the mid 1950’s.
It is interesting to note that the more mass market 1936-1947 Hilman Minx (with a 4 cylinder 1185cc engine) had a similar style, but smaller body, as the Hillman “16”, Hawk and “80” models and the “Minx” also used some of the same components as those larger models. Rootes continued producing different series and varying styles of the Minx up to about 1970.
Other Humber and Hillman models were also produced after the war up until the 1970’s when they were rebadged as Chryslers but the old Hillman and Humber names now belong to Peugeot who took over the old marques from Chrysler in 1979.