Humber / Hillman / Rootes / Chrysler / Peugeot

Thank you dutchman. Just performed an Alt, Ctrl, Del on my memory bank and you are correct, my apologies. An odd feature that I do remember clearly was that the engine filled the front compartment to such an extent that the two rear spark plugs had to be accessed via two grommets in the transmission tunnel, inside the car!

No apology necessary Tilehillbilly, I wasn't 100% sure myself I remember a Sunbeam Tiger was often parked in front of Coventry Motor Sundries in Spon End, but whether they supplied parts for the car or not I've no idea.

As I mentioned in another thread that I once worked for the Birmingham ambulance service. We had an assortment of vehicles, two of them had Rootes engines. Strange beasts as they had an unusual design. I think that they were three cylinder horizontal, two stroke diesels. They were always easy to start, 100% reliable. Bit hard to get at as they were mounted inboard rather than under a bonnet sticking out front. They had large mileage when I started there so were probably early 1950 manufacture. Anyone remember them these engines?

The engine was a TS3, a distintive sounding engine.

Yep. That's the one. I once owned a Hillman Minx Gay Look automatic. No manufacturer would use that name now. It was not a happy car as it didn't like hills. Norman

In the 60s /70s Garlicks used to run a few, as Norm said they had a distinctive sound, they could take any amount of thrashing, the exhausts used to glow cherry red, memories

Post 123 When the Sunbeam Tiger was being designed by Jensen's their Chief Engineer was Kevin Beattie who had been a pupil at Rootes and after completing his 'time' worked in Engineering at Stoke designing engines. Designed a twin carb system for the ST 90, produced far more power but was not put into production. Then he went out to Australia to design modifications to meet the local conditions and in due course returned to Stoke. Then saw an advertisement for a deputy Chief Engineer and it turned out to be Jensen's who at that did not have a Chief Engineer either. Kevin was extremely competent and duly finished off the design of the CV8 and then designed the Tiger and the Interceptor - the Car of the Year. Going to Earls Court to see the Jensen stand surrounded by the world's press and crowds who had all come to see Kevin's masterpiece restored one's faith when seeing a really competent person like Kevin getting due recognition. But what made Kevin's day was going back to Stoke to show Hon Geoffrey Rootes the finished prototype Tiger and the Hon G had to address him as 'Mr Beattie' whereas before it was just 'Beattie'. Rootes really needed to hang onto people as competent as Kevin.

I remember the Hillman Imp being tested in 1963, I was going out with a pupil from Rootes, the car was being run between Coventry and somewhere up north I think Newcastle but not positive. Every time he stopped to eat or have coffee people would swoop all over the little Imp which no manufacturers name or anything to identify it.

As the Editor of the Sunbeam Tiger Owners Club I am very pleased to 'discover' this forum. I was fortunate to meet Don Tarbun on several occasions, prior to his passing in January. He always had another great story to tell about his Experimental Department days developing the Sunbeam Tiger, even if his preference was for the "Sunbeam Sceptre V8" powered by the small block Chrysler engine; a car that didn't go to production but he was able to enjoy for a short while before being requested to give it up to the area that broke up prototypes! Since Chrysler UK were pretty thorough when destroying the Rootes Group archives in the 80's little history survives of the Sunbeam Tiger marque but we do have Don's old files from 1963-1966 (which he donated to the Club almost 30 years ago) of Experimental reports on Project 870 and the forerunner 'AF' (Alpine Ford) development cars his team tested. The photo shows Don Tarbun in company with Mike Jones (Jensen) and Arthur Haddon and two 'AF' Sunbeam Tigers.

Hello STOC & welcome to our forum So sad to learn of Don's passing away. I knew him well in the days when he worked with my dad, known as Jock. Thank you for your post. On one occasion Don & my dad drove an Alpine for over 200 miles, stuck in second gear & with no clutch. My dad retired in 1965. Hope that you enjoy your time on our forum. From left to right, Don, his wife, my mum & my dad, Jock!

Some pics of our family cars from Rootes. My dad's Hillman Husky on Dartmoor around 1957, his Singer Gazelle 1959 & hisGazelle & Reg Drew's Hillman Minx at Dawlish Warren around 1962

Rootes always had a number of competitors cars in for evaluation and this enabled Engineering to keep up to date with the 'oppositions' progress. The leading American car eg Chevrolet saloon was a must. Then when Ford had a great leap forward with the Consul and Zephyr a Consul was brought in. This coincided with Rootes, in about '52, deciding to design a new OHV engine for the Minx . The design team was set up in the Stoke Aldermoor factory and their 'bible' for this project was The Automobile Engineer with the big write up on the Consuls 4 cylinder 'square' engine. Hey presto the Rootes engine had exactly the same bore and stroke as the Ford and when they ran the first prototype it suffered from blow by past the rings in exactly the same way as the engine taken out of the Consul and put on the test bed. This basic engine soldiered on for years and I had it in two Rapiers but one did need to keep the flame trap clear or else it could push oil past the archimedes screw. The Imp's engine was good and one of mine did over 150,000 miles - speedo cable broke one week so do not have an exact figure. A Rootes car if properly set up and maintained was superb and I was sorry when production stopped and I had to patronise Rover - stuff the imports.

Hi all This looks nice. One of our members had a Snipe, whereas the model is a Pullman! One other problem is that it is O gauge. Too big for our railway.

That pic was taken in Blacksmiths Yard in Witherley, I was a bit young to be driving it at the time so only went out in it at night. I would pick the neighbour's daughter up at the end of the road and go for a spin through the lanes. We thought it was our little secret but it turned out the whole village knew about it! A bit of a coincidence that the Snipe and my Imperial had the JHP registration

Just a heads-up for this weekend's event at the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon: POST VINTAGE HUMBER CAR CLUB INTERNATIONAL RALLY 25-26 July 2015 Number of Cars Attending: 150 Times:10:00am to 4pm Photos from the 2014 event