Down Motoring Memory Lane

Remembering the muchloved Hillman models.

For decades Hillman was the “bedrock” marque of the Rootes Group, flanked by the big Humbers, slightly posher Singers and sporty Sunbeams.

In the pre and post-war years, successive generations of the Hillman Minx sold well in the UK and abroad.

I ran a 1958 Minx for about eight years and sold it for the same price I paid for it, so it holds a special niche in the memory banks. It had its quirks – bench front seat, column gearshift and handbrake beside the driver’s door – but it was sturdy, reliable and, fitted with winter tyres, churned its way through packed snow in the days when snow was an everyday winter hazard.

The firm first made sewing machines in Coventry around 1860, then switched to bicycles and recruited young William Hillman, who acquired the firm, made a fortune and in 1907 opened a car factory near Coventry.

Its first car, the HillmanCoatalen, was named after their French chief engineer, and early Hillmans were large cars with big engines.

In 1928, Hillman was bought by the Rootes Brothers and partmerged with Humber, with Hillmans being downsized while Humbers stayed big.

After the Second World War, Hillman produced the new fourdoor Minx, with more American styling, adding a two-door estate, the Husky, and a twodoor hardtop coupe, the Californian, aimed at the US market, although some were sold in Britain.

In 1957, Rootes standardised all their saloon cars bar Humbers around one floorpan and bodyshell, named respectively Hillman Minx, Singer Gazelle and two-door Sunbeam Rapier. Later came bigger saloons, named Hillman Super Minx and Singer Vogue, while Sunbeam launched the two-seater sporty Alpine and big-engined Tiger.

Rootes opened the Linwood plant near Glasgow in 1963, which produced the rearengined Hillman Imp and Husky, the Singer Chamois and Sunbeam Stiletto.

Then all saloons, including the Humber Sceptre, were standardised on the new “Arrow” bodyshell.

By 1967, amid big debts and falling sales, Rootes sold out to the US’s Chrysler, who axed Singer and the big Humbers and in 1970 launched one last Hillman, the Avenger, which sold well for 10 years.

In 1979 Chrysler sold its British and French car-making interests to Peugeot, who made cars at the ex-Hillman Rytonon–Dunsmore plant until 2007. And Peugeot still retains the Hillman name.

The Hillman Imp was produced in Glasgow.