{"id":31240,"date":"2022-01-26T11:01:46","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T07:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/motos-of-war.ru\/museum-exhibits-vehicles\/humber-fwd-four-wheel-drive-heavy-utility-car\/"},"modified":"2022-01-26T15:06:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T11:06:25","slug":"humber-fwd-four-wheel-drive-heavy-utility-car","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/motos-of-war.ru\/en\/museum-exhibits-vehicles\/humber-fwd-four-wheel-drive-heavy-utility-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Humber FWD (Four-wheel drive) Heavy Utility Car"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Before World War I, the British car brand Humber produced a wide range of models, from the 600cc Humberette to several six-cylinder 6-liter models. In 1913 it was the second largest car manufacturer in Britain. <\/p>\n\n
In the years leading up to World War I, Humber produced a number of airplanes and aircraft engines. In 1909 the company signed a contract to build 40 examples of the Bl\u00e9riot XI monoplane, equipped with its own three-cylinder engine, and four aircraft were displayed at the 1910 Olympia Air Show. <\/p>\n\n
Confidence in the brand continued to grow until the late 1920s when the effects of the economic downturn forced Humber to merge with Hillman, its Folly Lane neighbor. In 1927 the Rootes Group came into existence, acquiring stakes in the Hillman and Humber brands. Since then, Humber’s history as a brand has been intertwined with Rootes, its parent company, which was founded by William Rootes in the 1880s as a bicycle store and then as a car dealership and less than fifty years later owned several previously independent companies, including Commer, Hillman, Humber, Sunbeam, Singer, Talbot, and Karrier.<\/p>\n\n
Profiled as a manufacturer of luxury models, Humber became part of a well-established group that was actively streamlining and modernizing its acquisitions. Production line equipment was updated, processes were standardized, and cars were made to last. By 1939, the Rootes Group had become one of the nation’s “Big Six” automakers.<\/p>\n\n
At the time, the Humber Super Snipe was the flagship of the brand, along with the Snipe Imperial and Pullman. The Super Snipe, introduced in October 1938, less than a year before Germany declared war, was a design combining the older Humber Snipe model with a 4.1-liter inline six-cylinder engine taken from the larger Humber Pullman predecessor. The engine gave a remarkable performance, the car was advertised at the same time as a luxury limousine and good value for money – the “Poor Man’s Rolls.”<\/p>\n\n