Humber Super Snipe (1963) – Into the Wild

To explain what we have for us here thanks to colleague Jan Lemkes, we briefly dive into the history of the British car industry. Before the Second World War, a wide range of manufacturers arose that often switched from the production of (motor) bicycles in the long run to car production. Humber was one of them. In the 1920s, this largely switched to the production of passenger cars and at the end of the 1920s it was housed by the Rootes brothers next to the perhaps more famous Hillman under the Rootes Motor Company. Various models with often quite large engines appeared under the name Humber, aimed at the upper middle class and important government officials. The first Super Snipe, which appeared in 1938, was one of them.

During the Second World War, Humber concentrated on the production of armored war vehicles, but also two open armored Super Snipes were delivered to General Montgomery. With these Super Snipes Montgomery allowed himself to be transported during the offensive against the German General Rommel in North Africa. Both Montgomery and the Super Snipes survived and one of those two was even used to drive Montgomery and Prime Minister Winston Churchill through the streets of London after the war was won.

Humber Super Snipe

The prestige that you enjoyed with a Super Snipe had naturally grown considerably and after the war it became a relatively popular model in the more affluent circles. After the Mk1, which was still based on the pre-war Super Snipe, the somewhat sturdier and more rounded MkII, MkIII and MkIV appeared. At the end of the 1950s, there was a major change in design when the Super Snipe Series I appeared. Humber started counting again (Series I through Series V), probably because the new Super Snipe was no longer to be confused in appearance with its clearly outdated predecessors. If possible, the Super Snipe looked even more impressive than before and was somewhat reminiscent of the cars that Jaguar and Rolls-Royce had in the showroom at that time, at least in terms of size and at the rear. To once again indicate in which category you can approximately place the Humber.

Humber Super Snipe

It’s that ‘new style’ Super Snipe we have before us here. Specifically, it is a Series IV, the penultimate of the nine-year development of the Series I to Series V. The most striking thing about the Series III to V was the quite American-looking front. The nose was even a bit longer than before and the twin headlights together with the grille were quite a bit at the time eye catcher. After all, we knew something like this in Europe mainly from Cadillacs and Chevrolets. In the nose, however, was an engine that was a bit less extreme than what you found in such Americans. Still little to complain about: a 3.0-liter six-in-line with more than 130 hp power, with which the Super Snipe could reach up to 160 km/h. Certainly not very surprising for the time being, when you consider that you were carrying a 4.70 m and a thick 1,600 kilo car with you.

With no more than 7,200 cars built per series, the Super Snipe was not overly rare in its day, but it was outside the UK. All the more special that this black one was delivered new in the Netherlands in 1963. It has been with its current owner since 2005, who keeps a special piece of British car history alive.