Humber
Humber Limited was a British manufacturer of bicycles, motorcycles and motor vehicles incorporated and listed on the stock exchange in 1887. It took the name Humber & Co Limited because of the high reputation of the products of one of the constituent businesses that had belonged to Thomas Humber. A financial reconstruction in 1899 transferred its business to Humber Limited.
From an interest in motor vehicles beginning in 1896, the motor division became much more important than the cycle division and the cycle trade marks were sold to Raleigh in 1932. The motorcycles were withdrawn from sale during the depression of the 1930s.
Humber is now a dormant marque for automobiles as well as cycles. Following their involvement in Humber through Hillman in 1928 the Rootes brothers[1] acquired 60 per cent of Humber’s ordinary capital, sufficient for a controlling interest. The two Rootes brothers joined the Humber board in 1932 and began to make Humber the holding company for vehicle manufacturing members of what became their Rootes Group.
By 1960 annual production was around 200,000 vehicles. Previous insistence on Rootes family control, however, may have led to under-capitalisation of the business. Building a brand new car, the Hillman Imp, proved beyond Humber and Rootes Group resources and their businesses were bought by the Chrysler Corporation in 1967.
HUMBER SUPER SNIPES
$23.50 – $25.10The HUMBER SUPER SNIPES novelty plate features the British Classic, the Humber Super Snipe which was produced from 1938 to 1967 by British-based Humber Limited. The Rootes Group marketed the car for export, and the Super Snipe was assembled in Australia, commencing in 1953 with the Mark IV. From 1956 the car was available with automatic transmission, but the model was discontinued shortly afterwards. Super Snipes were also assembled in New Zealand for a number of years by Rootes Group and Chrysler importer Todd Motors which later became Mitsubishi New Zealand. Our information comes from Wikipedia and there were lots of Super Snipe models as follows: 1 1938 Pre-war Super Snipe 2 1946-50 Super Snipe Mark I to III 2.1 1936–52 Mk I 2.2 1948-50 Mk II 2.3 1950-52 Mk III 3 1952-57 Mk IV 4 New Super Snipe Series I to V 4.1 1958-59 Series I 4.2 1959-60 Series II 4.3 1960-62 Series III 4.4 1962-64 Series IV 4.5 1964-67 Series V and Va 4.6 1964-67 Humber Imperial The Rootes Group ceased production of the Series Va version in July 1967, by which time the group was under the control of the American Chrysler Corporation. The last of the big Humbers were assembled by Chrysler in Melbourne, Australia. This plate has no embossed characters but has a pressed out embossed border and is made from high quality aluminium and the artwork applied by a dye sublimation process with a lovely gloss finish. They measure 37 x 13 cm, exactly the same as the traditional fully embossed type of plate and look just like our other Aussie made novelty number plates; even the mounting holes are in exactly the same positions, so they can easily be hung on display indoors or outdoors. For protection during delivery we use extra packing materials to ensure they arrive in tip-top condition If you would like plates made to your own design, we can easily do this for you. Virtually anything you want can be created with our modern digital equipment. The key is good art, and we can do ANY GRAPHIC! ANY DESIGN! ANY COLOUR! Important note about images we provide : Just as we sometimes see that “pricing is subject to change without notice”, so too are “designs subject to change without notice”. In 99.99% of cases, what you see on Dixie’s website or brochure is what you get. However, there are the odd times when designs have changed in some small way (eg: maybe a logo moves to a different location on the item, or the colour changes). Sometimes this information doesn’t always trickle down until the new designs are manufactured and shipped to Dixie. We hope this is helpful and understandable.
HUMBER HAWKS
$23.50 – $25.10The HUMBER HAWKS novelty plate features the British Classic, the The Humber Hawk four-cylinder automobile manufactured from 1945 to 1967 by British-based Humber Limited. There were 4 generations and our thanks to Wikipedia for the following information 1st Humber Hawk Mk I & II - a re-badged Hillman 14 (1938-1940) was the first Humber car to be launched after World War II. Slightly longer because of the new boot lid superimposed on its fastback tail and narrower having shed its running boards it also managed to be 51kg lighter than the prewar car. The Mark II version of September 1947 was not even a facelift, the main difference being a column gear change with a control ring fitted to the gearbox making it impossible to crash the syncromesh gears. Top speed was around 65 mph (105 km/h). 2nd Humber Hawk Mark III to V The Mark III Hawk was a completely new car and was first shown at the London Motor Show in October 1948, but it still retained the earlier engine (side-valves, 1944 cc, 56 bhp at 3800 rpm) and transmission albeit with new rubber mountings. The new body was styled by the Loewy Studio and the separate headlights of the old model were gone, along with the separate front wings. The chassis was new, with coil-sprung independent front suspension replacing the previous transverse leaf spring. The body was now an integral component of the car's structure. The rear axle was also a new design with hypoid gearing. The body could be finished in a wide range of colours, both as two-tone and metallic. The metallic finishes would be offered on all the Hawks until the model's demise in late 1967/early 1968. In 1951 the Mark IV version arrived with a larger, 2267 cc engine incorporating, as before, an aluminium cylinder head and with a 58 instead of 56 bhp output. However at mid range speeds around 15 percent more power was generated. The Mark IV also used larger, 15-inch wheels. The steering was now more highly geared and was commended by commentators for its lightness when manoeuvering the car in a confined space despite 53% of the car's 2996 pounds (1358 kg) being carried by the front wheels. 3rd Humber Hawk Mark VI and VIA The main change with the Mk VI, which was introduced in June 1954, was the fitting of an overhead-valve cylinder head to the engine. The rear of the body was slightly changed, which made the car longer. In 1955 an estate version with fold-down tailgate appeared. The April 1956 Mk VIA was a fairly minor upgrade, with changes mainly to the interior. A de-luxe version was added to the range. A replacement, slightly more powerful and with an entirely new body was announced in May 1957. Mark VI registered 6 August 1954, and the motoring correspondent of The Times claimed that any previous Hawk owner would be "astonished" by the Mark VI's 20 per cent more powerful engine's ability to effortlessly swing the car along at 70 mph. Cold starting was very good. The engine was not always so willing to start when cold. The tyres were inclined to squeal on not very sharp corners taken at any more than a modest speed.The brake lining area is now 40 per cent more than on the Mark V. The driver's windscreen wiper is badly located. 4th Humber Hawk Series I to IVA The new Hawk announced in May 1957 had a completely new body with unitary construction which it would go on to share with the 1958 Humber Super Snipe. This was the biggest bodyshell for a saloon/estate car built in Great Britain at the time. The 2267 cc engine was carried over, though with modifications to the distributor mounting, and other details; and an automatic transmission, the Borg Warner D.G. model, was now available. The body was styled in Rootes' own studios and featured more glass than previous models, with wrap-around front windscreen, which gave it a considerable resemblance to a base model 1955 Chevrolet 4-door sedan. The missing rear quarter-lights were returned in series IV. The estate version featured a horizontally split tailgate—the lower half opening downwards (to provide an extra length of luggage-platform if necessary) and the upper half upwards. The fuel-filler cap was concealed behind the offside rear reflector. There were several revisions during the car's life, each resulting in a new Series number. In March 1967 Rootes announced that production of the Humber Hawk, along with that of the Super Snipe and Imperial had ceased. The announcement stated that the cars' place in their range would be filled by Chrysler Valiants imported from Australia, although there is no evidence of the UK car market having been flooded by Valiants following the announcement. After Hawk production ended, Rootes came to concentrate on sectors offering greater volume, no longer featuring as a UK provider of large family cars. It had, in particular, been unusual for UK manufactured cars of this size to feature a spacious station wagon / estate car version; and, following the demise of the Humber Hawk, the UK market for large estate cars quickly came to be dominated by the Volvo 145, introduced to the UK in March 1968, and its successors. This plate has no embossed characters but has a pressed out embossed border and is made from high quality aluminium and the artwork applied by a dye sublimation process with a lovely gloss finish. They measure 37 x 13 cm, exactly the same as the traditional fully embossed type of plate and look just like our other Aussie made novelty number plates; even the mounting holes are in exactly the same positions, so they can easily be hung on display indoors or outdoors. For protection during delivery we use extra packing materials to ensure they arrive in tip-top condition If you would like plates made to your own design, we can easily do this for you. Virtually anything you want can be created with our modern digital equipment. The key is good art, and we can do ANY GRAPHIC! ANY DESIGN! ANY COLOUR! Important note about images we provide : Just as we sometimes see that “pricing is subject to change without notice”, so too are “designs subject to change without notice”. In 99.99% of cases, what you see on Dixie’s website or brochure is what you get. However, there are the odd times when designs have changed in some small way (eg: maybe a logo moves to a different location on the item, or the colour changes). Sometimes this information doesn’t always trickle down until the new designs are manufactured and shipped to Dixie. We hope this is helpful and understandable.
