At a quick glance you'd swear this is an American car, but despite the strong lines, prominent bonnet and lashings of chrome ... its not. It's an early build Mk II 1949 Humber Super Snipe, Humber being British to it's core. Sadly, Humber is no longer with us. Writing stories about classic British cars is a lot like being a professional obituary writer.

We found this magnificent Super Snipe at an All-British Day in Brisbane in 2009. At first glance it's easy to see it's all class. For this is where Humber sat in the hierarchy of the Rootes Group. Thomas Humber started the company in 1868 as a bicycle manufacturer and by 1899 had built his first car.

Fast forward to the Great Depression and Humber and Hillman merged in an effort to survive. Just a year later the two companies became brands under the Rootes Group with Humber producing up-market models. This was in keeping with Humber's history of producing quality motor vehicles when not interrupted by war or the Great Depression. Rootes ended up owning a number of formerly independent car companies including Hillman, Humber, Singer, Sunbeam, Talbot and Karrier as well as commercial manufacturer, Commer.

The Super Snipe came about as a natural marriage of two existing Humber products. In 1938 the Rootes Group manufactured the top-of-the-line Humber Pullman and Humber Snipe. The Pullman had a powerful engine – a 4086 cc straight six – and the Snipe was a smaller bodied car cradling a 3.0 litre engine. So the big straight six side valve was shoe-horned into the Snipe body to become the Super Snipe. It really was a `super' Snipe capable of speeds of almost 80 mph – fast for this era.

As a step up from the 3.0 litre Snipe the new car was marketed to management and professionals in government and private enterprise. It was a car that stood out in the British crowd for it's size and obviously had a certain amount of prestige. Once again war intervened, but the Super Snipe, unlike many others, continued in production as staff cars for the British military. Humber, like all car makers was heavily involved in the war effort. Using the same solid platform Humber also produced an armed reconnaissance vehicle and light reconnaissance car for the British Army.

One of the more notable users of the Super Snipe was Field Marshall Montgomery who had one at his beck and call in the North Africa and north west Europe campaigns. This individual car was dubbed `old faithful' in deference to its reliability. Advertising does not come much better than that. In fact the name stuck and gained general acceptance for all Humber cars.

In Australia though we were more accustomed to seeing the later models Super Snipes on our roads. There was a good reason for this. From 1952 the VA Super Snipe was brought into Australia in CKD form an assembled here. This model resembled a stretched variant of the 1948 Humber Hawk. Australia's neighbours across the ditch in New Zealand also assembled Super Snipes in this same period. These cars ran a 4238 cc straight six over head valve engine using a four speed manual transmission, although an auto became available around 1956. The model was discontinued in 1958.

The body was that of the Humber Hawk, which had a four cylinder engine, with the Super Snipe boasting a new 2.6 litre (2651 cc) straight six overhead valve based on an Armstrong-Siddeley design. Bore and stroke were 82.55mm.

Our second Super Snipe is a Series II which were manufactured in 1959-60 as a facelifted Series I car. The Series II gained a larger engine, a 3.0 litre (2965cc) straight six achieved by increasing the bore to 87.2 mm. The front brakes were upgraded from drums to discs, but drums were retained at the rear. The car also has overdrive and power steering which put it well ahead of Australia's equivalent Holden at that time, the FB.