Old Faithful

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It is generally a sad occasion when an independent manufacturer is sucked into a big corporation. Vauxhall, Sunbeam, Talbot and Riley were never the same after their respective acquisitions by General Motors, Rootes and the Nuffield Organisation, and the less said about Vanden Plas, the better. Humber seemed to do quite well out of its purchase by the Rootes brothers, though. From a decade spent making humble light-cars in the 1920s, its name was suddenly uplifted and emblazoned across mighty Snipes and majestic Pullmans. Even with their adoptive parentage, Humbers still stood apart from the crowd until the 1960s.

Even so, forced to choose between a 1950s Pullman or this 1924 8/18hp, there is no contest. One has style and luxury in spades, that’s easy enough to see, but the other just has that elusive something. It has a friendly face, a charming simplicity, and endearing little details which are the mark of ‘gentleman engineers’, and that’s before we get to the provenance. With only three owners after 97 years, the old Chummy is still going strong, despite never having received any restoration beyond a light mechanical overhaul, even after a garage collapsed around it.

For his début article in The Automobile, Marcus Rowe examines the charms of this remarkable survivor in the September issue, on sale now.

Words by Zack Stiling. Photographs by Tony Baker.

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