Hillman Hunter GLS

[9xxNick]

There's a Humber Sceptre in the ACA auction at the end of the month.

[SAB888]

aeropilot said:

My cousin had one....actually had two of them.

First one got turned into a rally car......out came all the 'lovely' interior, out came the 2xStromberg engine, and in went a Holbay GLS/H120 engine, and horror of horrors, he grafted on a set of Escort Grp 4 arches
Well it was 1978......

He later bought another Sceptre that he kept standard as his daily driver when he got fed up with getting in and out through the cage in his work suit etc

I did something similar, my car was a gold Hunter GT and something happened to the engine so I had a GLS H120 Holbay engine put in with Weber twin 40 carbs. I also put huge rear Escort arches with 12 inch wide rear wheels and tyres and sidepipes.

Also had a Sunbeam Rapier Fastback with the H120 engine in a lovely pale yellow with full sunroof. Both lovely cars back then.

I still have a set of Weber twin 40s somewhere and the huge alloy wheels.

[anonymous-user]

I would have a Rapier Fastback if I saw a good one come up at a non crazy price, Holbay or non Holbay, in honour of my late dad.

[OldDuffer]

Ah now, this is where I've got you all beat, mine had a kangeroo.

[CoupeKid]

Breadvan72 said:

I would have a Rapier Fastback if I saw a good one come up at a non crazy price, Holbay or non Holbay, in honour of my late dad.

I’d have a Rapier Fastback in honour of my late grandfather.

When I was born he was driving a Jag Mk X until some scrotes stole it for a bank job (presumably they couldn’t find a Mk II), after the Rapier I think he had a Lada and at the end of his life he was tearing up the lanes of Norfolk in a Proton.

Edited by CoupeKid on Saturday 13th February 15:23

[triple5]

aeropilot said:

My cousin had one....actually had two of them.

First one got turned into a rally car......out came all the 'lovely' interior, out came the 2xStromberg engine, and in went a Holbay GLS/H120 engine, and horror of horrors, he grafted on a set of Escort Grp 4 arches
Well it was 1978.....

I remember trying to fit the wheels from a 2000E on mine which I also had at the time, IIRC the rears fitted ok but the fronts rubbed, looked great though

[Johnspex]

OldDuffer said:

Ah now, this is where I've got you all beat, mine had a kangeroo.

What's in a name?
First you have the Ford Escort Mexice following the success in the Mexice rally, then you have the Hillman Hunter Sydney. I wonder why Chtysler didn't go with that?

[aeropilot]

Johnspex said:

What's in a name?
First you have the Ford Escort Mexice following the success in the Mexice rally, then you have the Hillman Hunter Sydney. I wonder why Chtysler didn't go with that?

Chrysler management were not really interested in a 'road version' of it or the win on Sunday, sell on Monday ideas.
I had a few conversations with Des O'Dell about it some 30 years ago, and his long time at Rootes/Chysler/Talbot was one of long frustration with the management in that regard.

[anonymous-user]

Anyone got big cojones?

Sunbeam Rapier Fastback H120 project, and when I say project, I mean project.

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1308840

[Legacywr]

When you emphasised the ‘project’ bit, I expected to see much worse.

If you use that word in Mk1 Escort pages, all you see is a roof skin

Although I loved the Avenger, and the Hunter GLS, I never liked the Rapier, but it should have appealed due to it being a sportier coups design?

[LuS1fer]

dbdb said:

They are a little before my time - I only remember them as old cars. What did the Hunter compete against when it was new?

Cortina Mk IIs and Viva HBs.
The GLS would have been up against the Cortina 1600E. There was a Hunter GT which faced off against the Cortina GT and Viva GT.
Vauxhall didn't really catch on to the luxury sport compact car until the Magnum.

[ian996]

OldDuffer said:

Ah now, this is where I've got you all beat, mine had a kangeroo.

Mmm, Golden Jacks...nice! Swap you for my Mini Marcos?

My Dad was a Rootes man, through and through. The cars of my childhood were a Commer Cob (no back windows, no Purchase Tax), a Super Minx and, finally, a Hunter (I think it was a GL,, definitely not a GLS). I must admit, I do occasionally have a quick flick through Car and Classic to see ehat sort of Super Minx's and Hunters are available. Although, to be honest, they weren't much cop even then...I much preferred my neighbour's Corsair V4.

[rickygolf83]

I would really love one of these Hunters; a Topaz

[uk66fastback]

Breadvan72 said:

Anyone got big cojones?

Sunbeam Rapier Fastback H120 project, and when I say project, I mean project.

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1308840

Aslegacy said, that's hardly 'a project'!

[Mr Tidy]

Legacywr said:

When you emphasised the ‘project’ bit, I expected to see much worse.

If you use that word in Mk1 Escort pages, all you see is a roof skin

I was thinking exactly the same!

And if you get a VIN plate and V5 with your Mk1 Escort roof it will fetch a stupid price!

[Johnspex]

aeropilot said:

Johnspex said:

What's in a name?
First you have the Ford Escort Mexice following the success in the Mexice rally, then you have the Hillman Hunter Sydney. I wonder why Chtysler didn't go with that?

Chrysler management were not really interested in a 'road version' of it or the win on Sunday, sell on Monday ideas.
I had a few conversations with Des O'Dell about it some 30 years ago, and his long time at Rootes/Chysler/Talbot was one of long frustration with the management in that regard.

I was joking. I was suggesting calling a car Sydney would be a good sales ploy.

[aeropilot]

Johnspex said:

aeropilot said:

Johnspex said:

What's in a name?
First you have the Ford Escort Mexice following the success in the Mexice rally, then you have the Hillman Hunter Sydney. I wonder why Chtysler didn't go with that?

Chrysler management were not really interested in a 'road version' of it or the win on Sunday, sell on Monday ideas.
I had a few conversations with Des O'Dell about it some 30 years ago, and his long time at Rootes/Chysler/Talbot was one of long frustration with the management in that regard.

I was joking. I was suggesting calling a car Sydney would be a good sales ploy.

From the stories I heard from Des thats just the kind of silly name the management would have chosen (had they even been interested enough in the first place!)
Holbay Hunter would have been good enough........had Holbay been a more of 'known' name outside of geeky motorsport petrolheads at the time.
But the known 'racing' names of the day, Lotus, Brabham and Cooper had already be sucked into Ford, BMC and Vauxhall use......

Chrysler did unsuccessfully flirt with BRM of course in the early 70's with the 16v DOHC head conversion of the 1500 Avenger units, but it was a design disaster (BRM by then, pretty much a spent force in terms of engine development design)

[gshughes]

Breadvan72 said:

Anyone got big cojones?

Sunbeam Rapier Fastback H120 project, and when I say project, I mean project.

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1308840

The green one next to it is actually a Hunter GLS from a linked advert that appeared. It is even more of a project - not sure if it is was originally white and green due to amount of moss!

[roscobbc]

gshughes said:

The green one next to it is actually a Hunter GLS from a linked advert that appeared. It is even more of a project - not sure if it is was originally white and green due to amount of moss!

I suspect that the green GLS was originally a 'remnant' from what has been described the Cramer 'collection' (if cars left for 30 or 40 years in a field can be described a 'collection') - I knew John well enough to chat 'cars' and would call-in on him a couple of times a year when I was repping North East Essex/Suffolk region from mid 70's onwards. John seemed to have some previous connection with Rootes and would typically buy-up Hillman/Singer saloon MOT failures for a few pounds, drive them back home and park-up in a field along with 70 or 80 other rusted-out cars - seemingly for ever. We sold him my wifes '68 Vogue only for the local vicar to end-up using it. He had a few GLS's which even in the early 80's were basket cases. Credit to him though - he was still running Hunters in to his mid 80's and would regularly drive over to France.

[eldar]

eldar said:

I had a blue HLS.

Driven hard petrol managed to escape from the carbs and end upin the brake servo, causing the diaphragm to split and lose assistance. Learned to change the diaphragm quite rapidly.

The drivers door top hinge pulled out of the shell thanks to rust and a windy day. 4 years old.

Finally, a front brake disk shattered under hard braking, got tangled in the wheel an locked it , so slid into a ditch, and the front end pointed in a strange direction.

The design lived on in Iran as the Paykan until 2005. Rust wasn't an issue there...

I found an old picture of it, in its normal mode - broken. Gearbox bearings, this time