The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Bench Racing → Here's proof that nobody wants Humbers
NOS Sceptre grille badge for £4.95. NOS emblems and trim pieces go for plenty if there's any restoration interest in the marque. Feel free to buy, hack up, and race Humbers, secure in the knowledge that you're saving the car from certain doom!
News to warm the cockles of your heart coming soon to a post near you.
News to warm the cockles of your heart coming soon to a post near you.
Have you been on a Snipe hunt?
I am hoping that we'll have >50% Humbers, Simcas, GAZs, Packards, Ill-Advised-Engine-Swaps, etc on the track by the time we get to the 2012 Lemons season.
I'm doing my part, I can assure you of that!
Feel free to buy, hack up, and race Humbers, secure in the knowledge that you're saving the car from certain doom!
I kind of figured that when the British Humber Car Club told me that there is no North American Humber Club. Their own web forum isn't very active either.
My Super Snipes are supposed to be delivered tomorrow, and the workshop manual I found on ebay was mailed to me on Friday. As soon as I can shake this stupid cold I'll start digging into them.
My real fear is being out-classed by Spank. 
He has set the bar very high and I am just a beginner.
I went to Autobooks in Burbank (Calif.) yesterday to see if they had anything at all on the Super Snipe (they didn't). I told the clerk what I was planning to do with it and he got all excited. He dragged me back to meet the owner, saying "Hey Tina, this guy bought a Super Snipe and is going to race it in Lemons!" She thought it was totally cool since she knows another Lemons team (I think she said The Fat And The Furious). I gave her a Lemons poster and she said she would put it in the front window of the store. She also said I could post a team recruiting sign there.
It was really nice to meet people who are enthusiastic and support Lemons, particularly since my wife was with me. I think her attitude is starting to soften.
Don't feel bad, the Simca forums suck too. So it's not only forlorn British marques lost to time that don't get supported in the 21st century too. The US Simca club doesn't even have a forum. I think they maybe have a mimeograph machine that they use to crank out a quarterly newsletter, probably typed with a manual typewriter. Even the NIB parts that show up on eBay die without a single bid. Nobody in the world wants a SIMCA.
After pulling the rear suspension/transaxle/engine, I can see why. The rear lower control arms are designed in such a brilliant fashion that they will inevitably result in increasing rear toe out as they are compressed. More compression, more rear toe. So that oversteer thing that rear engine, rear drive cars are known for? Yeah, even worse.
The entire rear suspension/transaxle/engine was held into this car with a total of 8 bolts, none of which were in double shear and all of which attached to the chassis vertically. French engineering, mon dieu!
The engine on this one is shot, so I'm trying to decide what to swap in. I want to keep it rear drive and either rear or mid-engined. Since SIMCA was owned by Chrysler in 1967, my SIMCA has a pentastar logo on the passenger front fender, so I'm thinking that we should swap a motor from the Chrysler family. Maybe a dreadful 2.2 turbo 4?
Thanks Mulry, now I know what double shear is. Found an awesome video explaining it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JVY1tngams
The engine on this one is shot, so I'm trying to decide what to swap in. I want to keep it rear drive and either rear or mid-engined. Since SIMCA was owned by Chrysler in 1967, my SIMCA has a pentastar logo on the passenger front fender, so I'm thinking that we should swap a motor from the Chrysler family. Maybe a dreadful 2.2 turbo 4?
How hard would it be to use a Chrysler Flathead Six?
Pretty difficult, I think. Beyond the difficulty of finding one, the real problem with this car is in the packaging. It's a freaking tiny car, and I have this (admittedly bizarre) fantasy of being able to actually drive this car on the road too, and would like to be able to drop my kids off at school with it. Just to see the horrified looks on the faces of the other parents in the morning when this crapcan rolls through the carpool line. In other words, I don't want to take up the entire backseat area with engine, if possible. I recognize this might not be possible. I don't know if I could put one of those behind the transaxle, but then there's the issue of figuring out if it would work with any known transaxle and/or figuring out an adapter and/or if it's turning the right way. All for a lump sitting behind the transaxle.
I am hoping that we'll have >50% Humbers, Simcas, GAZs, Packards, Ill-Advised-Engine-Swaps, etc on the track by the time we get to the 2012 Lemons season.
And the other 50% are E30s and Miatas.
Lemons could become the only reason in the world any Rootes Group cars get saved from the Crusher. Or any other obscure makes.
NOS Sceptre grille badge for £4.95. NOS emblems and trim pieces go for plenty if there's any restoration interest in the marque. Feel free to buy, hack up, and race Humbers, secure in the knowledge that you're saving the car from certain doom!
I love that the guy's eBay handle is "simcav8guy".
Slat six! Slant Six!
I think a Humber needs an Italian engine. How about the V6 out of a Milano?
I think a Humber needs an Italian engine. How about the V6 out of a Milano?
We might take you up on that if the Sunbeam motor doesn't run after some gentle persuasion.
Are you kidding me? The Humber had a cross flow hemi-head I6. How much more awesome can you get?
A Lemons Super Snipe? Am I dreaming?
Humbers don't need to be dragged down by Italian engines. The 3-liter six was enough for fourth place in the East African Safari, after all. However, after Chrysler purchased the Rootes Group, a few Humber engineers thought they might challenge the Rover 3.5-liter and the Jag MkX by putting Ma Mopar's 318 under the bonnet. Top speed of the experimental 250-horsepower Snipe was 125.
I went to Autobooks in Burbank (Calif.) yesterday to see if they had anything at all on the Super Snipe (they didn't).
I don't know of any books about the Super Snipe itself, but <i>Tiger, Alpine, Rapier</i> by Richard Langworth has a small section about the Rootes Humbers. <i>Works Team</i> by Michael Frostick has a little more about the Super Snipe in rallying and about Stirling Moss's "Fifteen countries in five days" tour in a 1954 model. Both books are currently printed by Mercian Manuals in England. <i>Works Team</i> even includes the schedule for preparing the Works Super Snipe for the East African Safari... make sure you use the special front springs (part X.69159) and the "Export" rear springs (part 1,214,181.) Also, it says that you're supposed to have Girling check the brakes and Laycock check the overdrive!
and would like to be able to drop my kids off at school with it
Anything to spite that damn Highlander kid
Mulry wrote:and would like to be able to drop my kids off at school with it
Anything to spite that damn Highlander kid
Agreed. We need to have a "Take Your Child to School in a LeMon day. Imagine 50, maybe 50 people all show up at school driving AMC Pacers, drop their kids off, hum a few bars of Alice's Restaurant...
Agreed. We need to have a "Take Your Child to School in a LeMon day. Imagine 50, maybe 50 people all show up at school driving AMC Pacers, drop their kids off, hum a few bars of Alice's Restaurant...
50 will start, but 24 will throw a rod backing out of the drive and another 24 will have the brakes fail at the first stop light.
2 will actually drop the kids at school.
Agreed. We need to have a "Take Your Child to School in a LeMon day. Imagine 50, maybe 50 people all show up at school driving AMC Pacers, drop their kids off, hum a few bars of Alice's Restaurant...
Then, we shall give the kid a buzzcut.
For what it's worth, every model of car my parents ever dropped me off at school in has been represented at Lemons.
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Bench Racing → Here's proof that nobody wants Humbers