Humber 12/25 pre war car review

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Humber 12/25

We’ve looked at a Humber Super Snipe before, but by and large, Humber isn’t a name we’ve covered a lot on idriveaclassic and it’s definitely something we need to remedy, because this is a brand which is not only quality but was once Britain’s second largest car manufacturer, with Wolseley taking the top spot, and claimed with their 1896 range to be the first company to produce a series of production cars.
But cars weren’t always where Humber set their sights and like other car manufacturers, they originally manufactured bicycles. Although the manufacturer was a big West Midlands employer in the early part of the last century, the firm initially began in Beeston in Nottinghamshire and it was growth that led them to set up Coventry premises where 3,000 workers were in place by 1907.

The first car Humber produced was a 3 wheeled tri-car called the Sociable in 1898 and by 1913, they were Britain’s second largest car manufacturer. The profit leaps they made were enormous and in 1905 they reported profits of £16,500 and just two years later it shot up to over £154k.

So where does this bring us to in 1925, the year this Humber was sold?

By 1925, Humber had had a bit of a mixed bag. There were the war years whereby orders from the government had come in thick and fast for things like motorbikes but by the early 1920s, the car manufacturer market had a few more challenges. Names you’ll instantly recognise like Rover, Singer and Riley to name a few had stepped away from bicycles and embraced the growing desire for the motorcar. Here and abroad.

This marked the last decade before Rootes came in and in 1925 Humber acquired Commer, which was done to take market share in the commercial space, but the real changes came into force at the end of the decade whereby talks began for Rootes to buy a share in the business and in 1931, Rootes and Prudential took 60% of the shares in the company. Humber was never independent ever again.
Which means this 12/25 we’re testing today is in the last true era of Humber as a standalone, independent manufacturer, faults and all.

In 1923, Humber introduced the new inlet over exhaust engine in as an 11.4hp model. In 1925, Humber stepped the game up a bit and made improvements to the engine. It now had a capacity of 1795cc which gave it a tax brake horsepower rating of 12 – this was measured from the number of cylinders and engine stroke only but had an engine output of 25 brake horsepower. This gave the car the name of 12/25.

If you’re wondering about the transmission on this, it’s a four speed transmission and this was the only option offered on the car. It’s based around a ladder frame chassis and has leaf sprung suspension and rear drum brakes. Allegedly you can crack 50 miles per hour in this car, but I’d like to be safe and sensible today and I doubt I’ll be hitting that!

If you’re wondering where it sat luxury wise in the market, this was a classed as high quality build car, a car for somebody with money who understood quality and taste in good measure. If you’re wondering how it was priced in comparison to a car you can easily picture in your mind, it was priced in 1926 at £440 for the tourer, which was almost double what Ford were asking for the Model T.

In total, there were 5 styles of coachwork available for these cars, with the four seat tourer accounting for over 50% of total cars sold and other options including the 2/3 seater, the 4 seater, the coupe and With less than 5,000 of these cars ever made, it makes it a true marvel to have it here with us today.

Now before we take a drive out, let’s have a chat with the gentleman who restored this vehicle.

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