1952 Record Run – Humber Super Snipe

Extract from Modern Motoring & Travel – February 1953:

George C Hinchliffe, the 41 year old Bradford garage owner, who in January last, established the fastest overland time (21 days) in a Hillman Minx car from London to the Cape, has done it again.

Covering 10,500 miles in 13 days 9 hours 6 minutes, he has knocked 8 days 10 hours 39 minutes off his January time according to a cable received from Cape Town.
Hinchliffe, driving a new Humber Super Snipe, reached Cape Town on December 9 at 7.21 pm GMT. He had left Hyde Park Corner, London, at 10.15 am GMT on Wednesday November 26th.

With Hinchliffe were R. Walshaw, aged 38 of Leyburn Avenue, Lightcliffe, near Halifax, Yorkshire, as co-driver and Charles Arthur Longman, 39, of Haycliffe Road, Bradford, as fitter and mechanic.

Walshaw is an experienced international Rally driver. He drove a Hillman Minx in the 1952 Monte Carlo Rally from Glasgow and in the 1951 Daily Express National Motor Rally he won a class award.

Before leaving London, Hinchliffe said “If they ask, ‘Where’s George?’, say he’s gone to lunch in Cape Town”

“I was getting restless again,” said Hinchliffe, who is a bachelor, “and one day at the Motor Show in October I decided there and then to ‘have another go.’ This should get me away from the English winter for a time, to enjoy plenty of sun and with any luck be back home by Christmas.”

Hinchliffe’s car – No. MRW 208 – is a normal production model of the new Super Snipe which was inspected by thousands at the Motor Show. He was given prompt delivery of one of the first off the production line.

Apart from a luggage roof, two headlamps and an extra petrol tank to carry 30 gallons, no alterations were made to the car.

So that the party could remain in constant touch with England by radio, the range of the receiving set was slightly modified. Hinchliffe on the trip also carried a compass, two sporting rifles and ammunition, a camera and a kettle “in order to make tea at any time of the day or night.”

The Super Snipe had the normal United Kingdom lower-axle ratio of 3.9 : 1. Hinchliffe considered this more suitable for getting out of “the rough” while traversing North Africa. Incidentally, from Algiers on, Hinchliffe had donned the burnous dress of the Arab, with sandals, to keep as cool as possible.

As some example of the arduous going, Hinchliffe and his co-drivers completed over 1,200 miles in the last 24 hours, which means the remarkable average of 50 mph.

Destination Cape Town

This shortened film has been edited and shown with kind permission from the Sunbeam Car Club of New Zealand.

If you would like to see the whole film, plus other adventures in Hillman and Humber cars, please contact the Sunbeam Car Club of New Zealand to purchase their DVD box set - Rootes Group Classics.

Other Record Runs

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