‘Although it was a good many years ago now, I still vividly recall the ride I had in the Humber Sceptre V8 as though it was yesterday,’ says Clive Harrington, son of Clifford who ran Harrington Coachbuilders based in Hove, East Sussex. ‘To keep me occupied while my father was in a meeting with senior Rootes executives, I was taken for a run in this highly unusual car, which I subsequently learnt was a prototype into which a Chrysler V8 engine had been fitted. The performance was totally dramatic. We drove down a dual carriageway on the outskirts of the city and although I was used to performance cars such as the Hartwell Stage 3 Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans which my father had driven up to Ryton, the acceleration between each roundabout was breathtaking.’
Of course, Rootes never marketed a Humber Sceptre V8, but this was just one of a number of possible cars that could have been given that distinctive burble. They did add one V8 to their production portfolio in the form of the Sunbeam Tiger in 1964 though, so it is interesting to unravel the path that led to the car which Clive Harrington remembers so well. This strand of the story had started in
