A Touch Of Class For The Post-War Family Saloon

The Sunbeam MkIII and Singer Hunter heralded a new age of prosperity, says Andrew Roberts, while retaining the decorum of their predecessors

- Andrew Roberts

Of all the visions of past motoring, one of the most beguiling is that of the ‘gentleman’s touring car’. This era was in its twilight by the mid1950s, but there were still vehicles that belonged in the world of saluting AA and RAC patrolmen and John Betjeman’s Shell Guides – such as the Sunbeam MkIII and the Singer Hunter. Both were perfectly suited to the chap who regarded the Ford Zephyr or the E-series Vauxhall Cresta as little more than a Palais de Danse on wheels. And both were the last incarnations of models that made their debut at the 1948 Motor Show.

The SM1500, Singer’s first post-war design, represented a major step for the marque. Power came from a chain-driven overhead-cam engine based on the unit found in the outgoing Super 12, but the slab-sided coachwork and quasi-Detroit grille bore no resemblance to any previous model. ‘Dignity, style and perfect balance,’ claimed the adverts, although domestic customers had to add their names to a long waiting list because when full production commenced in 1949, the first examples were for ‘Export Only’. In ’51, the 1506cc engine was reduced in size to 1497cc and twin carburettors became available in 1952, but sales were already decreasing by then.

One challenge that Singer dealers faced was that this was an expensive model by the standards of 1½-litre saloons and, as the decade progressed, its styling became more of an issue. The coachwork was heavily influenced by the 1946 Kaiser-Frazer but, somewhat inevitably, little dates more rapidly than the British motor industry’s interpretation of US modernism.