1967 Humber Sceptre Mark 2 E from UK and Ireland - Comments

Clutch slipping (twice)

Head Gasket (twice)

Overdrive switch wire, kept breaking (gearbox end)

Heavy tire wear.

I loved this car!!! Curvaceous and very, very British

The 1725 cc Routes engine, had twin webber's, it made a great spitting exhaust noise and with good use of the overdrive in 3rd and 4th would accelerate surprisingly well, flying along at 90, no problem; it was made for motorways which had no speed limit at time of manufacture!

The trouble was the brakes (although having disks at the front) were just not up to the speeds this car could do, also the suspension was soft and the car would lunge around corners.

The clutch was weak and would need replacing after only 10K miles, also the head gasket on these aluminum headed engines had a habit of leaking and blowing!

The bodywork on this car was fantastic, all rounded and in British racing green, looked great with the very curvaceous rear windscreen, it had slightly pointed rear wings, circa 1950's USA cars, which made it look like it was going fast before it ever moved.

The interior was all red leather, with enough dials to make it look like an airplane cockpit, I still miss my oil pressure, battery amps and wobbly fuel gauge, which read in gallons.

Sadly I was too young to appreciate this car at the time and drove it too fast and crashed. I hit a Mini, which unexpectedly stopped at traffic lights when I was trying to filter to the left, the brakes made the car understeer as I tried to turn left, so didn't make the turn and BANG!! I only had third-party insurance and couldn't afford to repair the badly dented front wing.

The Mark 2 had a more modern grille with twin headlights, it looked the part, lots of chrome yummmmm!

I had a Sunbeam Rapier after this, but that's another story!

The car came as standard with twin Stromberg carburettors, but these were troublesome and a common conversion was to replace these with a twin-choke Weber.

The seats were upholstered in a high quality PVC type material - not leather.

Good to hear you liked the car.

There is an error in your review though: you say that when the car was made in 1967 there were no motorway speed limits in the UK. In fact the 70mph limit was introduced in 1965.

The Mark 1 had twin Zenith Downdraughts later replaced by one twin choke Solex which carried through to the Mark 2. Only the Arrow shaped Sceptre Mark 3 from 1967 model year was fitted with twin Strombergs, and there was nothing wrong with them if they were set up correctly. Just needed a small amount of intelligence.