Hillman Hunter
The Hillman Hunter was a sedan automobile produced by the Rootes Group (later Chrysler Europe) from 1966 to 1979.
Known internally within Rootes as the "Arrow" range, it was intended to be the Coventry-based company's entry in the mid-sized family segment. In its 13-year production run, its contemporaries were the Ford Cortina, Morris Marina and Vauxhall Victor.
The basic design spawned a large number of badge-engineered derivatives, including the cheaper Hillman Minx, Singer Gazelle, Sunbeam Vogue, Humber Sceptre (intended to be the luxury version), and the Sunbeam Rapier (a sports coupe). The Hunter is considered by many to be the last "true" Rootes car since it was developed without any Chrysler influence, although the Avenger lays equal claim to that title.
From an engineering perspective, the Hunter broke little new ground, largely being based on components from the Rootes parts bin, using a new 5-bearing version of its well proven 1725cc overhead valve engine as a starting point. For the first time for a Rootes car, MacPherson strut suspension featured at the front, with a conventional live axle mounted on leaf springs at the rear. Manual transmissions were available in 4-speed form with an optional overdrive, or Borg-Warner 3 or 4-speed automatic transmissions, again as an option. Three bodystyles were available, a 4-door sedan, a 5-door station wagon, and a fastback coupe. A mild facelift in 1970 gave the car new grilles and a more modern dashboard with round dials, but overall, the car remained unchanged througout its life.
The high peformance version powered by a Holbay-tuned version of the 1725cc engine fed by dual Weber 40DCOE carburettors was very successful in international rallying - a Hunter won the 1968 London-Sydney competition.
Following Rootes' takeover in 1967 by Chrysler, the various Hunter derivatives were slowly discontinued until only the Hillman version was left by 1976, when it was rebadged as a Chrysler for the last 3 years of its life. In order to keep the struggling factory alive, Hunter production was switched to Rootes' plant in Linwood, in 1969 from its original home of Ryton. Following the Avenger's move to Linwood in 1976, the very last Hunters were assembled in Ireland.
When production ceased in 1979, Peugeot (by now the heirs to what remained of Rootes after the meltdown of Chrysler Europe), moved the entire Hunter production line to Iran, where the car went into production under licence as the "Paykan" (which translates from Persian as "Arrow" - the car's original Rootes codename). Amazingly, it is still in production to this day, albeit with modern engines.
