This Bill Tull’s beautiful and virtually original 1956 Hunter Deluxe. He purchased it from Colin Wright, who had owned the car for 32 years.
The car was first registered in April 1956 in Stranraer, and bears its original Wigtonshire registration. It has had only two previous owners.
Colin Wright bought it from the executor of the first owner in 1977, when the mileage was 42,000. All it needed was the paintwork “T-Cutting”, some repair work to the rear wings and a general clean up, especially underneath, so the whole of the underside was scraped down and rust treated, painted and wax-oiled.
During Colin’s ownership the car went to Scotland and the South of England many times, completed in three Norwich Union Classics and was driven round Silverstone and Castle Donnington circuits.
It also featured in Classic Car Magazine, and was exhibited by request at the Peugeot factory in Coventry at one of the company’s open days, as an example of their inherited history.
The Hunter was the last Singers to be made before the Rootes take-over at the end of 1959, and was built by Rootes staff when they took over Singer’s Birmingham factory. The car has a separate chassis and a 1497cc OHC engine, which Rootes continued to use for two years in their new Singer, the Gazelle. It is a very smooth performer and will cruise all day at 55/60 mph. The car was destined to be one of the new Singer Hunter ’75’ models, with a twin OHC engine producing 75bhp. Two chrome dots on the boot lid where the ’75’ badge would have been reveal this, but the ’75’ never went into production, although the engine was used by HRG in their sports car.
Shortly before Bill bought the car, the engine was fitted with new valves, new clutch, new brake hoses, and wax-oiled again, so hopefully it will last for a long while to come.