British and European Car Spotters Guide - 1953

For the first time since the war the British motoring public could go to the Earls Court Motor Show - October 1952 - to view the models for the coming year with the feeling that it was once again meant for them as well as their overseas contemporaries. Although, of course, the export markets conntinued to be uppermost in the minds of manuufacturers there was an atmosphere of real optimism that the home-based buyer was at least going to get a look in. The awareness of new competition both at home and abroad was reflected in the number of quite new models available from British manufacturers which included the Allard Palm Beach, Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire, Austin-Healey 100, Bentley Continental, Sunbeam Alpine and Wolseley Four-Forty Four.

Some remarkably high speeds were recorded by a number of British models during the year, albeit in modified form, including an Austin-Healey 100 which clocked 142·6 mph and a Jaguar XK120 topping 174 mph! The total number of cars produced in the UK in 1953 was a record 594,808. Of these more than half were exported, namely 307,368. Just over 2000 cars were imported and the total of new car registrations was 306,483 (including 5129 hackneys). In 1953, Humber Super Snipes and Pullmans received overhead valve engines (the Hawk got one a year later, in 1954). The Super Snipe was dropped and then re-launched in 1959, thanks to customer demand.