{"id":2849,"date":"2009-07-15T05:47:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-15T09:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2009\/07\/go-huskies\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:00:56","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:00:56","slug":"go-huskies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2009\/07\/go-huskies\/","title":{"rendered":"Go Huskies!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hillman<\/a><\/p>\n

If you’ve read my bio page<\/a> you know I’m a UConn<\/a> alum, but I’m not much of a sports fan so, as much as I’m pleased that my alma mater boasts championship teams<\/a>, this item is not about basketball. The Husky, as people my age know, was a tremendously useful Hillman station wagon.<\/p>\n

In our part of New England, imported cars caught on early. By the early 1950s, Austin Devons<\/a> and English Fords<\/a> were fairly common on the roads. A bit less so was the Hillman Minx<\/a>. About 1955, though, Hillman’s fortunes took a big upturn with the Husky<\/a>. Based on the MkVII Minx<\/a>, it used a nine-inch-shorter wheelbase and had a nifty little two-door wagon body<\/a>. Of unitary construction<\/a>, it was powered by the Minx’s 1265 cc L-head four<\/a>, which made 35 bhp. The company dubbed it “Double Duty,” for it was equally useful in commerce<\/a> or as a family car<\/a>. Cleverly designed, it had a spare that was completely accessible even with a full load of luggage<\/a>. Its versatility was widely advertised<\/a>, even implying a matching trailer<\/a> for greater loads, although I suspect there was no such thing. In some regions, the Husky might have been the best-selling Hillman.<\/p>\n

In 1958 came a revised version<\/a> called, strangely, Series I. This car had a two-inch longer wheelbase, new sheet metal and a new grille, but more importantly a 1390 cc ohv engine<\/a> good for 43 bhp. The instrument panel<\/a> was subtly revised from that of the earlier car<\/a>, and exterior door handles, previously a conventional push-button design<\/a>, took on a funky appearance<\/a>. There were further trim changes through two more series, with production continuing until 1965. There was also, through the whole period, a four-door Minx estate wagon<\/a> on the long wheelbase.<\/p>\n

One reason for the Husky’s success was its lack of competition. Triumph’s TR10 estate wagon<\/a> had some of the Husky’s features, but a smaller engine. The Vauxhall Victor estate wagon featured a liftgate<\/a> in contrast to the Husky’s convenient side-hinged door, and disappeared from the US market as soon as the Tempest arrived. The only British two-door wagon was the Austin A40<\/a>, smaller, less versatile<\/a>, and early models lacked the rear liftgate of later versions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As popular as the Huskies were in the late 1950s, all of a sudden they seemed to disappear. For more than 30 years I saw none at all. Then this past October I came across this one<\/a> in the Hershey Car Corral. I believe it’s a circa 1960 Series II model, and quite nicely presented<\/a>, although there were a few flaws, like a wrinkly bumper. I chatted with the owners, but I wasn’t in the market for any car so I didn’t even inquire of the asking price. It’s probably just as well, but I still wonder…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’ve read my bio page you know I’m a UConn alum, but I’m not much of a sports fan so, as much as I’m pleased that my alma mater boasts championship teams, this item is not about basketball. The Husky, as people my age know, was a tremendously useful Hillman station wagon. In our….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3225,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions\/3225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}