Hillman Aero Minx: the story of a Streamlined Saloon survivor

By James Elliott

| 4 Nov 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Hillman Aero Minx Streamlined Saloon

This is one of only two Hillman Aero Minx Streamlined Saloons in the world.

For the sake of complete transparency, there is soon to be a third – and even a fourth is rumoured to be in the pipeline – but for now this car and another in Denmark comprise two of two.

Its rarity is no real surprise because only between 1000 and 2000 Aero Minxes were ever built, and the lower estimate is thought to be closer to the truth.

The Coventry company – in the early ’30s fast becoming one of the powerhouses of the British motor industry thanks to the standard Minx – wanted to turn its stock-in-trade runabout into a genuine sporting car.

The Aero Minx turned Hillman’s mainstream model into a sports car

You can see why. By the 1920s, the firm’s ethos under Breton Louis Coatalen had been flipped on its head.

Having left Humber to join forces with William Hillman in 1907, Coatalen turned out a big-engined luxury tourer called the 40, powered by a 9.7-litre ‘six’ and the 25, a 6.4-litre ‘four’.

After Coatalen split for Sunbeam in 1909, it was just a steady process of engine ‘shrinkage’.

In fact, between the demise of the 25 in 1913 and the outbreak of war in ’39, the biggest-capacity car the company would build was the 3181cc Hawk, but such largesse was the exception.

Period brochures for the Hillman Aero Minx

Even in the AJ Dawson and John Black eras before the Rootes takeover in ’28, small sidevalve four-pots such as in the 11, Speed and Sporting were the order of the day.

But when the mass-produced Minx was unveiled at Olympia in ’31 and rapidly sold in big numbers, it cemented the deal.

Powered by an 1185cc engine with 30bhp from 63.5mm bore and 95mm stroke, this 7ft 8in wheelbase small family saloon was a hit.

Trotting to 50mph in a leisurely 27 secs and reaching a top speed of 58mph, it was no slouch for a 12ft-long car with a track that, at just 4ft, was narrower even than the contemporary Austin Seven.

The Hillman Aero Minx Streamlined Saloon’s rear contains a spare wheel, neatly hidden under a cover

Such was the success of the first generation of leaf-sprung Minx with its three-speed gearbox, Marles-Weller steering and Bendix brakes – and don’t forget the Melody Minx of 1934, with a radio fitted as standard: gadzooks! – that the name would endure for 40 years.

Indeed, it proved so popular that the company wanted a sports version and in 1933 the Aero Minx (which would later morph into the Talbot Ten) was born.

It had caused a stir even on announcement of the Streamlined Saloon in September 1932, The Autocar declaring it ‘both rakish in its lines and workmanlike in its appearance... as near an approach to streamline form as can be obtained with a normal bonneted chassis’.

It added that the 4ft 6in tall car ‘will undoubtedly prove to be one of the most notable sports cars of the year’.

This rare Hillman Aero Minx Streamlined Saloon’s sidevalve ‘four’ is now fed by a downdraught Zenith carburettor

Interestingly, while both catchy as a name and capturing the styling zeitgeist of the era, the aerodynamic aspect of the performance £250 Minxes was probably the slightest change.

The chassis of Aero Minxes was lowered and underslung at the rear, the wheelbase was shortened (by 4in) and there was a taller rear-axle ratio (5:1 compared to 5.4:1).

Its high-compression engine (6.4:1) boasted an aluminium head and a larger Stromberg carburettor (although not many still have theirs), purportedly upping the maximum to about 75mph at 5500rpm, which you could see on the combined speedometer and rev counter – the latter an addition for the Aero.

With an easy-to-use crash ’box – supplanted by a synchromesh four-speeder with ‘silent’ third from 1934 – working via an inverted H-pattern gate and a hard ride, there was no denying the car’s sporting credentials.

Aero Minxes performed well in competition on their Rudge-Whitworth ‘racing type’ knock-on wheels.

Porthole skylights in the Hillman Aero Minx Streamlined Saloon’s sliding roof

Neither The Autocar nor The Motor road-tested a Streamlined Saloon, but the former did put a Foursome Coupé through its paces in January 1934, reaching 50mph in 22 secs and topping out at an indicated 78mph.

The conclusion that it was of a ‘calibre associated with larger and more expensive vehicles’ tallied with The Scribe’s ’33 assertion that it ‘is a wonderful little car, one of the best small chassis on the market today’.

The Hillmans may have had detractors, but a loyal band of entrants on trials, rallies and high-speed tests at Brooklands proved their worth.

Their finest hour came on the 1934 Welsh Rally when the Biscombe brothers and WP Uglow took the team prize, prompting the Carnarvon Constabulary to buy four Aero Minxes.

Handel Davies with the Hillman Aero Minx Streamlined Saloon in which he competed on the 1934 and ’35 Welsh Rallies

There were myriad models offered that varied only in their bodywork.

As well as the Streamlined Saloon with Carbodies coachwork, there was an alloy-bodied four-seater soft-top styled by the Earl of March.

A factory four-seater tourer and Foursome Coupé – of which there are believed to be no survivors – were announced in September ’33, plus there was a Tickford, a Cresta and a Burlington.

There was even a Chinese-built variant designed by DSM Fraser.

Most plentiful, to use the word loosely, today is the streamlined two-seater soft-top that was launched in 1935 and of which a score or so are thought to exist.

‘The cutting-edge styling of the 1930s informs all of the lines’

Again to use words loosely, this 1934 saloon by the Coventry firm that is rather more famous for taxis, is technically a four-seater, but the rear is uncomfortable enough for one person sitting sideways let alone two people.

Remember, however, that this was a relatively high-spec car in its day with its leather trim and fantastic sliding roof, boasting a pair of porthole skylights.

The cutting-edge styling of the 1930s informs all of the lines, the windows only about 14in tall at their peak, the back falling away brutally and merging with the fabulous rear ‘helmet’ guards and the spare mostly hidden under a cover.

A trio of strakes accentuates the running boards, while there are tapered sidelights on top of the big front wings and Deco-style door trims inside.

The cabin has a lovely musty smell, much like visiting your grandparents’ house in the 1970s, with the handbrake sprouting out beside the cramped, bucket-style passenger seat.

The Hillman Aero Minx Streamlined Saloon’s cabin, with sunburst doorcards

The stubbier gearlever helps to distinguish an Aero from a ‘normal’ Minx, while the driving position – low, chunky wheel resting nearly on your legs – feels quite sporty, even if the cheek-by-jowl pedals may nullify that on the move.

Originally a combination of pale and dark blue, this shapely, Deco-tinted profile now wears a more Bauhaus two-tone dark blue and cream and, while it may not be the usual imposing studio exotic, it has extensive, ineffable charm.

No less care or skill went into the delicate lines of this scaled-down saloon than the grandiose playboy fare that it mimics in miniature.

As so often with classics – even one as rare as this – the car would be only half as special were it not for its owner and their relationship. And this particular tale is especially interesting.

The Hillman Aero Minx Streamlined Saloon’s Smiths dial combines speed and revs

The Aero Minx came to Classic & Sports Car’s – and many other people’s – attention when it appeared at the Classic Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham in 2012, having not been on the road for more than a generation.

It was part of a group of four different models of Aero Minx (and one chassis) displayed on the Hillman Owners’ Club stand to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the line.

C&SC was so charmed by this well-used and well-patinated baby saloon that we gave it our special award for the car that stole the team’s hearts.

As the story of its ownership unfolded, we knew we had made the right choice.

The Aero Minx is owned, as it has been for nearly 50 years, by Kent-based retired paint sprayer David Hanks.

Owner David Hanks with his part-rebuilt Hillman Aero Minx Streamlined Saloon in the early 1980s

The 64-year-old explains: “I had the car bug from very young. My first was a 1931 Standard Nine when I was 11; I used to drive it around the fields at my mum’s.

“I bought the Hillman when I was 16, before I was old enough to drive. It was advertised in the local paper and I just wondered what it was really because I had never heard of an Aero Minx.”

As soon as Hanks saw the car, he had to have it, despite protestations from friends who advised against the marque and his parents who refused to lend him the money... just as they wouldn’t permit him to own a motorcycle.

The car cost £15; Hanks had £10 and when his parents didn’t come through with the extra fiver, he borrowed it from a friend and paid it back over several weeks. He still has the bill of sale.

The Hillman Aero Minx Streamlined Saloon has Carbodies coachwork

The Minx was immediately put to work.

“It became my daily driver for two or three years,” says Hanks.

“When I was young and haring around, it handled very much like a Mini – you could really throw it into corners – but now I find it quite hairy.

“The cable brakes need adjustment weekly and, though they reckon it will comfortably top 70mph, I wouldn’t want to!

“After a few years, I got the Mini bug and became wrapped up in trying to build one that would outrun a Jaguar E-type to 60mph.”

By the time that Hanks was in his mid-20s, he started a rebuild on the Hillman.

Drawing of a 1932 Hillman Aero Minx two/three-seater saloon

He stripped it down, got a free retrim courtesy of his then-bosses at BMW and put the car back together.

In fact, due to his ever-expanding collection, including a two-seater Aero Minx, he did everything but put it back on the road.

Then, when he was 35, Hanks got divorced and everything had to go.

He shed 20-plus cars, including the two-seater Minx, a BSA Scout that had belonged to band-leader Billy Cotton, three more Minxes, five Austin Sevens, a Ford Special, Riley, MG Magnette and more.

The only car to survive the cull was this Aero Minx.

The Hillman Aero Minx Streamlined Saloon’s Rudge-Whitworth knock-on wire wheels

When Hanks remarried to someone with little interest in cars his passion for them stayed on the back-burner, but he threw himself into them again as a distraction when he lost his wife 12 years ago.

So far, the car count is back up to 13, including a 1936 Rolls-Royce 25/30, a 1925 Daimler 25/70, another Aero Minx, a 1910 Flanders and a 1912 Studebaker.

Yet foremost in his collection, as it ever was, is this car, even if it took a prod from the owners’ club to motivate him: “They phoned up and asked if I would display it at the NEC.

“That may sound daunting when it hadn’t been used for so long, but the reality was that the full restoration had happened years ago when it was retrimmed.

“My dad had even done the woodwork back then, it was simply that it hadn’t been used. So I dragged it out, gave it a quick rub-down and spray over and had it ready to go in two weeks.”

Between 1000 and 2000 Hillman Aero Minx Streamlined Saloons were built, but very few survive

From that history you may be misled into thinking either that Hanks wasn’t aware of the importance of the car, or that it only achieved that status gradually, but the converse is true on both counts.

“I found out how rare it was back in my 20s,” explains Hanks.

“There was an Aero Minx club and when I gave them the details over the phone they became quite excited. It seems that – even then – there weren’t many survivors.”

Usually, this sort of story would end with a facile question about whether the owner will ever sell their car and an impassioned, if not always convincing, response that they never would.

On this occasion, the answer that it will never be sold is so obvious that it was nice to not have to even bother to ask.

Instead, the best aspect of this particular tale is how, having finally resuscitated the car for the NEC, Hanks is now using the Aero Minx more than at any time since the ’60s.

Images: Adam Warner

Thanks to: Tim Green; Hillman Owners’ Club

This was first in our July 2014 magazine; all information was correct at the date of original publication

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