William Hillman, a successful Coventry cycle maker, went into car making in 1907 as Hillman-Coatalen, with the Breton engineer Louis Coatalen as designer. Coatalen soon left for Sunbeam, and the company carried on as Hillman, building solid, well-made light cars.
The Rootes brothers gained control in 1928, and in 1931 Hillman was merged with Humber, becoming the small-car arm of what grew into the Rootes Group. The Minx, launched in 1932 and built in many forms until 1970, was the backbone of the range, joined after the war by the Husky estate.
In 1963 Rootes opened a new factory at Linwood, near Paisley in Scotland, to build the Hillman Imp, an ambitious rear-engined small car with an aluminium engine derived from a Coventry Climax design. The Hunter of 1966 and the Avenger of 1970 followed. Chrysler took full control of Rootes in 1967, and in 1976 the Hillman name was dropped in favour of Chrysler badges, which in turn gave way to Talbot after Peugeot bought Chrysler’s European business in 1979.
