Hillman Gazelle

Hillman Gazelle

Hillman

MarqueHillman
Production1966–1967
Engine105.2 cuin overhead valve Inline-4

This is the catalogue record of the Hillman Gazelle, one of 23 models Hillman has placed in the historical record and one of more than seventeen thousand cars the MotorJury library tracks. The record places its introduction in 1966. The photography on this page is hotlinked from Wikimedia Commons under an open licence, with the photographer credited on every frame.

The era it was born into

To read the Hillman Gazelle properly it helps to place it in its decade. The 1960s were the decade of the pony car, the mid-engined revolution and the birth of the modern hot hatchback's ancestors — engineering advanced faster than in any decade before it. Any car launched into that world was shaped by it — by what materials, engineering and regulation allowed, and by what buyers of the day demanded. Its direct contemporaries in this catalogue, introduced within three years of it, include the Dodge Dodge Charger, the Toyota Toyota Corolla, the Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Spider — the cars a buyer of the period would actually have cross-shopped.

The numbers, read closely

On paper, the Hillman Gazelle reads like this: the record lists its engine as 105.2 cuin overhead valve Inline-4; kerb weight is recorded at wheelbase =; drive goes through Four-speed manual transmission / manual / Three-speed automatic transmission / automatic; the layout is Front engine, rear-wheel-drive. Every figure above is a manufacturer specification carried by the Wikipedia infobox or the open Wikidata record for this model — nothing on this page is estimated, and where a source is silent the row simply does not appear.

Its place in the Hillman story

Within Hillman's own catalogue the Hillman Gazelle sits alongside the Hillman Imp, the Hillman "Sixteen", "Hawk" and "80", the Hillman 14, the Hillman 20 8-cylinder. The record names the Singer Gazelle (Australia) / (1957–1961) as its predecessor, anchoring one end of its lineage.

How this catalogue works

This library is generated, verified and rebuilt from the open record on every deploy. The catalogue skeleton comes from Wikidata, specifications from Wikipedia's infoboxes under CC BY-SA, photography from Wikimedia Commons under each file's own licence, and the ownership data from United States federal safety records. Nothing is written by hand and nothing is invented: every fact on this page traces to a public source, and every page is rebuilt nightly as those sources improve. Errors in the source record will appear here too — and disappear the night the source is corrected.

Why concepts and prototypes are in the library

Most car databases stop at series production. This one deliberately does not, because concept cars, racing specials and cancelled prototypes are where the industry thinks out loud — the ideas tested in public years before they reach a showroom. Holding them beside the production cars they inspired makes the lineage legible: nearly every landmark road car in this library has a concept ancestor somewhere in the catalogue, and the connections run through the era links on every page.

From catalogue to ownership

The catalogue records what the Hillman Gazelle was; the ownership database records what it is like to own. MotorJury computes a verdict for every model year the United States federal record covers — complaints, recalls, real economy — refreshed nightly, with no opinions involved. If this car reached the American market, its verdicts are in there.

Specifications

TransmissionFour-speed manual transmission / manual / Three-speed automatic transmission / automatic
LayoutFront engine, rear-wheel-drive
Body style4-door saloon
Kerb weightwheelbase =
Wheelbaserelated = Hillman Minx#Audax design Hillman Minx (Series I to Series VI, 1956–67) / Hillman Minx Series I–VI / Singer Gazelle / Singer Gazelle Series I–VI / Sunbeam Rapier / Sunbea
Length4,178 mm
PredecessorSinger Gazelle (Australia) / (1957–1961)
Catalogue IDQ3785639

Specifications come from the Wikipedia infobox for this model (CC BY-SA) and the open Wikidata record, and are shown only where a source actually carries them — nothing here is estimated. Figures are manufacturer specifications, not measured results.

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What it costs to run

Ownership verdicts are computed from NHTSA complaint and recall records plus EPA economy data, re-priced for your country. Verdicts are published per model year as the data is ingested — browse them live, or open the true-cost calculator to price any year yourself.

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Rivals of its era

Contemporaries from other marques, introduced within three years of this car.