William Hillman made a fortune on making bicycles in partnership with John Starley who went on to found Rover Cars. Business so good that they separated and created separate bicycle companies with Hillman's operation being called Auto Machinery. In 1907 Hillman started making cars, launching a 24HP Hillman-Coatalen designed by Louis Coatalen before the Breton went on to join Sunbeam in 1909. The first Hillmans were huge cars with engines up to 9-litres, but volume sales came with the introduction of the 9hp in 1913. After the First World War engine sizes again grew with the Hillman 14hp being the big seller. Hillman was now managed by John Black (later of Standard-Triumph) and Spencer Wilks (later of Rover). In 1928 Hillman was bought out by Humber and both were taken over by the Rootes brothers in 1931. The Hillman Wizard was intended to relaunch Hillman, but that was only achieved with the 1932 Hillman Minx which was continuously produced in different forms until 1970. After WW2 the Rootes Group shared more and more components amongst its brands so that the Hillman Minx ended up wearing 3 badges (4 if you count the export models badged as 'Humber'), and the engines were used in Sunbeam sports cars and Commer lorries too. In spite of some motorsport success and innovative engineering such as the Hillman Imp the Rootes Group was too weak to continue alone and from 1964 Chrysler bought into the Group and by January 1967 owned it all. By 1977 the name 'Chrysler' was being badged on the cars, but in 1979 'Talbot' was substituted as Chrysler Europe retreated back to America and Peugeot took over.