what makes it a red hunter

[john.whiting]

The Red part is a pretty obvious hijack of the Riley Red Wing car name .The Rileys were famous in their day for sporting performance on a budget...P&M were even more brazen and called the 600cc plodder a "Redwing",and painted a red wing on the cases.

[adrie.degraaff]

Your 350 has the old iron engine so that would still be; a flowed head, bigger carb. and only the all aloy competition models where the real Red Hunters.

[adrian.hannam]

I always thought the Red Hunter brand was named after the type of horse used in a fox hunt. Is this right?

[PeteL]

My '38 350 had the letters RH on the timing cover which, iron engine and all, I always took to indicate Red Hunter, and I'm sure the Red Hunter name was current long before the '50s ally jobs.

[will_curry]

Red Hunter was the sporty model OH, NG & VH. The De-Luxe OG, NG & VG models had 'proper' mudguards &c.
I'm not sure when Red Hunter was first used but it was well before WW2.

When the De-Luxe models disappeared from the market the Red Hunter name seems to have been kept on,
except, briefly for 1954 when it became just 'Hunter'.

[tstewart]

I was reading initially the bike was going to be called "Hunter" but I think Edward Turner wanted the name "Red Hunter" that was around 1936/7.

[adrie.degraaff]

The first Red Hunter was the 1932 4 valve with 4 gear Burman box but in the 1954 year model and on the real RH was all alloy becouse RH was the fastest single in the model year.

[alan.moore]

I always thought the Red Hunter brand was named after the type of horse used in a fox hunt. Is this right?

I think that would fit, here is a description of what a 'Hunter' type horse should be:

Horses used for hunting were required to be able to manage well in cold weathers, be extremely fit, able to gallop and take fences with ease, and able to produce a fair turn of speed from a relatively sudden start, as well as being capable of maintain a steady pace at canter or gallop for prolonged periods of time.


I assume the bright red colour was chosen in 1932/33 onwards to make the Hunter models more appealing at a time when most bikes standard colors were still all black.

[adrie.degraaff]

There are more tpics about this item.

[alan.moore]

Looking through the old adverts it is interesting to see that the Ariel 'Horse' logo / Trademark appears from way back in 1927/28

(some great old advertisements on the website if you haven't seen them) http://www.arielownersmcc.com/members ... /index.htm

I think this topic has shown that the Red Hunter model name was not used until 1932 so...does anyone know the background to / why the horse logo began to be used by Ariel from 1927?

Cheers
Alan