1927 Sunbeam 16.9 Tourer £39,995

Video Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raqIhfuS8ig

A wonderfully impressive large British-built 1920’s Tourer from Sunbeam’s Golden Period.

To many vintage car enthusiasts, there has only ever been one real Sunbeam Company - that which built cars in Wolverhampton before 1936.

The Sunbeam 16 was introduced for 1927. It featured a 2035cc six cylinder overhead valve engine rated at 16.9hp. The chassis used semi-elliptic springs at the front and cantilever springs at the rear with artillery wheels. A four speed crash gearbox with right hand gear change was fitted.

The original Sunbeams were very well engineered, high quality reliable cars - and a great reputation on the track. The 16.9 was their most successful volume model.

This Vintage time-warp 16.9 car was first seen by Phil xxxxx, the previous owner, some 50years ago, when, as a lad of 13 he used to visit the Grove Garage in Christchurch. (then in Hampshire) The remains of the body were in a sorry state and it transpired that it was not even the original coachwork but from a cheaper Austin - what a travesty!. The whole car needed restoring. Despite living in Southampton his father called in every year to see if he could buy the car with a view to rebuilding it again as a Sunbeam Tourer, but the owner always said no!

(See Stop Press Footnote about earlier ownership of this car!)

Later on in life, around 1987 Phil was seeking a car to restore and remembered the Sunbeam he had seen as a child and called in to Grove Garage to find that amazingly the old Sunbeam was still there but the owner refused to part with it as he wanted to restore it himself upon his retirement.

Another 20 years elapsed and eventually the Grove Garage business was sold. Shortly after which a Mr Barry xxxxx happened to go to the Garage on an unrelated matter and bought the car on the spot. Barry was a welder by profession (he made the luggage rack) but did not know much about vintage cars. Somehow he heard about Phil’s interest in the Sunbeam and got in touch. Phil agreed to help and introduced Barry to Trevor Hirst. Trevor used to work for Rod Jolley who has a global reputation for recreating vintage coachworks to the highest museum quality standard. Before that Trevor worked in the Aviation Industry. He now has his own business building and panelling vintage cars. http://trevorhirstcars.co.uk/examples.html He has done work for the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu and was even flown to America to repair ’Spirit of America’ land speed record car after it was damaged during a record attempt.

Trevor was accordingly commissioned to rebuild the car in its original form. The non-original Austin body was removed and sold to help finance the restoration. Trevor located an identical Sunbeam 16.9 Tourer in Poole (Reg YX607) and took accurate measurements of this car which enabled him to recreate an exact duplicate ash frame and coachbuilt folding head coupe body to the pre-war original.

Following rebuild the car was professionally retrimmed by Alan Piper of Long Hazel farm, Wincanton,again to original specification.

The total cost of these works was very substantial but Trevor estimates that to undertake the same project today would cost over £70,000. Understandably the car looks like new inside and out and is enormous fun to drive.

Eventually Phil managed to buy the car from Barry and made further detailed improvements including the restoration of the original, unique Vacuum pump which feeds fuel to the Claudel Hobson carburettor.

Now on the market due to Phil’s other project (also a Sunbeam) this wonderful, historical, 83 year old (matching numbers) motorcar represents a very sound investment. comes with old buff logbook, Current MOT and Historic Vehicle Roadtax.

The car has recently benefitted from a superb new honeycombe radiator core which was handmade by specialist firm to original pattern at a cost of £2500!

There is a friendly Owners Club dedicated to Sunbeam, Talbot & Darracq motor cars called the STD Register with a worldwide membership (www.stdregister.org.uk/)

Here is a rare opportunity to become the next owner of a highly significant Sunbeam and a most desirable open sporting motor car from the 1920s.

Video of this car - click on  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raqIhfuS8ig 

STOP PRESS - Amazingly, the last recorded owner in the old buff logbook John XXXX has just seen the car on our website. He said he bought it as a young man for £25 over 60 years ago in 1958 and had many happy times with the old Sunbeam. He has sent the following b/w photos of the car from his family album. They confirm that the original drophead coachwork appears identical to the current Trevor Hirst body. One difference is that it originally had a tool or battery box on the nearside running board, but this could easily be recreated if required.