1913 Sunbeam 25-30hp Tourer. Registration No. Non-Transferrable… - Collector's Cars - Bonhams & Goodman (No longer trading)

Lot No.

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Description:

1913 Sunbeam 25-30hp Tourer. Registration No. Non-Transferrable - 34648-H. Non-Transferable. Founded by John Marston, a God-fearing Victorian industrialist who foresaw the growth in demand for private transport, Sunbeam was first associated with beautifully made, though expensive, bicycles. Although comparative latecomers to motor car manufacture, the Wolverhampton-based Sunbeam factory quickly established a fine reputation alongside Lanchester, Wolseley, Austin and Daimler at the heart of the expanding Midlands motor industry. Apart from the curious Sunbeam-Mabley cycle car, Sunbeam's production centred mainly around four-cylinder models, which have survived in greater numbers than any of their aforementioned contemporaries. The company's first conventional car was largely conceived by T C Pullinger, who persuaded Marston to purchase a complete chassis from the French Berliet concern. Exhibited at the Crystal Palace in November 1902, it was marketed as the Sunbeam 10/12 but it was not until 1907, two years after the Sunbeam Motor Car Company had been formed, that the firm produced its first all-British model, the 16/20. The arrival from Hillman in 1909 of influential designer Louis Coatalen and the pursuit of an effective competitions programme enabled the marque to establish a formidable reputation prior to Wolrd War I, its superbly made products enjoying a reputation rivalling that of the best from Alvis and Bentley thereafter. By the outbreak of Wolrd War I, the Sunbeam range consisted of four-cylinder 12/16hp and 16/20hp models plus the 25/30hp. Powered by a 6.1-litre 'six', Sunbeam's 25/30 was one of the fastest and most durable production cars of its day, as evidenced by its setting a new 12-hour record at Brooklands in 1911 at an average speed of 75.7mph. In its edition of April 19th 1913, The Autocar described the 25/30 as follows: 'The car affords a most delightful combination of speed, power and smoothness of running, having all the efficiency that one associates with a Sunbeam with the smoothness and silence that one, as naturally, associates with a six-cylinder engine. The engine is quite devoid of vibration, though no damper or other such device is fitted.' Praise indeed. Driven by Dario Resta, a Sunbeam 25/30 established a new world record at Brooklands in October 1912, averaging 92.45mph over a distance of 100 miles. Performances of this calibre convinced Coatalen that the 25/30 stood a good chance of securing victory at the Indianapolis 500 and thus gain valuable publicity for Sunbeam in America. Accordingly, Resta's car, known as 'Toodles IV', was suitably modified and fitted with an aerodynamic two-seater body. Tested at Brooklands early in 1913 by Albert Guyot, it lapped at 94mph. Guyot drove the car at Indianapolis, finishing in a creditable though somewhat disappointing 4th place, let down - it is said - by poor pit organisation. The car we offer is one of only two 25/30hp Sunbeams known to exist out of a production run of 50 cars built between 1911 and 1914. Chassis number '5381' was imported into Australia in October 1913 by Brisbane agents, McGhees and bodied locally with tourer coachwork by Peel Ltd. Its first owner was a Brisbane doctor. In the 1940s the Sunbeam was sold to a collector north of Brisbane, passing in the 1950s to the Guthrie family, which owned a motor repair and retail business in Brisbane. The car's next owner was George Gilltrap, of Coolangatta, proprietor of a popular motor museum at Currumbin on the Gold Coast, who acquired it together with two other veteran-era Sunbeams. In the early 1960s, Gilltrap sold the three Sunbeams to Faris Palfreyman, the then Chairman of Elders Ixl and a prolific collector of Rolls-Royces. By this time Palfreyman had assembled a collection of around 25 veteran and vintage Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts. Many had been reduced to rolling chassis state and the Sunbeams - a brace of 16/20hp fours and the 25/30hp six - were viewed as an ideal source of suitable p

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Category:

Unclassified