Sunbeam – John Marston was a bicycle manufacturer, who saw the potential of
Motorcars. He built his first car in 1899 and started manufacturing the Sunbeam
Mabley in 1902 with a Dion-Bouton engine.
Designer Louis Coatalen joined the company in 1909 and proceeded to create
beautiful cars, which were available with either 3402 or 2412cc four cylinder
engines. A sports car version was also available, which entered in many races.
Three of these Sunbeams finished in position one, two and three at the French
Grand Prix held in 1912. During the First World War they mainly built aircraft
engines. During 1916 Sunbeam was placed third at the Indianapolis 500 race.
In 1920 Sunbeam merged with Talbot and Darracq. During this time Sunbeam
mainly built beautiful race cars with 3000cc engines with top speeds of 175
Km/h. This lead to Sunbeam building special cars for record attempts, some
with streamlined bodies. In 1926 Sir Henry Segrave reached a speed of 243
Km/h. A short while later, a high speed Sunbeam with two V12 aircraft
engines with a capacity of 22 litres developed 1’000bhp and a speed of 200
miles/h.
From 1927 to 1933 all Sunbeams were equipped with four wheel brakes and
a choice of 2, 2.9 or 3.6 litre engine. From 1934 Sunbeam also offered pre-
selector gear boxes. Financial problems caused to company to be taken over
by the Roots brothers in 1935.
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