Sunbeam Thirty

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Sunbeam
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Thirty
Presentation year: 1936
Vehicle fair: British International Motor Show
Class : Upper class
Body shape : Phaeton , Sedanca de Ville
Engine: Otto engine :
4.5 liters (112 kW)
Length: 4978 mm
Width: 1879 mm
Wheelbase: 3454 mm
Production model: none

Under the name Sunbeam Thirty , the British car manufacturer Rootes developed a representative limousine in 1936, which was largely based on technical components from other brands of the Rootes Group. The car, conceived as a state car and future corporate flagship , only reached the prototype stage. Series production did not materialize. There are some legends surrounding the model.

History of origin

Initiator of the project: Rootes group

Established in 1887 as John Matston Ltd. Founded Sunbeam Motor Car Company has belonged to Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq (STD) since 1920 . After the British-French group ran into economic difficulties in the mid-1930s, the London- based Rootes Group, to which Hillman and Humber already belonged, took over the Sunbeam brand and - for the British market - also in January 1935 Talbot brand. Within a few weeks, Rootes ceased production of Sunbeam models without replacement, while the British Talbot models were converted to Rootes technology by 1938. In the UK, this process Rootesifizierung (will Rootesifying ) called.

In 1936, the Rootes management developed the idea of ​​adding a representative vehicle to the group program that could be equipped with individual bodies from independent body manufacturers. With the Humber Pullman , Rootes already had a luxury sedan on offer. However, she mainly addressed customers from higher management and regional administrative units. The new representative limousine, on the other hand, should have its place at ceremonies and state events such as parades. According to an "old legend of the motor industry", the Rootes brothers William and Reginald had the car developed specifically for the British King Edward VIII , who was crowned in January 1936 and a fan of the Rootes Humber brand.

The representative limousine was developed and presented under the name Sunbeam Thirty. It was the first car to bear the Sunbeam name since Rootes took over the brand. The development was led by the former STD engineer Georges Roesch , who designed some classic Talbot in the interwar period. Because Rootes wanted to keep the development costs of the Sunbeam Thirty low, Roesch was instructed to use existing components from the Rootes shelf for the chassis and the motorization.

Model description

Technical basis of the Sunbeam Thirty: Humber Snipe

Chassis and running gear

The box frame and chassis were taken over by the Sunbeam Thirty from the Humber Snipe introduced in 1935 , which had already been criticized in public for its poor driving behavior and poor directional stability. Apart from an extension of the chassis - optionally wheelbases of 3149 and 3454 mm should be offered - there were no technical changes for the Sunbeam Thirty. The front wheels had the independent suspension and the transverse leaf springs of the Humber; a rigid axle and leaf springs were used at the rear . The deceleration was carried out all around by drum brakes .

Engine and power transmission

The engine of the Sunbeam Thirty was the further development of a 3.4 liter in-line six-cylinder from Talbot, which had appeared in the Talbot 110 in 1935 . For use in the new Sunbeam, Georges Roesch extended the six-cylinder block by two more cylinders. With unchanged dimensions for bore and stroke (80 mm × 112 mm), the resulting eight-cylinder in-line engine had a displacement of 4503 cm³. Two carburettors were used, which were mounted opposite one another on both sides of the engine block. The engine output was given by Rootes with 150 bhp (112 kW; 152 PS). The power transmission took over a manual four-speed transmission from Humber, the first gear was not synchronized .

Bodies

The Sunbeam Thirty was not to be offered with standard bodies, but, as was common in luxury vehicles at the time, was to be given individual bodies from various body construction companies. In the course of the development process, only two bodies were realized as individual pieces: a four-door Continental Phaeton from the body manufacturer Thrupp & Maberly, which belongs to the Rootes group, and a Sedanca de Ville from the independent HJ Mulliner plant .

Imagination and failure

King Edward VIII

Rootes presented the Sunbeam Thirty in October 1936 at the British International Motor Show in the London Olympia exhibition hall . The Continental Phaeton by Thrupp & Maberly, the Sedanca de Ville by HJ Mulliner, an undisguised chassis and an engine block of the new eight-cylinder were on display. The Sunbeam Thirty was the "star of the show", even if its simple Humber chassis was perceived as a "disappointment".

The British International Motor Show in the fall of 1936 was the only exhibition at which the Sunbeam Thirty was shown in public. The following year, the Rootes brothers tried to take a vacation to continental Europe with one of the Thirty on display in London. According to one source, the "overloaded chassis of the Thirty" broke apart shortly after leaving Maidstone . The car was then given up. In the following years, Rootes discontinued the Sunbeam Thirty project without giving any reason.

Various reasons are discussed in the automotive literature for the failure of the Sunbeam Thirty:

  • The British motor journalist Graham Robson , building on the legend of the origin of the Thirty, suggests a connection to the British King Edward VIII, also with regard to the failure: The Sunbeam Thirty was initiated in connection with Edward's accession to the throne in January 1936. After Edward had to abdicate because of his affair with Wallis Simpson in December of the same year, the reason for the continuation of the project no longer applies. Edward's successor, King George VI. , had no interest in Rootes cars and instead preferred the competing brand Daimler .
  • Another attempt to explain the attitude of the Sunbeam Thirty in connection with the political events of the late 1930s. The Rootes group had been involved in the Shadow Scheme since 1936 , an armaments project promoted by the British government since 1935, which had the object of the secret construction of fighter aircraft by the automotive industry. According to a source, Rootes' involvement in this project was so intense by 1937 that the company did not have sufficient capacity to produce a very expensive luxury car.

Whereabouts

None of the Sunbeam Thirty manufactured in 1936 have survived today. Some sources believe that Rootes scrapped all prototypes and engines in 1937. According to another source, however, only three of the four prototypes were destroyed. The Continental Phaeton , which Rootes showed at the Olympia Auto Show in 1936, however, was equipped with a 4.1 liter Humber engine and the radiator grille of a Humber Imperial after the exhibition at the factory. In this form it was sold to a private customer in Northamptonshire under the name Humber Snipe Imperial before it was taken over by an Australian buyer.

literature

  • Geoff Carverhill: Rootes Story: The Making of a Global Automotive Empire , The Crowood Press, 2018, ISBN 9781785004803
  • Graham Robson: The Cars of the Rootes Group , Motor Racing Publications, London 2007, ISBN 978-1903088296

Web links

Contemporary illustration of a Sunbeam 30

Remarks

  1. ↑ Information for Continental Phaeton from Thrupp & Maberly
  2. ↑ The French branch of the Talbot brand was taken over by the Italian entrepreneur Anthony Lago ; the cars built in France were then called Talbot-Lago . In 1938 Rootes established the new Sunbeam-Talbot brand in Great Britain , which offered sister models of the popular Hillman cars with slightly different styling. In 1953 the brand name was changed to Sunbeam; the term Talbot was dropped without replacement until the French PSA group revived it in 1978 as the new owner of the Rootes successor Chrysler Europe (see Talbot (car brand) ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Graham Robson: The Cars of the Rootes Group , Motor Racing Publications, London 2007, ISBN 978-1903088296 , p. 20.
  2. ^ Graham Robson: The Cars of the Rootes Group , Motor Racing Publications, London 2007, ISBN 978-1903088296 , p. 131.
  3. ^ A b Graham Robson: The Cars of the Rootes Group , Motor Racing Publications, London 2007, ISBN 978-1903088296 , p. 103.
  4. ↑ Michael Sedwick, Mark Gillies: AZ of Cars of the 1930s , Bay View Books, 1993, ISBN 978-1870979382 .
  5. ↑ a b Geoff Carverhill: Rootes Story: The Making of a Global Automotive Empire , The Crowood Press, 2018, ISBN 9781785004803 .
  6. ^ A b c Graham Robson: The Cars of the Rootes Group , Motor Racing Publications, London 2007, ISBN 978-1903088296 , p. 105.
  7. ^ A b Graham Robson: The Cars of the Rootes Group , Motor Racing Publications, London 2007, ISBN 978-1903088296 , S: 104.
  8. ^ Anthony Blight: Georges Roesch and the Invincible Talbot , Grenville Publishing, 1970, ISBN 978-0903243018 .
  9. ↑ For details on the participation of the Rootes Group in the Shadow Scheme s. Geoff Carverhill: Rootes Story: The Making of a Global Automotive Empire , The Crowood Press, 2018, ISBN 9781785004803 , Chapter 4.
  10. ^ David Scott-Moncrieff: The Thoroughbred Motor Car 1930-40 , Batsford 1963, without ISBN.