Thomas Harrington Coach Builders

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Thomas Harrington Coach Builders Ltd. was a British coachbuilder from Hove, Sussex that was founded in 1897 and existed until 1966. The company produced numerous bodies for buses and passenger cars . It achieved particular fame by converting Sunbeam Alpine roadsters into hatchback coupés .

Company history

The Silver Star 10, a 1955 Leyland Tiger Cub with a Harrington body

The company was founded in 1897 by Thomas Harrington in Brighton . Between the two world wars, Harrington primarily manufactured superstructures for commercial vehicles from Commer and Bedford ; But next came some complex car - bodies for chassis of Lagonda , Rolls-Royce or Talbot . These structures were in demand not least because of their high manufacturing quality. As a small company, Harrington could not handle all inquiries, so that many interested parties turned to competing companies. During the Second World War , Harrington specialized in the manufacture of armored superstructures and worked for the aviation industry.

In the 1950s, the company's focus was on bus bodies . The production of bodies for passenger cars, however, slackened significantly. Towards the end of the decade, Harrington tried to bolster this area by moving to a lower price segment. Harrington now - parallel to the production of buses - converted Sunbeam Alpine Roadsters into attractive coupés, which were sold under their own name through selected dealers of the Rootes Group . The project came about not least because, in addition to the actual body shop , Harrington Coachworks had also been a dealer for the Rootes Group for a long time and the Harrington family had friendly relationships with the Rootes family. The Harrington coupés were no longer manufactured individually, but (mostly) in series production processes and achieved overall high three-digit numbers. They became - by some distance - the most successful products of Harrington.

Harrington Coach Builders had been a family business until the 1950s. Around the time the company began producing the Alpine modifications, ownership changed. From 1961, the Rootes group gained influence over the small company. The influence was indirect, but had a lasting effect. In 1961, the Robins & Day Group , a national Rootes automobile dealer and now the UK 's largest Peugeot dealer , took over the majority of Harrington Coach Builders. Robins & Day itself was directly connected to Rootes: Although it was not part of the Rootes group from an organizational point of view, the company belonged to some members of the Rootes family. These began to exert their influence in 1962 and replace the executive staff at Harrington in favor of Robins & Day employees. Production was soon significantly reduced and finally stopped; the last Alpine modifications were carried out by Robins & Day mechanics.

In the spring of 1966, the last vehicle appeared with a Harrington body. It was an AEC Reliance bus . Series production was no longer possible. In 1966 Harrington Coachworks was closed. The staff were laid off, the factory buildings were sold.

Early Harrington bodies for passenger cars

Thomas Harrington Coach Builders already dressed a number of expensive vehicles with elaborate special bodies between the world wars. The creations were mostly unique pieces. This includes bodies for

The Sunbeam Alpine Conversions

The Harrington Alpines were modifications of the Sunbeam Alpine Roadster, which had been in production since 1959 . The vehicles were given a plastic roof developed and produced by Harrington, which also spanned the rear row of seats and the trunk, turning the car into a hatchback coupé. In profile, the roof line was reminiscent of the AC Greyhound , which in turn borrowed from the Aston Martin DB 2/4 . The design was developed at Harrington by Ron Humphries. The development essentially took place in the course of 1960. The first prototype was created in October 1960 on the basis of an Alpine Series I manufactured in 1959, later in the year (at least) two more test vehicles were manufactured. In addition to the bodywork modifications, engine tuning was also initially offered, which varied in intensity depending on the customer's wishes.

A total of four series were created, which differed mainly in the different designs of the rear fenders, the side windows and the trunk flaps. The first two series were by far the most successful; the later series only achieved very low production numbers.

The Harrington Alpine (Series A)

Harrington Alpine Series A (1961)

The first model was named Harrington Alpine (later also called Series A). It was based on the Sunbeam Alpine Series II. The distinctive rear fenders of the Alpine, including their sharp fins, remained unchanged. The rear window was permanently installed; underneath there was a small trunk lid attached to exterior chrome-plated hinges. Various modifications could also be made in the interior. A lot was possible here at the customer's request. Harrington also offered engines in three different processing stages, with which the output could be increased from 86 SAE-PS (63 kW) to 89, 93 or 100 SAE-PS (65, 68 or 74 kW); In the case of the strongest variant, the suspension and power transmission have been improved at the same time. The engine tuning was done by Hartwell Engines .

In the 1961 Le Mans 24-hour race , Sunbeam-Talbot competed as a works team with two vehicles. A Harrington Alpine came in 16th overall among numerous high-performance sports cars and won the special “Index of thermal efficiency”.

The Harrington Alpine was produced in 110 copies. The cars are basically unique, as a lot has been tailored to individual customer requirements.

The Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans

The Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans presented in October 1961 (no “Alpine” in the name!) Had a significantly different rear end. The distinctive rear wings of the Alpine were omitted. Instead there was a curved, downward-moving sideline, which was additionally accentuated with a broad chrome trim. The rear side window was cut a little tighter than on the previous model. A special feature of the Le Mans was the large tailgate that swung up together with the rear window. The round taillights were mounted above the bumper and came from the accessories supplier Lucas Industries .

The name was given to the successful performance at Le Mans in the early summer of 1961. In order to underline the sporty character, this model was fitted with an engine that was upgraded to 105 SAE-PS (77 kW) as standard. Special features were a finely balanced crankshaft, improvements to the intake manifold, the exhaust system, the camshaft and the valve springs as well as a compression increased to 9.5: 1. In the interior there was a standard dashboard with walnut veneer and additional comfort equipment.

The production of the Le Mans was significantly more standardized than that of the first Alpine. There were hardly any special requests here; the cars were produced in three-digit numbers on the assembly line. The Harrington Le Mans was primarily designed for the American market. The Rootes Group exported around half of its production to the USA and had the cars sold there by its own dealers. The Le Mans models sold extremely well there.

The Harrington Alpine Series C

A year after Le Mans, the third variant of the Harrington Coupés was presented. The model called Harrington Alpine Series C combined some features of the Series A with those of Le Mans. The Series C carried the tailgate and the shortened rear side windows of the Le Mans, but - as with the Series A - the distinctive rear wings of the Alpine were retained. In addition, the coupés were given a conspicuous, hood-like air outlet above the rear window. The vehicles were still based on the Alpine Series II. Since production of the basic automobile was already phased out in December 1962, only a few vehicles could be converted into Series C Harrington coupés. The production is specified with about twenty copies.

The Harrington Alpine Series D

The last variant of the Coupés Harrington was named Harrington Alpine Series D . The cars were based on the Sunbeam Alpine Series III and Series IV.

The introduction of the Harrington Series D had become necessary because the Sunbeam Alpine was manufactured in a third series from January 1963. Among other things, the Alpine Series III differed from its predecessor in the design of the windshield. Harrington had to adapt its roof construction to these changed conditions. Apart from that, the design of the roof section corresponded by and large to the Series C. As far as the vehicles of the Series D were based on the Alpine Series III, the conversions were still carried out in Harrington's own workshops and by own staff.

After the introduction of the Alpine Series IV, which was mainly characterized by the elimination of the tail fins, a few coupé conversions were made based on this latest model. They were still called Harrington Alpine Series D, but wore the smoothed fenders of the Alpine Series IV. The series IV-based conversions were no longer carried out by Harrington Coach Builders, but by mechanics from the parent company Robins & Day . With them, the production of the Harrington coupes ended.

The D series models were only offered with the factory engines; the tuning stages developed by Hartwell Engines were omitted.

The production of the Series D models fell at a time when Robins & Day - and with it the Rootes group - had lost interest in the Harrington models. There was little factory support for the project. Not least because of this, very few vehicles of this type were built; the Harrington Alpine Owners Club assumes that no more than twelve Type D vehicles have been produced in 16 months.

Harrington Sunbeam Tiger?

The British specialist literature occasionally refers to some Sunbeam Tigers that are said to have been provided with a coupé body in the style of the Harrington models. There are no factory documents for such vehicles; all documents of the company were destroyed after its closure. The British motorsport literature predominantly assumes that - if such vehicles actually exist - they are subsequent conversions on behalf of customers that were carried out by third parties. Original roof parts from earlier Harrington coupes may have been used; possibly existing Harrington coupes were also equipped with Tiger technology.

The production data

model construction time Base vehicle Production facility number of pieces
Harrington Alpine (Series A) March 1961 - September 1962 Sunbeam Alpine Series II Harrington Coach Builders 110
Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans October 1961 - February 1963 Sunbeam Alpine Series II Harrington Coach Builders 250
Harrington Alpine Series C October 1962 - February 1963 Sunbeam Alpine Series II Harrington Coach Builders 20th
Harrington Alpine Series D July 1963 - January 1964 Sunbeam Alpine Series III Harrington Coach Builders together 12
Harrington Alpine Series D January 1964 - October 1964 Sunbeam Alpine Series IV Robins & Day

More custom bodies from Harrington

In addition to the Alpine conversions, Harrington made some other bodywork modifications on well-known British passenger cars in the 1950s and 1960s. The most widespread was the Dové GTR4 and GTR4A coupe, a hatchback coupe in the style of the Harrington Alpine, which was based on the Triumph TR4 and TR4A, respectively. The project was commissioned by Triumph dealer Dové in London . In the course of 1963, around 50 copies of this vehicle were made.

Harrington buses and commercial vehicles

From 1951 to 1957 Herrington also offered buses from its own production. The only model was the Harrington Contender , which was developed in collaboration with British Aluminum . Its light metal construction was self-supporting with an underfloor motor . Most of the early vehicles received a drive train from the front control engine Commer Avenger with 4.75 liter six-cylinder engines . For BOAC put Harrington in a small series of 12 copies, with the eight-cylinder - inline engine of Rolls-Royce and automatic transmission were equipped. These buses were called between 1953 and 1958. 1954 another version appeared with the compact three-cylinder engine of Commer TS3 , a two-stroke - boxer engine with 3260 cc capacity. This became the most built version. A small series of eleven Contenders was launched in 1955 as service vehicles for Maidstone and District Motor Services .

In 1954, on order from BOAC , Harrington also built a smaller version, unknown by name, as a minibus for 12 people. It was also self-supporting, the drive technology came from British Ford , so probably from the Ford Trader . The airline used these vehicles to bring crews to their planes. Harrington also developed variants as a 19-seat bus, as an ambulance and as a delivery van , which, however, experienced little demand.

The construction of these vehicles was always a sideline for Harrington .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Georgano, Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. 1979, p. 307.
  2. ↑ Grace's Guide: Commer Avenger.
  3. ↑ Grace's Guide: Commer Buses.