The
Sunbeam 350HP is an
aero-enginedAero-engined is a term used to describe a car fitted with an aircraft-style engine. This concept was popular in the inter-war period of the early 20th century in the quest for improved car performance...
car built by the
Sunbeam Car CompanySunbeam was a marque registered by John Marston Co. Ltd of Wolverhampton, England, in 1888. The company first made bicycles, then motorcycles and cars from the late 19th century to circa 1936, and applied the marque to all three forms of transportation. The company also manufactured 647 aircraft...
in 1922, the first of several
land speed recordThe land speed record is the fastest speed achieved by any wheeled vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; what is used in practice is the Category C flying start regulations, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération...
breaking cars with aircraft engines.
The car was fitted with a 18.3 litre V12
Sunbeam ManitouThe Sunbeam Manitou was an aero-engine produced by Sunbeam. Unsuccessful as an aero-engine, it is best known for having powered the Sunbeam 350HP racing car.-Development:...
aero engine. In aircraft trim this produced 300 hp, raised to 350 hp here after a major re-design. A 4-speed transmission drove the differential-less rear axle, with a shaft drive rather than the hazardous chains of other cars.
The
Sunbeam 350HP is an
aero-enginedAero-engined is a term used to describe a car fitted with an aircraft-style engine. This concept was popular in the inter-war period of the early 20th century in the quest for improved car performance...
car built by the
Sunbeam Car CompanySunbeam was a marque registered by John Marston Co. Ltd of Wolverhampton, England, in 1888. The company first made bicycles, then motorcycles and cars from the late 19th century to circa 1936, and applied the marque to all three forms of transportation. The company also manufactured 647 aircraft...
in 1922, the first of several
land speed recordThe land speed record is the fastest speed achieved by any wheeled vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; what is used in practice is the Category C flying start regulations, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération...
breaking cars with aircraft engines.
Design
The car was fitted with a 18.3 litre V12
Sunbeam ManitouThe Sunbeam Manitou was an aero-engine produced by Sunbeam. Unsuccessful as an aero-engine, it is best known for having powered the Sunbeam 350HP racing car.-Development:...
aero engine. In aircraft trim this produced 300 hp, raised to 350 hp here after a major re-design. A 4-speed transmission drove the differential-less rear axle, with a shaft drive rather than the hazardous chains of other cars. Brakes were crude, as was usual in the period, with a foot brake acting on the transmission and a hand brake on rear drums. Suspension was also typical, with half-elliptic springs all round.
Racing career
The 350HP was first raced at
BrooklandsBrooklands was a 2.75 miles motor racing circuit and airfield built near Weybridge in Surrey, England. It opened in 1907, and was the world's first purpose-built motorsport venue. The circuit hosted its last race in 1939, and was also one of Britain's first airfields...
in 1920 by
Harry HawkerHarry George Hawker MBE, AFC, was an Australian aviation pioneer and co-founder of Hawker Aircraft, the firm that would later be responsible for a long series of successful military aircraft, including the Fury, Sea Fury, Hurricane, Hunter and Harrier.-Early life:Hawker was born in Moorabbin,...
. In October
Rene ThomasRené Thomas was a French motor racing champion.A leading driver in his native France, René Thomas traveled to the United States to compete in the Indianapolis 500 on four occasions...
set a new record at the
GaillonGaillon is a commune in the Eure department in northern France.-History:The origins of Gaillon probably go back to the Romans, who built here a small fortress....
hill climb.
In May 1922
Kenelm Lee GuinnessKenelm Lee Guinness MBE was a racing driver of the 1910s - 1920s. He was part of the Guinness brewing family, and a director of the company.-Beginnings in motor racing:...
set three records with it: the Brooklands lap record at , then the
land speed recordThe land speed record is the fastest speed achieved by any wheeled vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; what is used in practice is the Category C flying start regulations, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération...
over a mile at and over a kilometre at – this was the last land speed record to be set on the Brooklands track.
Blue Bird
Malcolm CampbellSir Malcolm Campbell was an English racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times during the 1920s and 1930s using vehicles called Blue Bird...
drove the borrowed car at the Saltburn Speed Trials on 17 June 1922 and broke his first speed record at . However the manual stopwatch timing system wasn't accepted for an official record.
Campbell persuaded Coatalen to sell the Sunbeam to him, painted it blue and renamed it
'Blue Bird', already the fourth Blue Bird. 23 June 1923 saw Campbell at
FanøFanø is a Danish island in the North Sea off the coast of southwestern Denmark, and is the very northernmost of the Danish Wadden Sea Islands...
,
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
, recording another record-breaking speed of over the flying kilometre. This time the record wasn't officially accepted as the timing equipment wasn't of the approved type.
Over the Winter of 1923-1924 the car was sent to the aircraft maker Boulton Paul at Norwich, for wind tunnel tests. They streamlined the car with a narrow radiator cowl at the nose and a long tapered tail. The rear wheels were also fitted with disk covers. Engine compression was raised by new pistons.
Campbell returned to Fanø in the Summer, but the beach was in poor condition and crowd control of the spectators was poor. On the first run both rear tyres were ripped off
Blue Bird and narrowly missed the crowd. Campbell protested to the officials about safety standards and declined to take any responsibility for anything else. Sadly, this time a front tyre came off and killed a boy in the crowd.
The car was taken to
Pendine SandsPendine Sands is a 7 mile long beach on the shores of Carmarthen Bay on the south coast of Wales. It stretches from Gilman Point in the west to Laugharne Sands in the east. The village of Pendine is situated near the western end of Pendine Sands....
in South Wales and saw a more successful result with the first of Campbell's nine records. The record was achieved on 24 September 1924, with a speed of 146.16 mph (235.23 km/h) and an officially-sanctioned time. After this he put the car up for sale for £1,500, but decided to keep it for a further attempt on hearing that Parry-Thomas was also planning a record attempt with '
BabsBabs was the land speed record car built and driven by John Parry-Thomas. It was powered by a 27-litre Liberty aero-engineBabs began as 'Chitty 4', one of Count Louis Zborowski's series of aero-engined cars named 'Chitty Bang Bang'. As it was built at Zborowski's estate of Higham Park near...
'.
Blue Bird returned to Pendine in 1925, and on 21 July it raised this record to 150.766 mph (242.628 km/h), the first time a car had exceeded . The best run over the mile had reached , a figure that appeared in contemporary motoring adverts for oil and sparkplugs. To commemorate this achievement Campbell had commemorative models of
Blue Bird made.
Survival today
After Campbell, the Sunbeam appears to have returned to circuit racing with wider tyres and a return to the short tail with green paintwork. As late as 1936, bandleader
Billy Cotton{Infobox Person| name = Billy Cotton| caption = The London Savannah Band in 1925.| birth_name = William Edward Cotton| birth_date = | birth_place = Smith Square, London {Infobox Person| name = Billy Cotton...
recorded over a kilometre on the beach at
SouthportSouthport is a seaside town within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, in Merseyside, England. The town is located on the Irish Sea coast, to the north of Liverpool and west-southwest of Preston...
. The car may have stayed in Lancashire afterwards, turning up there during World War 2 and then being sold to the Beaulieu collection in 1958.
It is on show today at the
National Motor MuseumThe National Motor Museum is a museum in the village of Beaulieu, set in the heart of the New Forest, in the English county of Hampshire...
at
Beaulieu, HampshireBeaulieu is a small village located on the south eastern edge of the New Forest national park in Hampshire, England and home to both Palace House and the British National Motor Museum.-History:...
.