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Sunbeam Alpine
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The Sunbeam Alpine is a sporty two seat open car or coupé from Rootes's Sunbeam car marque.
The original was launched in 1953 as the first vehicle to bear the Sunbeam name alone since the 1920 merger of Sunbeam, Talbot, and Darracq.
First generation: the rally car
The original Alpine was launched in 1953 as the first vehicle from Sunbeam-Talbot to bear the Sunbeam name alone since the 1920 merger of Sunbeam, Talbot, and Darracq.
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Encyclopedia
The Sunbeam Alpine is a sporty two seat open car or coupé from Rootes's Sunbeam car marque.
The original was launched in 1953 as the first vehicle to bear the Sunbeam name alone since the 1920 merger of Sunbeam, Talbot, and Darracq.
First generation: the rally car
The original Alpine was launched in 1953 as the first vehicle from Sunbeam-Talbot to bear the Sunbeam name alone since the 1920 merger of Sunbeam, Talbot, and Darracq. The car was derived from the Sunbeam-Talbot 90 Saloon and has since become colloquially known as the "Talbot" Alpine. It was a two-seater sports roadster which was initially developed by Sunbeam-Talbot dealer George Hartwell in Bournemouth, as a one-off rally car that had its beginnings as a 1952 Sunbeam-Talbot drophead coupé. It was named supposedly by Norman Garrad, (works Competition Department) who was heavily involved in the Sunbeam-Talbot successes in the Alpine Rally in the early 1950s using the saloon models.
It had a four-cylinder 2267 cc engine from the saloon but with raised compression ratio. However since it was developed from the saloon platform, it suffered from rigidity compromises in spite of extra side members in the chassis. The gearbox ratios were changed and from 1954 an overdrive unit became standard. The gearchange lever was column mounted.
The Alpine Mark I and Mark III (no Mark II was made) were hand built—like the 90 drophead coupé—at Thrupp & Maberly coachbuilders from 1953 to 1955 remaining in production for only two years with close to 3000 produced. The majority of production were exported, primarily to the USA, as left hand drive models. It has been estimated that perhaps only 200 remain in existence today.
In the 1953 Alpine Rally four Alpines won the Coupe des Alpes, one of which, finishing 6th, was driven by Stirling Moss while Sheila van Damm won the Coupe Des Dames in the same rally.
Very few of these cars are ever seen on the big screen. However a sapphire blue Alpine roadster featured prominently in the 1955 Alfred Hitchcock film To Catch a Thief starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. More recently, the American PBS show History Detectives tried to verify that an Alpine roadster owned by a private individual was the actual car used in that movie. Although the Technicolor process could "hide" the car's true colour, and knowing that the car was shipped back from Monaco to the USA for use in front of a greenscreen, the car shown on the program was ultimately proven not to be the film car upon comparison of the vehicle identification numbers.
Series Alpine
Kenneth Howes and Jeff Crompton were tasked with doing a complete redesign in 1956, with the goal of producing a dedicated sports car aimed principally at the US market. Ken Howes contributed some 80% of the overall design work, which bears more than incidental resemblance to the early Ford Thunderbird—Ken Howe had worked at Ford before joining Rootes.
The Alpine was produced in four subsequent revisions through to 1968. Total production numbered around 70,000. production stopped shortly after the Chrysler take over of the Rootes Group.
Series I 1959-1960
The "Series" Alpine started production in 1959. One of the original prototypes still survives and was raced by British saloon car champion Bernard Unett. Its history can be found at .
The car made extensive use of components from other Rootes Group vehicles and was built on a modified floorpan from the Hillman Husky estate car. The running gear came mainly from the Sunbeam Rapier but with front disc brakes replaced the saloon car's drums. An overdrive unit and wire wheels were optional. The suspension was independent at the front using coil springs and at the rear had a live axle and semi elliptic springing. The Girling manufactured brakes used disc at the front and drums at the rear.
Until 1962 the car was assembled for Rootes by Armstrong Siddeley.
An open car with overdrive was tested by the British magazine The Motor in 1959 and had a top speed of and could accelerate from 0- in 13.6 seconds. A fuel consumption of was recorded. The test car cost £1031 including taxes.
11,904 examples of the series I were produced.
Series II 1960-1963
The Series II of 1960 featured an enlarged 1592 cc engine producing 80 bhp and revised rear suspension but there were few other changes. When it was replaced in 1963 19,956 had been made.
A Series II with hardtop and overdrive was tested by the The Motor magazine in 1960 and they recorded a top speed of , acceleration from 0- in 13.6 seconds and a fuel consumption of . The test car cost £1110 including taxes.
Series III 1963-1964
The Series III was produced in open and removable hardtop versions. On the hardtop version the top could be removed but no soft-top was provided as the area it would have been folded into was occupied by a small rear seat. Also, the 1592 cc engine developed less power. To provide more room in the boot, twin fuel tanks in the rear wings were fitted. Quarter light were fitted to the windows. Between 1963 and 1964 5863 were made.
Series IV 1964-1965
The lower output engine option was now dropped with convertible and hardtop versions sharing the 82 bhp engine with single Solex carburettor. A new rear styling was introduced with the fins largely removed. Automatic transmission with floor mounted control became an option but was not popular. From Autumn 1964 a new gearbox with synchromesh on first gear was adopted in line with its use in other Rootes cars. 12,406 were made.
Series V 1965-1968
The final version had a new five bearing 1725 cc engine with twin Zenith-Stromberg semi-downdraught carburettors producing 93 bhp. There was no longer an automatic transmission option. 19,122 were made.
Competition
The car enjoyed relative success in competition, both in Europe and in North America, but the overall sentiment was that the Alpine lacked power. Successive increases in displacement and engine tuning improved the car tremendously, but Rootes executives were looking for something to transform the car, rather than an evolutionary development. They eventually found it in the (then) newly-introduced small-block V8 from Ford, and a subsequent collaboration with Carroll Shelby, Ken Miles, and other sports car racers in the US would result in creation of the Sunbeam Tiger.
Fastbacks
Rootes introduced the "Arrow" range in 1967, and by 1968 the saloons and estates (such as the Hillman Hunter) had been joined by a Sunbeam Rapier Fastback coupé model. In 1969, a cheaper, slightly slower and more economical version of the Rapier (still sold as a sporty model) was badged as the new Sunbeam Alpine.
All models featured the group's strong five-bearing 1725 cc engine, with the Alpine featuring a single Stromberg CD150 carburettor to the Rapier's twins, and the Rapier H120's twin 40DCOE Weber carburettors.
Although drawing many parts from the group's "parts bin", including the rear lights of the estate Arrow models, the fastbacks nevertheless offered a number of unique features, including their pillar-less doors and rear side windows which combined to open up the car much like a cabriolet with a hardtop fitted. Extensive wooden dashboards were fitted to some models, and sports seats were available for a time.
Post-Sunbeam Alpine
The Alpine name would be resurrected in 1976 by Chrysler (by then the owner of Rootes) on a totally unrelated vehicle that could not have been more different: the UK-market version of the Simca 1307, a French-built family hatchback. The car was initially badged as the Chrysler Alpine, and then finally as the Talbot Alpine following Chrysler Europe's takeover by Peugeot in 1978.
Trivia
- A red Series I Alpine is driven by Elizabeth Taylor in the film BUtterfield 8 (1960) and features in a number of scenes.
- A white Series 1 Alpine was the regular driver of Rod Taylor's character Glenn Evans, a crime fighting news reporter, in the early 1960s TV series, Hong Kong.
- A lake blue "Series II" Alpine roadster is amongst the first on-screen "Bond Cars" when it is rented and driven by James Bond in Dr. No of 1962, most notably in a scene where Bond drives it under a truck to escape from pursuing hit men. It was reportedly borrowed from a local resident, as the only suitable sports car available on the island used for filming.
- Michael Caine's character is rescued by a woman in a white 1968 Alpine roadster in the 1971 British crime film Get Carter. The car is later shunted into a dock with the owner locked in the boot.
- A Sunbeam Tiger (the V8 version of the Alpine) was also the vehicle of choice for spy Maxwell Smart in the TV series Get Smart. It is rumored that an Alpine, outfitted to look like the Tiger, was used for the "gadget" shots, such as the machine gun that comes up through the hood.
The French Alpine
Alpine was also a French car manufacturer producing various models until absorbed by Renault in a move unconnected with Renault's takeover of some of the commercial vehicle assets formerly belonging to Chrysler Europe.
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