Sunbeam stories Letter of the month

I READ WITH INTEREST the news story in Octane 167 about the National Motor Museum’s 1927 Sunbeam 1000hp recordbreaker getting an engine rebuild for its 90th anniversary.

I was born a generation too late to have any direct contact with the Sunbeam Motor Car Company Ltd, of Blakenhall, Wolverhampton, although I was born within three miles of the Moorfield works. My maternal grandfather, Percy Jones, was a proud Sunbeam man, being the manager of the Trimming Department from 1905 until 1935. He was the person who measured the arms and legs of Henry Segrave and set-up the driver’s position, making the seat for the driver, as he did for all the other competition drivers employed by Sunbeam.

My father, Eric, worked directly for Percy, cutting the plywood for the floors of the different models of Sunbeam cars. I have been made well aware of Sunbeam’s success, with plenty of stories of motor car competition coming from within my family.

I admire the task that Doug Hill and his Beaulieu team have undertaken in carefully lifting out the car’s rear engine, which must have seemed massive. Eighteen months later, a very patient team got the engine stripped apart. I know that the engines used were in a 1920s powerboat and finished up ‘on the bottom of Detroit harbour during the Harmsworth Trophy’. However, I was told by Norman Cliff, a Sunbeam Experimental and Racing engineer, that in February 1927 he was part of the team of mechanics who stripped down the old V12 engines from the stores, some of which had been waterlogged in Detroit. They checked them over, cleaned them up, any oil seals or pressure points were replaced, and they were rebuilt with care. Norman Cliff, the youngest member of Sunbeam’s racing engineers, was a neighbour of mine at Wombourne, Wolverhampton, during the 1970s and 1980s, and we often spoke about Sunbeam.

I am at a loss to see how the sea-water at Detroit harbour could have anything to do with the condition of the paired cylinders that was found when the head came off, as shown in the article. It must surely have been the salty air taken into the fuel system mixture that caused the eventual seizing up of the engine, being so close to the sea on the beach at Daytona.

I am one of the holders of the Sunbeam works photos of the sports, racing and Land Speed Record cars. These were handed to me by Mike Ridley, grandson of Jack V Ridley, Sunbeam Experimental and Racing Department car mechanic. Peter Morrey, by email