Humber / Hillman / Rootes / Chrysler / Peugeot

Hi Ian, welcome to the forum and thanks for all the great info. I made your link active.

Thanks Helen, The link to The Nostalgia Forum will allow anyone interested in following this saga to keep in touch with progress on the restoration and there is also a You Tube link to the NMM's Transport Torque event held on the 27th January. The definitive list of events for the Sunbeam 1000HP in the various SMMT parades would appear to be solely Belfast, Cardiff, and London. The Coventry / Birmingham parade is quoted as featuring Sir Henry Segrave's Golden Arrow and (presumably) Sir Malcolm Campbell's Blue Bird of 1935 that later went to the USA (still there!). Again, if anything else surfaces about this event, I would love to find out more. Hopefully I can contribute something on Coventry built vehicles in this Forum. Enough of Black Country intruders for the time being! When not dealing with Unipart matters at what was then the former Standard-Triumph Spares Division on the Fletchamstead Highway I used to help with the Coventry Transport Museum. At that time, the collection was mainly in store at Tile Hill with a selection of vehicles on display at the Herbert Art Gallery. Great times! Ian

I've added links to John Wells' terrific Video clips before. This one is only a snippet but it's a rare capture of the old loop line in use (sorry I could've added to the Railway thread), but shows what may have been the final cars leaving the Stoke plant............. Lots of Sunbeams/Horizons!

Going back to Ian's post #207 - this one has just turned up on FB of that 1946 parade - you can't see the Record car but the sign shows it's the same parade! Ian mentioned it was the 21st September 1946 -

In an old magazine I picked-up today;

Very good article in November's Classic and Sports car on the Sunbeam Talbot 90. Production planning of the line at Ryton was by Bob Lisle and the introduction of the Mk II in 49/50 was an absolute step change. Norman Garrad had rallied the Mk I and the Mk II was an absolute quantum leap forward - Larger engine, IFS, redesigned chassis, hypoid final drive, high geared final drive. Three pre-production models were built - two saloons and a coupe - JWD 401/402 and 403. They went to CID at Stoke for assessment and whilst there I went out in a '401' driven by Maurice Farren. He went past the rest of the traffic as if it was standing still but with no engine noise or road noise. '401' then went down the Bicester Straight at 97 mph. The Mk II was really good and far better looking than the Mk III so it was a matter of saving up for a good used one. The one I went to see was the right body and trim colour, what luck, so took it out for a road test and first thing to check was the 30-50 mph in top gear. Exactly right! So JOU 922 and I went up the Alps and over the UK and Europe. The ST 90 was the sort of car that Rootes were far better at producing than any other car maker.