The Sunbeam 350HP is an aero-engined car built by the Sunbeam company in 1922, the first of several land speed record breaking cars with aircraft engines.

It was designed by Louis Coatalen and built in 1920 with drum brakes on the rear only. Campbell has the engine modified and added a streamlined nose cowl and pointed tail in 1924 - before Malcolm got his first official record with the car at Pendine Sands in Wales, on 25th September, 1924. On the Pendine Sands in South Wales Campbell raised the record twice to 146.163 and then 150.766mph.

Immediately after this success Malcolm put the car up for sale for £1,500 but then withdrew, deciding to spend some additional time with it, when he learned that Parry Thomas was about to make a serious attempt with the ex-Zborowski re-bodied Higham Special which Thomas had renamed Babs. 

Campbell returned to Pendine in mid July of 1925 and so on the 21st July raised the record to 150.76 mph, becoming the first driver in the world to exceed 150 mph. To commemorate this he had some large scale models of the Sunbeam built, at least two of which are known to have survived.

The car was fitted with a purpose built 18.3-litre V12 engine based on a hybrid of the Sunbeam Manitou V-12 18,332cc unit and Sunbeam Arab aero engines. This engine had four blocks of three cylinders arranged in two banks set at 60 degrees (unlike the Arab which were set at 90 degrees). Each cylinder had one inlet and two exhaust valves actuated by a single overhead camshaft. The two camshafts were driven by a complex set of 16 gears from the front of the crankshaft - a very similar arrangement to that used on the Maori engine which had two OHC per bank of cylinders. A 4-speed transmission initially drove a back axle with differential with a shaft drive rather than the hazardous chains of other cars. 

Harry Hawker drove the car in 1920 at Brooklands and had initial problems controlling it - spinning off the circuit. The Differential was replaced with a simple crown wheel and pinion so that the rear wheels were locked together and it was more successful in the hands of Kenelm Lee Guinness. Brakes were crude, as was usual in the period, with a foot brake acting on the transmission and hand brake on the rear drums. Thus, only the rear wheels were braked. Suspension was also typical, with half-elliptic springs all round damped by Andre Hartford friction shock absorbers.

SUNBEAM 350hp RACING CAREER

The 350HP was first raced at Brooklands in 1920 by Harry Hawker. In October Rene Thomas set a new record at the Gaillon hill climb.

In May 1922 Kenelm Lee Guinness set three records with it: the Brooklands lap record at 123.30 mph (198.43 km/h), then the land speed record over a mile at 129.17 mph (207.88 km/h) and over a kilometre at 133.75 mph (215.25 km/h) – this was the last land speed record to be set on the Brooklands track.

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 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 'Babs'. 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 150 mph (240 km/h). The best run over the mile had reached 152.833 mph (245.961 km/h), a figure that appeared in contemporary motoring adverts for oil and sparkplugs. To commemorate this achievement Campbell had a limited number of models of Blue Bird made.

SPECIFICATIONS

ENGINE DETAILS

THE 1920s

Following the First World War, the world of motor racing was entranced by racing cars fitted with thunderous aircraft engines. The 350hp Sunbeam is one of the most famous of this group of aero-engined giants.

The 350 horsepower car was the brainchild of Sunbeam’s chief engineer and racing team manager Louis Coatalen and was constructed at the company’s works in Wolverhampton during 1919 and early 1920. The 18 litre Sunbeam engine was a type used on naval seaplanes.

Transmission was via a four speed gearbox and drive shaft, rather then chains. It was fitted with a narrow polished aluminium single seat body with radiator cowl and tail painted in green.

HARRY HAWKER

The car’s first outings were plagued with teething troubles (bad luck). The very first race was scheduled to be at the 1920 Whitsun Brooklands meeting driven by Harry Hawker. But, a burst tyre caused it to crash on the Railway Straight during a practice lap. Hawker was uninjured but the car could not be raced that day. 

At the Brooklands August meeting a stalled engine meant that the Sunbeam could not start its race.

RENE THOMAS

In late 1920 the Sunbeam was taken to the Gaillon Hill Climb in France where René Thomas succeeded in taking the course record with a 108mph/173.81kph run on the 1km hill.

KENELM LEE GUINNESS

At the 1921 Brooklands Easter meeting Kenelm Lee Guinness, perhaps one of the few drivers able to get the best from the car, drove the Sunbeam for the first time. In the Lightning Short Handicap second gear was broken but this didn’t stop Guinness driving the car to second place in the Long Handicap event later the same day. 

At the Autumn meeting he drove the car in both the Short and Long Handicap races. In the latter event he finished in second place but in doing so achieved speeds of 140mph/225.31kph. Disappointingly, he completed the last lap at an average speed of 116mph/186.68kph.

The Sunbeam continued to perform well in early 1922 despite bursting a tyre at the May Brooklands meeting. On 17 May Guinness was at Brooklands again to make a number of record attempts. These included a flying kilometre speed of 133.75mph/215.25kph which qualified as a new Land Speed Record.

Guinness raced the Sunbeam one more time at Brooklands, in the autumn of 1922.

RETIREMENT & DISPLAY

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 recorded 121.57 mph (195.65 km/h) over a kilometre on the beach at Southport.

Harold Pratley acquired the car in 1944 and loaned it to Rootes Ltd (successors to the Sunbeam Company) who undertook a cosmetic restoration for promotional purposes.

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 Museum at Beaulieu, Hampshire. The engine has undergone extensive restoration after suffering severe damage in the 1990s and was run for the first time in 20 years in January 2014.

LINKS & REFERENCE

SIR MALCOLM CAMPBELL'S BLUE BIRDS

Sunbeam

Napier Lion

Rolls Royce

K3

K4

DONALD CAMPBELL'S BLUEBIRDS

K7

CN7

CNM8