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Many victories were also achieved in motor
sport, giving the company recognition throughout the world as a
leading car manufacturer. During the First World War Sunbeam's
main work was in building aeroplane engines for the military, and
car production, (apart from those produced for use by the British
and Australian armed forces) took a back seat until after the war
had ended. In 1920 Sunbeam merged with the French manufacturer
Darracq, who a year earlier had bought the British car importer
and manufacturer Clement Talbot, creating the parent company STD
Motors Ltd. Motor sport was to return to Sunbeam's agenda and one
of Its greatest moments was in 1927 when Sir Henry Segrave broke
the land speed record by topping 200 mph in a 1000hp car.
Unfortunately during the
1930's - a troubled period for many motor manufacturers due to the
economic situation of the time - STD (Sunbeam Talbot Darracq)
suffered financial difficulties and fell into receivership. The
company was broken up and sold off, with Sunbeam being eventually
bought by the Rootes Group who also by now owned Hillman, Humber
and Talbot. Although the construction of a new Sunbeam model was
started, Rootes soon dropped it due to design problems, and the
Sunbeam name was put to one side until Rootes created the new
marque of Sunbeam-Talbot in 1938. War was to stop the production
of the Sunbeam-Talbot cars in 1939, and it did not resume in the
London factory until late in 1945. 1946 saw the move to Ryton near
Coventry, and it was not until 1948 that a new range of
Sunbeam-Talbot's arrived.
There were two models, the 80
and the 90, with the 80 using a 1185cc engine and the 90 a 2 litre
unit. Both cars were available in saloon and drophead coupe form.
The Sunbeam-Talbot 90, was to do very well in rallying. Sales were
better for the 90 model and this resulted in the 80 being dropped
from production in 1950. A new model, the Alpine, which had been
developed from the 90, was added to the range in 1953 and was also
to excel in rallying but production of this car ended in 1955 with
the introduction of the new Rapier model. In 1954 all cars were to
be badged Sunbeam, with the Talbot part of the name being dropped,
and it was in 1955 that Sunbeam enjoyed an outright victory in the
Monte Carlo rally with a Mk III 90.
1959 saw the launch of a new
2-door 2-seater sports car that was to revive the Alpine name.
Improvements followed to all models in the Sunbeam range, and in
1964 the legendary Sunbeam Tiger was launched. This was
essentially an Alpine with a Ford V8 4.2 litre engine shoehorned
into its engine bay giving the car awesome performance.The next
year Rootes sold part of its share holding to the Chrysler Motor
Company
New Sunbeam models were soon
to be launched and these included the Sunbeam Imp Sport of 1966,
which was based on the Hillman Imp, and in 1967, when Chrysler
took complete control of Rootes, the new fastback Rapier. In 1969
the Fastback Alpine which was basically a lower spec version of
the Rapier was introduced. The Sunbeam marque really died out with
the end of production of both Alpine and Rapier in 1976, although
the name Sunbeam continued to be used on some of Chrysler's export
models. Peugeot was to later buy out Chrysler's European
operations and launched a Talbot range of cars, and the Sunbeam
name was to be used for one last time on models such as the Talbot
Sunbeam and Talbot Sunbeam Lotus until 1981.
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