These days most record-breakers are specials built by determined individuals who decide to devote their energy, time and money to the pursuit of a dream. Back in the early days, this was not always the case. Record-breakers then attracted the type of public adulation and funding now reserved only for Grand Prix racing. Not suprisingly, major motor manufacturers, even the mighty Mercedes Benz, took an interest. One of the most interested companies was Sunbeam, who regularly entered the fray. Fred Harris has had a passion for record-breaking that has lasted all his life. In the last ten years or so, he has turned that passion to his advantage by building 1:43 scale collector’s replicas of some of the most famous land speed record cars and water speed record boats. In the course of his research, he often turns up information in the most unlikely places - some of it right on his doorstep. Fred takes up the story
Southport is renowned as being a sunny seaside resort and it certainly seems to receive its fair share of the ultra-voilet. But this pleasant town has also been visited in the past by another form of Sunbeam, namely the record-breaking products of the Sunbeam Motor Company of Wolverhampton.
It started in 1926 when Major Henry Segrave posted a new Land Speed Record of 152.33 mph on the beach between Southport and the neighbouring borough of Birkdale in the 4 litre Sunbeam. What prompted this choice of venue as opposed to Pendine Sands, the favourite locality of both Sir Malcolm Campbell and Parry Thomas, I do not know, although one could surmise that the road journey to West Lancashire was the easier of the two. When Kaye Don was unable to improve on the record then held by Segrave's Golden Arrow in the Sunbeam Silver Bullet, that much-maligned car eventually passed into the ownership of Jack Field, a local hotelier and garage proprietor who, like those before him, tried to make the recalcitrant machine work efficiently. So it was that Southport, for a second time, played host to a Sunbeam record car.
My small involvement in this story took place in 1983 when a photograph of a large mystery car parked in a side street near the town centre appeared in the pages of the Southport Visitor. Mr Roy Blundell, son of a local garage owner, had loaned the photograph, which for many years had adorned the wall of his father's establishment, to the newspaper to try to find out what the car was called. Various suggestions were put forward over the following week, but no one recognised that the car was in fact the Sunbeam Silver Bullet. When I identified it as such, the floodgates of memory suddenly opened up! Of the many letters that we subsequently published, the most enlightening came from a Mr Bob Johnson whose father at that time (1934) owned a panel-beating shop in Vulcan Street. Incidentally, it was this particular street that gave the Vulcan Motor Company its name when it was first formed in Southport, at the turn of the century.
The Silver Bullet was, he says, towed down to the workshop, where he was then an apprentice, to have some modifications made to the body work, but it was too big for the available space and was taken back to the Palace Hotel garage and his father undertook to do the work there. He goes on to say, and I quote, "the fire problem that beat the car was caused by the exhaust ports being too short and, when the engine cowling was in place, the flames from the ports went inside the cowling and so set fire to the engine. These ports were pipes protruding at an angle from the exhaust manifold of the engine and had no silencers. We had to fit extension pipes to all the ports, bringing them well clear of the cowling and this did the trick. I remember Dad and myself and one of the men from the works being picked up from home, taken down to the Palace Garage just after tea, and asked to work all night and all day to get the job done ready for further trials. We were fed on fish and chips, cups of tea and beer from the pub next door. Anyway, we finished the job some time in the early hours of the morning of day two, and returned home very tired. I don't think the car did anything to make history and the last I heard of it, it went back down South.".
Silver Bullet did run on the beach, however, taking part in the 1934 Speed Trials organised by the Southport Motor Club. Its new custodian, Jack Field, was the son of a Bradford wool mill owner. He became interested in motor sport competition and entered a Bugatti in the 1928 Blackpool Speed Trials; his first appearance at Southport being in the second annual 100 Mile Race in June of the same year. He also drove with moderate success in sand races at Wallasey and Morecambe Bay. After purchasing the Palace Hotel Garage, he acquired the Silver Bullet with the intention of attacking the British Land Speed (or, more correctly, the British Flying Mile) record of 217 mph held at that time by Malcolm Campbell.
Despite the modifications undertaken by Mr Johnson, the car continued to give trouble, as witness the photograph published in Cyril Posthumus' LSR book showing the car on fire yet again. Nevertheless, Field managed a one-way run of 174.09 mph (not too far short of Don's best of 186 when the car was new) and, despite very wet conditions, set mean speeds of 140-plus, after which the officials refused to extend his time permit. It was also at this speed trial that Pat Driscoll's streamlined Austin Seven set a new class record of 122.74 mph. Before dismissing the Silver Bullet story, however, it is worth referring to Harry Wilding's technical comments on page 265 of Anthony Heal's book on the "Sunbeam Racing Cars", where he states under the heading Exhaust Manifolds and Pipes "that the layout was severely criticised by Mr Coatalen - and that it is imperative that external short single branch connections go to each individual cylinder, projecting the cowling by four inches and cut off at a 30° angle facing the rear of the car". It would appear that this part of Wilding's report was taken up by Mr Field. As a result of the aforementioned newspaper correspondence, I got to know Roy Blundell who still continues to research the LSR/Southport connection. Last year he acquired a large, Dunlop-shod spoked wheel which he thinks may well have come from the ex-Malcolm Campbell 350hp Sunbeam Bluebird when it ran at Southport in 1936. This famous record-holder, now restored to its Bluebird form at Beaulieu, was the third Sunbeam to visit Southport Sands.
Mr Frank Thwaite - now in his mid-seventies but looking a decade younger - recalls that the car was garaged at the Palace Hotel Garage (still owned at that time by Jack Field) which was close to the beach. Mr Thwaite was then a young mechanic at Goulder's Garage in nearby Birkdale and says that, when Goulder's bought the Palace Garage, the Bluebird was moved to their own premises where it was stored for many years. At this time (1935/36) it was owned by the well-known racing motorist and band leader, Billy Cotton, who was then resident at the "Palais de Danse" (now Woolworth's store!) in Chapel Street, Southport. He goes on to say that during this time Cotton fiddled around with the car on the beach, with himself and Goulder's foreman, Jim Vass, in attendance. "We had it going a few times,", he says, "then it was laid up here (Goulder's) until it was sold for scrap". We know that, due to the foresight of Mr Harold Pratley, the great old car was saved from oblivion and now rests at the National Motor Museum. Far from "fiddling" around on the beach, Billie Cotton drove the Sunbeam on Southport Sands in September 1936 at a speed of 121.5 mph over the kilometre and won a "100 Gold Badge".
Roy's wheel, perhaps a spare, remained behind at Goulder's (now a Volvo dealership), being first spotted by Roy in about 1985. Last year he was able to persuade the current management to let him take custody of the prized item rather than risk its inevitable disappearance to the scrapyard. Goulder's were probably quite relieved to see it go after gathering dust for 50 years. The wheel itself is in remarkably sound condition. Overall diameter measures 32 inches, and the tyre size is 32" x 4.75". The rim diameter measures 24 5/8" and the splined hub is a massive 4¾" internal diameter. However, the design of the rim itself is noticeably different from those used by Campbell at Pendine in 1924 and 1925, having a raised centre section as opposed to the flat cross-section of the earlier design. Roy feels certain that, due to its size, the wheel could only have belonged to a very large machine such as the Sunbeam Bluebird.
One final footnote - I could not conceal a smug smile when Motor Sport in April 1990, published a photograph of a rather shabby looking Silver Bullet with a caption stating that "it was parked in a London street", knowing full well that it was really parked in London Street, Southport!
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