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1912 Sunbeam 3-Litre Coupe de l'Auto Race Car

In automobile racing lore, the year 1912 could well be called the "year of the sunbeam". For that was the year in which three small, lightly powered sunbeam sports cars scored one of automobile racing's greatest triumphs.

Like many of the early motorcars, the very first prototype sunbeam was produced by a bicycle maker, in this case the Sunbeamland Cycle Factory of John Marston Ltd. at Wolverhamton, England. Marston was impressed with the possibilities of the motorcar and in 1899 ordered a production model built for public sale.

The car made its debut at London's Crystal palace Auto show in 1901 and proved an instant success, With several hundred units being produced and sold during the next two years. In 1902, the Marston firm, still operating as the sunbeamland cycle factory, began importing a four-cylinder, 12 horsepower French motorcar called the Brief-which the canny Mastron marketed in England as the Sunbeam.

Sunbeam's rising fortunes were given a decided boost in 1909 when the French engineer and designer Louis H.Coatalen joined the Wolverhamton works. Coatalen joined wolverhamton works. Coatalen was a firm believer in auto racing as a means of building sales, and quickly designed a series of fast touring sports cars for competition in hill climbs and reliability trials. The cars were powered by small, high-speed four-cylinder engines fitted to narrow racing type bodies.

It was with these cars at Dieppe, France, in 1912 that Sunbeam entered the annals of auto racing history. The Dieppe circuit had been chosen for the running of the 1912 French Grand Prix, a two-day event covering 956 miles.

Running concurrently with the Grand Prix was the coup de l'Auto, a race over the same distance for production sports cars Coatalen prepared five stripped-down sunbeam two-seaters for the Coup DE l'Auto, four to race and one in reserve. The rest of the field included some of the fastest voiturettes from both England and France.

The Grand Prix contingent was dominated by a huge, 7.6-liter French Peugeot and an even larger Italian Fiat boasting a gigantic 14-liter engine. By comparison, the Sunbeams were powered by engines of only three liters.

One Sunbeam dropped out early in the second day's running, but the other three finished the Coup de l'Auto in first, second and third places.

Astonishingly, they also finished third, fourth and fifth in the Grand prix competition! They were beaten to the wire only by the Peugeot, which averaged 67.32 miles per hour, The third-place sunbeam averaged 65.30 miles per hour. The amazing performance of the sunbeams established the firms as one of the world's top manufacturers of sports cars.
293919
Viewed: Apr 29, 2024
Updated: Apr 19, 2024
Priced: Apr 19, 2024
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