Description
Compiled by R.M.Clarke, Softbound, 136 Pages, A-SUNAX2, ISBN: 9781855206861 - Foreword by Australia's own Gavin Farmer
Regular readers of Brooklands books will know that books like this one are intended to make available for enthusiasts material about their cars which has become hard to find.
In putting such books together, we depend on the generosity and understanding of those who originally published the copyright material we reproduce.
For material in the present volume, our thanks therefore go to the owners of Autocar, Autosport, Car, Car and Driver; Car South Africa, Cars & Car Conversions, Cars Illustrated, Classic & Sports Car, Motor; Motor Life, Practical Classics, Road & Track, Road Test, Small Car, Sporting Motorist, Sports Car Graphic and Track & Traffic.
R.M. Clarke
The Rootes Group was a late starter in the burgeoning British (and export) sports car market. MG had the lion's share of the market with its excellent MGA roadster that had been released in 1955. And there was its larger, more expensive and higher performing sibling, the Austin-Healey.
By the time the Sunbeam Alpine appeared in mid-1959 its two main rivals had reigned virtually unchallenged for most of the decade.
Unlike the MGA and Austin-Healey, both of which were rather basic in their creature comforts and had a stiff hard riding suspension, the Alpine introduced motorists to a degree of refinement previously unavailable from a British sports car. Wind-up windows were a standard fitting, the fully instrumented dashboard was safety padded top and bottom, there was a centre cubby between the bucket seats and the floor was carpeted. Mechanically, the Alpine featured a fully monocoque body construction, an aluminium-alloy 8-port cylinder head and a four-speed manual gearbox with a Laycock-de Normanville overdrive on 3rd and 4th as an option that many buyers specified. The suspension settings, too, were slightly softer than expected, certainly compared with MG, and provided the passengers with a more comfortable ride without compromising the car's handling qualities.
The Alpine really did usher in a major step forward in so many areas of driver/passenger comfort levels in a British sports car.
Within its conservative limits Rootes did progressively upgrade the Alpine in an effort to keep it competitive with the MGB that was introduced in 1962 in particular. Through its career the performance remained remarkably static, only the Series IV (1964-65) failing to nudge the 100 mph mark.
Total production from 1959-68 was just 69,122 units, a figure that was easily eclipsed by MG, for example, over the same time period.
There are dedicated followers of the Sunbeam Alpine who appreciate it for its elegant styling and refinement levels and the old fashioned wind-in-the-hair motoring that was so evocative of that era in British motoring.
Gavin Farmer
