Sunbeam Alpine

1956

George Hartwell, a friend of Billy Rootes and owner of Sunbeam, built himself a two-seater open version of the Sunbeam Talbot 90 for competition use. The Rootes directors liked it so much and thought it would be such a success in the US that the brilliant industrial designer Raymond Loewy was asked to create the final product in his North American studio. The chassis and running gear were the same along with the front-end and side-on styling lines, but it had a longer and more graceful tail. To make up for a lack of rigidity, because the roof had been removed, there was much additional strengthening. The front suspension had stiffer springs, the steering was more precise, the engine was tuned and there were new gearbox ratios. Incredibly for a sporting car, the steering column gear change was retained and initially it was only made in left-hand drive.

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Sunbeam Alpine

1956

George Hartwell, a friend of Billy Rootes and owner of Sunbeam, built himself a two-seater open version of the Sunbeam Talbot 90 for competition use. The Rootes directors liked it so much and thought it would be such a success in the US that the brilliant industrial designer Raymond Loewy was asked to create the final product in his North American studio. The chassis and running gear were the same along with the front-end and side-on styling lines, but it had a longer and more graceful tail. To make up for a lack of rigidity, because the roof had been removed, there was much additional strengthening. The front suspension had stiffer springs, the steering was more precise, the engine was tuned and there were new gearbox ratios. Incredibly for a sporting car, the steering column gear change was retained and initially it was only made in left-hand drive.

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