| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Sunbeam of Wolverhampton |
| Production | two |
| Designer | Louis Coatalen |
| Body and chassis | |
| Body style | Open-wheel racing car |
| Powertrain | |
| Engine | 3976cc, 300 hp supercharged V12 Sunbeam, formed by mounting two 2 litre engines onto a common crankcase. |
| Transmission | 4-speed pre-selector |
The Sunbeam Tiger is a racing car, built by Sunbeam of Wolverhampton during the 1920s. It was the last car to be competitive both as a land speed record holder, and as a circuit-racing car. [1]
The chassis and bodywork of the Sunbeam were conventional for racing cars of their time.
The car's novelty lay with its engine. Sunbeam's 1925 Grand Prix engine had been a successful 2-litre straight-6 twin-overhead-cam. This car was to use a pair of the same block and head arrangements, mated to a single 75° vee crankcase to produce a 3,976 cc V12. Supercharging brought the power up to 306 hp (228 kW).
Henry Segrave was so keen to test the new car and engine that he took it to Brooklands in September 1925, still unpainted. A half-mile speed of 145 mph (233 km/h) was recorded. Minor works, including the bright red paint still notable today, were done over the winter.
Spring 1926 saw Segrave on the wide, flat beach at Southport. On 16 March 1926, with little fuss and few spectators, he and the bright-red car now named Ladybird set a new land speed record at 152.33 mph (245.15 km/h). The Sunbeam was the smallest capacity internal combustion-engined car ever to hold the Land Speed Record.
After the land speed record, the car returned to Grand Prix racing at Brooklands, [2] Boulogne and San Sebastian.
At the time of the land speed record attempt, the car was fitted with a narrow inlet cowling over the radiator, [3] [4] similar to that of the Sunbeam 350HP. For racing, a flat open radiator grille was used. The narrow cowling has re-appeared in preservation.
One sister car to Tiger was built and named Tigress.
It survives today, fitted with a Napier Lion engine and racing in British Vintage events as the "Sunbeam-Napier". [1]
The Sunbeam Tiger is preserved today in Utah, [5] restored to the streamlined radiator cowling fitted for record-breaking. As of 2006, the engine is reportedly being rebuilt after suffering foreign object damage whilst vintage racing, [4] hence the static display in LSR trim.
In 1990, the now 65-year-old Tiger re-created its record attempt, this time at RAF Elvington, and succeeded in beating it at 159 mph (256 km/h). [6]
In 1964 and 1972 the "Tiger" name was revived within the marque, first for a V8 version of the Sunbeam Alpine, the Sunbeam Tiger. Later it appeared on the more mundane Hillman Avenger Tiger, which resembled a tiger by being orange with black stripes, if little else.
| External images | |
|---|---|
 Tiger on static display, with LSR nose [4] | |
| Tiger on the track recently, Mark Ballard [6] | |
| Tiger in the workshop, with bonnet removed, Mark Ballard [6] |
The Napier Lion is a 12-cylinder, petrol-fueled 'broad arrow' W12 configuration aircraft engine built by D. Napier & Son from 1917 until the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day and kept it in production long after other contemporary designs had been superseded. It is particularly well known for its use in a number of racing designs, for aircraft, boats and cars.
D. Napier & Son Limited was a British engineering company best known for its luxury motor cars in the Edwardian era and for its aero engines throughout the early to mid-20th century.
Major Sir Malcolm Campbell was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times, using vehicles called Blue Bird, including a 1921 Grand Prix Sunbeam. His son, Donald Campbell, carried on the family tradition by holding both land speed and water speed records.
John Godfrey Parry-Thomas was a Welsh engineer and motor-racing driver who at one time held the land speed record. He was the first driver to be killed in pursuit of the land speed record.
The Sunbeam 350HP is an aero-engined car built by the Sunbeam company in 1920, the first of several land speed record-breaking cars with aircraft engines.
Sir Henry O'Neal de Hane Segrave was an early British pioneer in land speed and water speed records. Segrave, who set three land and one water record, was the first person to hold both titles simultaneously and the first person to travel at over 200 miles per hour (320 km/h) in a land vehicle. He died in an accident in 1930 shortly after setting a new world water speed record on Windermere in the Lake District, England. The Segrave Trophy was established to commemorate his life.
The British land speed record is the fastest land speed achieved by a vehicle in the United Kingdom, as opposed to one on water or in the air. It is standardised as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs in opposite directions.
Julien Jean Chassagne was a pioneer submariner, aviator, and French racing driver active 1906-1930. Chassagne finished third in the 1913 French Grand Prix; won the 1922 Tourist Trophy and finished second in the 1925 Le Mans Grand Prix d'Endurance - all in Sunbeam motorcars. He was second in the 1921 Italian Grand Prix with a Ballot, and set speed records and won races at Brooklands and hill climbs internationally.
Golden Arrow is a land speed record racer that was built in Britain to regain the world land speed record from the US. Henry Segrave drove the car at 231.45 mph (372.46 km/h) in March 1929 on Daytona Beach, exceeding the previous record by 24 mph (39 km/h).
The Halford Special was a Grand Prix racing car of the 1920s built by engine designer Major Frank Halford on the chassis of an early Side Valve Aston Martin tourer. It was one of the most advanced British-built racing cars of the mid-1920s and had many racing successes. Halford himself was a freelance engine designer who did work for both the de Havilland Aircraft Company and Napier & Son.
The Napier-Campbell Blue Bird was a land speed record car driven by Malcolm Campbell. Its designer was C. Amherst Villiers and Campbell's regular mechanic Leo Villa supervised its construction.
The Campbell-Railton Blue Bird was Sir Malcolm Campbell's final land speed record car.
The Sunbeam Matabele was a British 12-cylinder aero engine that was first flown in 1918. The Matabele was the last iteration of one of Sunbeam's most successful aero engines, the Cossack.
The Sunbeam Silver Bullet was the last attempt at the land speed record by Sunbeam of Wolverhampton. It was built in 1929 for Kaye Don. Powered by two supercharged engines of 24 litres each, it looked impressive but failed to achieve any records.
Kenelm Edward Lee Guinness MBE was an Irish racing driver of the 1910s and 1920s mostly associated with Sunbeam racing cars. He set a new Land Speed Record in 1922. Also an automotive engineer, he invented and manufactured the KLG spark plug. Additionally, aside from motorsport and mechanical interests, he was a director of the Guinness brewing company.
Speed of the Wind was a record-breaking car of the 1930s, built for and driven by Captain George Eyston.
Jarvis & Sons Limited were South London-based motor dealers for Morris and MG, and latterly coachworks providing special bodies for various car chassis until after World War II.
An aero-engined car is an automobile powered by an engine designed for aircraft use. Most such cars have been built for racing, and many have attempted to set world land speed records. While the practice of fitting cars with aircraft engines predates World War I by a few years, it was most popular in the interwar period between the world wars when military-surplus aircraft engines were readily available and used to power numerous high-performance racing cars. Initially powered by piston aircraft engines, a number of post-World War II aero-engined cars have been powered by aviation turbine and jet engines instead. Piston-engined, turbine-engined, and jet-engined cars have all set world land speed records. There have also been some non-racing automotive applications for aircraft engines, including production vehicles such as the Tucker 48 and prototypes such as the Chrysler Turbine Car, Fiat Turbina, and General Motors Firebirds. In the late 20th century and into the 21st century, there has also been a revival of interest in piston-powered aero-engined racing cars.
Sunbeam Works Racing cars participated in the 1922 XVI Grand Prix de l'A.C.F. in Strasbourg. The race took place on 15 July 1922 and was run to a formula stipulating that maximum engine capacity should not exceed 2 litres and that the cars should be two-seaters weighing not less than 650 kg. The formula was to remain in force for four years producing "fields of brilliance to be unequalled for many years" it was the first rolling massed start in the history of Grand Prix motor-racing.
The 1921 S.T.D. 'Works' Grand Prix chassis was built to the three-litre and minimum weight of 800 kilogrammes formula for that year's Indianapolis 500 and French Grand Prix de l’A.C.F. These team cars were modified by the Sunbeam Experimental department in Wolverhampton for the 1922 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, which was won by one of the cars. A few months later, and with 1916 4.9-litre engines, two of the T.T. cars competed in the Coppa Florio, Sicily and gained second and fourth position.
