Tuesday, April 13, 2010

An Exceedingly Pretty Sunbeam

Sunbeam Alpines (of all series) are pretty thin on the ground in our area. We were quite fortunate to have had three attend the 19th Annual British Car Festival last year in Fairhope. The befinned roadsters are always a crowd pleaser wherever they show up.

One rare version of the Sunbeam Alpine is the quite attractive Harrington Alpine. This semi-coachbuilt car was a product of Thomas Harrington Coachbuilders, Ltd. Better known for their bus bodies, the Harrington concern produced the fiberglass body panels and carried out the conversion.

Harrington Alpines were also veterans of the 24 Hours of LeMans and the Sebring 12 Hour endurance races. In fact, one of the Harringtons took the Index of Thermal Efficiency prize at the 1961 LeMans event.

There is an organization dedicated to preserving these very special cars, The Sunbeam Harrington Alpine Registry based in the UK but catering to owners worldwide. May I suggest that you take a few minutes to browse this impressive site?

1 comment:

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment