The Racing Sunbeams in New Zealand - No 2

THE RACING SUNBEAMS IN NEW ZEALAND - NO 2 ISLE OF MAN TOURIST TROPHY CAR 1914

WORDS ANDREW ANDERSON PHOTOS THE LATE LUCY WILLS VIA ANDREW ANDERSON

As acquired from Fuggles with works road equipment

Late in the day of 21 September 1913, all those British side valve proponents, after seeing George Boillot’s last victory in the 3 litre Peugeot, “the apotheosis of the Henry design and perhaps the finest racers that ever came out of that famous factory”, went home to do some hard thinking.

Some, like Laurence Pomeroy senior, went home to “get some old drawings off the shelf”. Louis Coatalen (Director of Sunbeam) however, had other ideas.

With the Coupe de L’Auto formula going down to 2½ litres, Peugeot, like Sunbeam, sold off their 3 litre cars and started work on a 2½ litre design. One of those cars went to Jacques Menier in France while another was bought by Henry Royce to study and was kept by him until the start of WWI. The third went to Louis Coatalen, obviously in extreme secrecy, and was totally stripped and detailed drawings were made, scaling up perfect copies to a 3.3 litre version for the revived RAC Tourist Trophy (TT) race.

Coatalen had designed, built and driven special cars for the 1906, ‘07 and ‘08 TT races for Humber and Hillman. The new RAC formula for the revived TT was only two items, an engine capacity of 3310cc (weird) and a minimum weight of 2408lb. The race, over the 40 mile Isle of Man (IOM) circuit, involved 16 laps spread over two days on 10 and 11 June, and attracted Sunbeam plus eight other manufacturer’s entries, 24 cars in all.

Coatalen had had to consider up-scaling his copy design to TT spec, but also up to the 4½ litre capacity limit required of the GP de L’ACF in Lyon for 4 July 1914. For this latter up-scale some serious redesign and modification was done, especially to the valve gear and lubrication system. Thus four cars went to the IOM, three being pure copy cars, and the fourth, IOM2, race car 15 for Dario Resta, had all the GP car modifications as a flying test bed.

That 21½ cwt minimum weight allowed Coatalen to design a TT chassis and running gear which was perfectly able to cope with the massive power increase delivered by the 4½ litres for the very fast Lyon GP circuit. The TT cars had engines set back in extra long subframes which were all predrilled for fitting larger engines. Actual engine sizes were: 3 litre Peugeot, 78x156 mm

TT Sunbeam, 81x160 mm, suitable for both copy and modified car

GP Sunbeam, 94x160 mm, same engine height but longer.

The modified designs involved two-bolt conrods instead of the four-bolt copy ones. On that first day’s racing the Guinness brothers kept ahead of the field, but Resta suffered a conrod bolt failure and IOM2 was out with a hole in the crankcase and a smashed conrod and piston. Kenelm Lee Guinness finally won, with brother Algernon going out with a mechanical failure. Back to Wolverhampton with all four cars and IOM2 left there for a good looksee at the whys and wherefores of the damage. The three copy cars, complete with 4½ litre engines and deeper radiators, were then off to Lyon, arriving with only one practice day left.

The 4 July start had the cars off in pairs, Sunbeams matched to the desmodromic valved and front wheel braked Delages, and proving quicker off the mark. Mercedes were back with a no less than a five car team to a 1, 2, 3 victory, with Goux fourth in Peugeot II and Resta fifth in Sunbeam II. Chassagne’s Sunbeam I was out

with conrod bolt failure, and Guinness was out too with a broken piston. Back to the Works for super spec rod bolts and the three GP cars were off to America for Indianapolis and board track racing just as August brought WWI.

The war years thus had only three copy TT engines and radiators in the racing department, and IOM2 with new super rod bolts and a sheet brass patch riveted over the exit hole, but basically everything racing was in America. Come the war’s end, Sunbeam’s face at the odd organised event could only be IOM2, and we find mention of a TT ‘beam at Liverpool speed trials on 16 May 1921 driven by C V Cozens which got two places, including a first. On 4 June 1921 HOD Seagrave got ftd at Holm Moss Hill Climb. Since the three copy cars were still just bare engines and radiators, this could only be IOM2.

All the war-time aero engine work developed a growing interest in aluminum alloys, and with the Sunbeam/Darracq merger of 1920 the whole racing program involved eight cylinder all-alloy engines of 3 litres capacity.

All of which saw IOM2, like its 1913 predecessor, duly equipped with guards and running boards supporting a battery box and lights, sitting at R F Fuggles at Bushey Heath. It was snapped up by young C W F (Bill) Hamilton who was in the UK to help his father consult London medical specialists unavailable in New Zealand. Bill Hamilton had just bought Irishman Creek station of 23,500 acres in 1921. He sold his Bugatti when his father’s health prompted his engaging the previous owner/manager to look after the station for him while they took off to stay with Bill’s sister Kitty and her husband in London. At a loose end, and seeking a replacement for the Bugatti, he didn’t take long to find Fuggles, and a welcome invitation to spend a weekend in the country with an old friend complete with IOM2, to meet Peggy Wills, the elder sister of Matthew and Lucy, who we met over the Coupe de L’Auto car.

They clicked, went for a tour of Scotland with friends in a Sunbeam and a Harley-Davidson combo, were married in October 1923 and returned to Irishman Creek on P&O Moldavia in November, with the Sunbeam to follow on a later ship. 1924 was spent setting Irishman Creek into shape, and building and equipping a workshop; Bill was very wary of that riveted brass patch on the Sunbeam’s crankcase.

He was determined to completely strip down and check over the whole engine before venturing to the 1925 Muriwai meeting in February. All duly done, Bill and his mate, Andy Irving, with Brescia Bugatti drove up, won the Motor Cup and Light Car Cup respectively and drove home again. Bill also achieved his first Australasian Speed Record at 101.3 mph.

As told last issue Matthew Wills arrived and purchased Opawa Station in March 1925, and with a strong wish to smother brotherin-law Bill, made contact with Fuggle for one of the 3 litre straight eight cars, and received, just in time, the very car in which Chassagne had won the 1922 race. So a threesome team went north for 1926, with Bill not the least bit worried about his opposition who was in a later car. For not only had he obtained from Sunbeams a crate full of their remaining 1914 TT and GP spares, he had done some aerodynamic work on replacing the original big bolster tank with a new smaller one in a streamline tail, and replaced the original Claudel Hobson carb with a set of twin Zenith carbs that cured the idling problems caused by the Claudel.

In the main 50 mile race Bill managed to lead for the first lap until Wilson, in his first drive in the big Stutz in anger, started to feel at home in it and opened up, while Matthew, likewise getting the feel of the eight cylinder car, opened up and made real use of his four wheel brakes to pass Bill and close up on Wilson. And so it ended, 5 litre Stutz beats 3 litre 1922 Sunbeam in spite of its brakes, and 1922 beats 1914.

In the Bill Evans Handicap Bill beats the lot then returned home to really get to grips with the workshop. He made up a set of alloy pistons with a higher compression ratio and much reduced reciprocating weight, which allowed maximum revs up from 2800 with the iron pistons, to some 3200rpm, at which the very long stroke got piston speed pretty high. A lot of fast practice runs over those shingle roads led to a final collapse of the central main ball bearing

s Preparation for 1925 Muriwai and a new workshop for this. Stan Jones (riding mechanic), Bill Hamilton, Jim Bain, Bill Bain.

which, in turn, broke the crankshaft at the centre. The crate of spares had this massive new ball race and Bill set about welding the shaft and getting it reassembled, improving the oil feed to the bearing races in time for the 1927 race.

Bert Shorter entered the ex-Count Louis Zboroswki 2 litre Miller. From Australia came Hope Bartlett yet again, this time with a 1922 2 litre Sunbeam GP car.

The big race lacked Matthew’s eight cylinder 1922 TT car, which had dropped a valve in practice, Shorter’s Miller, which had thrown a rod, and Meredith’s eight cylinder Bugatti with various ailments. Bill started behind the Strasbourg car but soon overtook it and led for a couple of laps before his main oil pipe fractured well down the beach and he was out. The Strasbourg 2 litre was no match for the Stutz which just crossed the finish line before its crankcase disintegrated.

For 1928 Matthew Wills gave up and sold the 1922 car to George Henning, who duly lined up for the big race as did Bill with IOM2, Wilson with the Stutz, now totally rebuilt by Mason-Porter, the Miller now owned by Keith Cutten and thus properly rebuilt and repaired, Bauchop with the Thomas Special, Charlie East from Sydney with a type 37 Bugatti and Hugh Carter with a Mercer.

The revived Stutz got a lead, being really pushed by the Miller, with the rest some 40 seconds later, but the Miller lost its earth wire, and Cutten didn’t find the problem in time to rejoin the fray, so Wilson could relax a bit, but only a bit, as Bill was only four seconds behind. Both the East Bugatti and Carter’s Mercer were well back, and Henning dropped a valve in the eight cylinder car, wrecking one cylinder block and holing the crankcase. So IOM2 came in second in 36 minutes 28 seconds to Wilson’s final 35 minutes 56 seconds for his third win, thus keeping the New Zealand Motor Cup.

On 3 March Bill and IOM2 had a great day of racing at Oreti Beach in Southland, including another electrically-timed Australasian Flying Mile record at 109.09 mph and on 17 March Bill beat Andy Irving’s Bugatti at Waikouaiti.

For 1929 Peggy’s parents gave the Hamiltons a trip back to UK, and she, having sold her much campaigned Alvis in New Zealand, went looking for a replacement and bought a second hand 4½ litre Bentley. In June they both took the car to Le Mans to see the Bentley 1,2,3,4 exercise. Bill decided to enter the 1930 Brooklands’ Easter Meeting and Bentley Motors allowed him to use their workshop to prepare the car, resulting in three wins and much fame. But the family’s return with the Bentley saw IOM2 in very reduced circumstances.

Bill however decided to reconvert the old car to a touring car, and over time built a light tubing body frame, suitable guards, fitted lights and modified a four branch exhaust and under body pipe. Re-spoking the wheels, and changing to well-base 20 Inch tyres from the original beaded edge ones, gave it quite a modern look for the ‘30s. However by 1938, with Bill’s contracting and machinery taking all his time, IOM2 languished in the back of the shed, till, as per that Autocar article of 6 February 1942, in 1940 John Farnsworth bought it from Bill and set about finishing its rebuild and tidying it up for regular use, until, quote “Increasing pressure of work”. It has gone to a good home.

Alas it didn’t. It went to Andy MacIntosh of Invercargill, proprietor of a wrecking company, and regular type 13 and 23 Bugatti owner and competitor who, not long after its purchase, was blipping the throttle as if it was a Bugatti until number one rod let go and almost carved off the front of the crankcase. The super bolts didn’t let go, the little end parted company with the rest of the rod, which simply carved up the case and knocked a chunk off a corner of the cast iron block too.

s 1926 New twin carbs

s Welded shaft with new alloy pistons

s John Farnsworth in the car back as a sportscar.

Andy “Mac” promptly gassed off the front and rear axles and sold them complete with Rudge wheels as trailer sets, and the frame became a local pig pen. The complete subframe, radiator, oil tank and a pile of odd bits and pieces were returned to Irishman Creek by Bill’s nephew Dick Georgeson and stowed in the garage attic until that first Irishman Creek Rally at Easter 1955, when Bill donated the bits to the Club. These were duly collected by me in a 40/50 Napier and stowed under my garage until a Club committee under Bob Turnbull and Graham Hall decided what to do with it all. I wrote to UK owners Stanley Sears and Sir Francis Samuelson for help. The committee finally decided that the Club itself couldn’t do anything about it and at the Executive Meeting on 2 November 1957, Rob Shand moved that my offer to take it all over and restore the car be accepted, seconded Bert Tonks and carried.

My story is quite another one and will be told in due course but for this story IOM2 is a bundle of bits, less frame and axles.

A DETAILED HISTORY OF THE STRAIGHT-EIGHT AUTOMOBILE ENGINE

Author: Stephen Moore Self published by author as PDF on USB stick, 868 pages, 300,000 words. Price of USB is $65 plus P&P from https://www.straight-eightengines.com ISBN: 978-0-473-54810-0

Review by Roy Hughes

Describing this lengthy history of the straight-eight engine as detailed has to be the ultimate understatement. While it offers far more than many may feel they need to know about this particular engine configuration, overall it provides an enthralling and informative review of a half century of the development of the motor industry.

Written in a concise and easily read style it is a precise and comprehensively researched reference work of enormous depth and breadth - 434 reference works are listed in the bibliography. While the vast majority of straight eight engines were manufactured in the United States and Canada, production elsewhere in the world is also covered, country by country, including Norway, Japan, the USSR, and even Switzerland.

What would be a large and expensive book if printed has been published as a PDF on a USB stick. With 300,000 words on 846 landscape pages, it is also easier to read on screen as the print can be magnified and charts, illustrations and diagrams scaled up.

Included are the histories of the nearly 300 automobile manufacturers from AAC to ZIS who used straight-eights, along with 567 engine specification tables, and the specifications for all Continental, Lycoming, Gordini and S.C.A.P straighteight engines.

But far more than just a listing of manufacturers this history also details the competition successes achieved in the 1920s and ‘30s when straighteight powered cars effectively dominated at Indianapolis, Le Mans and a range of other racing events, right up until the early 1950s. Another chapter is devoted to the technical development of the engine, its advantages and disadvantages, with every component described in concise detail from crankshafts through carburettors to spark plugs.

But perhaps the most unexpected benefit of Stephen Moore’s five years of research and compilation of the many fascinating facts about an engine is the detailed insight he provides into how economic events and government impositions, such as taxes and tariffs, have had a determining impact on the development of the world motor industry.

Ed Note: Thanks to Andrew Anderson for providing his regular contribution to our The Way We were column for this issue. Due to space considerations we have held this over for publication in our August issue.