After being silent for more than half a century, the sound of Sir Malcolm Campbell’s record-breaking 350-hp Sunbeam once more echoed across the English countryside in late January as it was fired up for the first time since its complete mechanical rebuild by the National Motor Museum’s workshop team.
The car, known as Blue Bird, was the brainchild of Sunbeam’s chief engineer and racing team manager, Louis Coatalen, and was constructed at the company’s works in Wolverhampton during 1919 and early 1920, with power from a modified 18.322-liter V12 Manitou Arab aero engine.
The car held three world land speed records, the first achieved by Kenelm Lee Guinness at Brooklands in 1922 at 133.75 mph. Campbell then purchased the car, had it painted in his distinctive color scheme, and in September 1924 upped the record to 146.16 mph at Pendine in South Wales. He raised it to 150.76 mph the following year.
Campbell sold the car soon after, and it effectively vanished until being unearthed in Lancashire in 1942 by Harold Pratley, who later loaned it to Rootes Ltd. (successors to the Sunbeam Company), who gave it a cosmetic restoration for promotional purposes.
In 1957 it was purchased by Lord Montagu, restored to working order and put on display in the Montagu Motor Museum. When not on display, it was shown at various venues in the UK and Europe until its last outing at the British Automobile Racing Club Festival of Motoring at Goodwood on July 14, 1962, where Lord Montagu took it on a three-lap demonstration run and Donald Campbell did a Lap d’Honneur. In 1972 it moved into the newly created National Motor Museum where it has been on permanent display ever since.
“This project has been a long-running labor of love for the whole team,” said the National Motor Museum’s Chief Engineer, Doug Hill, “and such has been their passion that many have dedicated hours of their own time to get the job done. There is huge satisfaction in seeing it finally completed.”
The Sunbeam will take its place in the National Motor Museum’s new display, “For Britain & For The Hell Of It—the story of British land speed records,” set to open by Easter 2014. For further information, please visit www.beaulieu.co.uk
