The renovation of the high-speed special continues at full speed. Once repaired, it should last another hundred years.
Britain’s National Motoring Museum is currently undertaking and crowdfunding the restoration of a Sunbeam 1000hp. With it, Henry Seagrave broke the two hundred miles per hour mark in March 1927, going up to 203.79 miles, which is 327.97 km/h. The vehicle is powered by two giant twelve-cylinder Sunbeam Matabele engines with a volume of 22.4 liters, which, despite the name, gave a total output of “only” approximately 670 kW, or some 910 horses.
The more than 7.5 meter long monster has now undergone sandblasting – soda was used as an abrasive to be gentle. Underneath the deposits, this process revealed the original part markings from when the car was assembled at Sunbeam’s Wolverhampton factory.
The strength of the structure is now being tested, which will be followed by a clear lacquer treatment. Afterwards, the axles and other non-painted parts will be cut off with a laser, and then the engines will be overhauled. The motoring museum carefully documents every step, so we too can see what was really hidden under the fairing that we remember from the record encyclopedias.
