The Ex-works/Major H.O.D. Segrave
1922 'Strasbourg' Sunbeam Grand Prix Racing Two-Seater

Footnotes

In this centenary year of the 1922 Grand Prix de l'ACF race at Strasbourg, northern France, BONHAMS is honoured here to be offering this 1922 Grand Prix Sunbeam, one of that admirable British works team's entries custom-made to contest that very race. This is most certainly one of the best-presented 100-year-old Vintage-period competition cars that we have ever been privileged to handle.

It is unfortunate that the Sunbeam works records showing chassis and engine num-bers, and details of use in which events by which team driver, have long been lost. Four of these essentially Ernest Henry-designed 1922 GP Sunbeams were constructed and campaigned in period, a single prototype test car having been constructed, tested and modified through the early months of 1922 then being followed by three team cars carefully assembled at Sunbeam's Experimental Department in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, this trio incorporating lessons learned from experience with the prototype while also being specially prepared to assigned team driver preferences in readiness for the great Grand Prix challenge confronting them.

For the Strasbourg race, the three works team cars were assigned to the experienced French star Jean Chassagne (riding mechanic Robert Laly) - race No 9 as 'Sunbeam I' - to Kenelm Lee Guinness (riding mechanic Bill Perkins) - race No 16 as 'Sunbeam II' - and to Major H.O.D. Segrave (riding mechanic Jules Moriceau) - race No 21 as 'Sunbeam III'. The prototype car became the Strasbourg team spare and would be driven in pre-race practice in France by all three team members, as recalled by Segrave himself: "Guinness, Chassagne and myself put in any amount of time on the course".

In the early-1920s the Sunbeam Motor Car Company of Wolverhampton shone as the only substantial British manufacturer possessing the confidence, competitiveness and dynamism to build specialist cars to confront the international motor racing scene's most formidable competition in the pinnacle sporting category of Grand Prix compe-tition.

The technical regulations governing Grand Prix racing were then devised and gov-erned by the forerunner of the modern FIA international authority, then entitled the Alliance International des Automobile Clubs Reconnus - 'The International Alliance of Recognised Automobile Clubs'.

The AIACR's regulations for 1922-season Grand Prix racing - which would be the first full series to be run in those post-World War 1 years - slashed the previous max-imum engine capacity limit of 3-litres to 2-litres while also reducing minimum weight requirement from 800kg (1,763lbs) to 650kg (1,433lbs). Two-seater body design was mandatory, the car tail was not permitted to extend more than 1.5-metres behind the rear axle, and each competing car had to carry both driver and riding mechanic, their weight having to be at least 120kg (264lbs).

After experience of running their 1921 Grand Prix de l'ACF to 3-litres ca-pacity rules - when they saw Jimmy Murphy's Duesenberg promptly win for Ameri-ca, humbling the home French industry's Ballot team – it was in part the organising Automobile Club de France that convinced the AIACR world body to slash Grand Prix class engine capacity on grounds of curbing speed escalation for safety reasons...

Regulations for the ACF's 1922 'French Grand Prix' were not published until the end of November 1921 while the race date was fixed for Strasbourg on July 15, 1922. As the hugely-respected Sunbeam authority Anthony Heal wrote: "The rules were clearly slanted in favour of the French manufacturers, the 2-litre Ballot already being in existence and having shown its potential at Le Mans" (i.e. in the '21 Grand Prix race there). "Little time was available for foreign constructors to design and build 2-litre cars for the race...".

Even so, before Christmas that year three new Sunbeam cars had been entered for the Strasbourg race, and early in December it was announced that the renowned Peugeot and Ballot designer Ernest Henry would be joining the Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq combine "to take technical control of the Racing Department at Suresnes".

Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq was an unusual Franco-British motor manufacturing group, first combined in 1920 during immediate post-World War 1 recession. The STD combine had a major plant at Suresnes, Paris, France, while the British Sunbeam op-eration was old-established in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England.

From as early as 1909, accomplished Breton engineer Louis Coatalen had been the Sunbeam Motor Car Company's chief engineer. He had immediately established the policy of "experiment in design and test in racing" which was aimed to enhance the company's reputation and promote the brand. While pre-Great War both the Darracq and Talbot companies similarly established a racing reputation, post-Great War the Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq group rather confusingly raced its products variously under the Talbot-Darracq, Talbot and Sunbeam brand names. Into the 1920s, it was Sun-beam that assumed clear priority, first announcing its re-emergence with the fearsome '350hp' high-speed projectile - a V12 aero-engined design which would set the World Land Speed Record, driver Kenelm Lee Guinness achieving 133.75mph in it at Brooklands.

For Sunbeam's 1922 Grand Prix programme, Ernest Henry worked upon his inevita-bly Peugeot- and Ballot-derived design in STD's Suresnes factory, while liaison be-tween Henry and the Wolverhampton factory, which would be manufacturing the new cars under such intense time pressure, was by established STD racing driver-cum-engineer, former submariner and pioneering aviator, Jean Chassagne. Engineer Wilding of the British experimental department also visited Henry to discuss progress and detail concept.

Inevitably the new 2-litre Sunbeam Grand Prix engine resembled the previous year's 2-litre Ballot which had finished third in the great race on the Le Mans circuit - this was two years before the 24-Hour race was launched there - but it incorporated sev-eral new features. The 2-litre GP Sunbeam engine's inclined valves were disposed asymmetrically, the exhaust ports were at the offside and there were ignition and car-buretor differences. This power unit was said to develop 88bhp at 4,200rpm, a high engine speed for the time.

Both engine and gearbox were in one unit, mounting directly onto the limber chassis frame instead of within a U-shaped subframe as had become conventional. A fabric-lined cone clutch and four-speed gearbox drove not only the propeller shaft to the back axle but also a lateral shaft powering a brake servo motor. To maintain the low-est possible centre of gravity height overall, the chassis frame was swept up over both front and axles and the suspension leafsprings were underslung. The pedal-operated servo applied cast-iron brake shoes in both front and rear drum brakes via cables with a cockpit-adjustable system for use while the car was in motion. A spare wheel was to be carried longitudinally in the long streamlined tail, as had featured on both the Hen-ry-designed 1914 Peugeot and 1921 Ballot cars.

For these new 2-litre regulations, three French manufacturers developed Grand Prix racing designs derived from their contemporary touring or sports models. Ballot ad-vanced its 2LS sports that Jules Goux had driven in the 1921 Grand Prix while Bu-gatti used its 8-cylinder Type 29 (a racing adaptation of the Type 30) while new con-testant Rolland-Pillain had also developed a straight-8 engine.

Having developed an 8-cylinder power unit for the short-lived 3-litre Formula, Fiat in Italy had adapted it for the 1.5-litre voiturette class, and also introduced the first competitive 6-cylinder racing car, its 2-litre Tipo 804.

The Sunbeam Motor Car Company's team of cars to contest that year's great Grand Prix used Henry's latest four-cylinder, 2-litre Grand Prix engine with twin-overhead camshafts actuating four-valves per cylinder - so 16-valves in all - and in typical Sunbeam style the design, construction and finish-standard of each power unit was exemplary by contemporary standards. Four 1922 GP Sunbeam cars were construct-ed, the prototype emerging early in the year and undergoing extensive testing before the following batch of three intended works-team race cars was finalised to take ad-vantage of modifications derived from testing experience. Today all four cars survive making them possibly the world's only complete multiple-entry team of ex-tant 1920s Grand Prix cars.


The actual car we now offer here is that first prototype, its chassis clearly stamped 'No. 1.22', this stamping itself having only been discovered when the frame was first totally stripped of decades of overlying paintwork when the car itself was restored by specialist Paul Grist in the 1970s.

When this first car was initially completed, it was UK road-registered 'DA6436', test-ed at Brooklands by senior Sunbeam driver Jean Chassagne, and was then taken to the Isle of Man where Sunbeam was contesting the Tourist Trophy race with their new parallel batch of 3-litre 8-cylinder cars, Jean Chassagne incidentally winning that event and defeating the new rival Bentley marque there.

Three further 2-litre GP Sunbeams, completed and road-registered simultaneously as a trio, then followed. They did not enjoy the same amount of pre-race testing but were driven out to Strasbourg together with the prototype or 'test' car, which, by this time, was showing visible signs of its considerable use.

During the first week in July, the Sunbeam team was already practising on the road circuit outside Strasbourg. The three entries were to be driven by Jean Chassagne, Kenelm Lee Guinness and Major Henry O'Neal de Hane Segrave, the latter at that time still proving his pace as a racing driver while being a relatively junior newcomer compared to the established Chassagne and Guinness. However, at one stage the en-gine of Segrave's 'practice car' – as reports put it – caught fire and before it could be extinguished, damage was so extensive that the car was described as having been "completely ruined". Modern research most notably by Sunbeam authority Bruce Dowell concludes that the car in which Segrave indeed was practicing at that time was actually the first completed of the team's assigned race cars, chassis 'No. 2.22' -, not the prototype "test and practice car" as has come down to us in the form of chassis 'No. 1.22' offered here.

It was as a consequence of the fire that Segrave was provided with the prototype test and/or spare car instead for the Grand Prix itself - so his 'Sunbeam III' entry was ef-fectively transferred from the originally-assigned 'No. 2.22' to 'No. 1. 22'. Consid-ering this 'prototype and test car's reportedly already tired and well-used appearance the moneyed Major was not at all happy. With days to spare he had its body removed from the chassis and despatched across the adjacent river Rhine to a coach builder at Kehl, Germany, which is barely two miles from central Strasbourg, to be freshly re-painted. Upon its return its pristine appearance, he would recall, "soothed my nerves". Meanwhile, Jean Chassagne had lapped the 13.38km (8.31-mile) Strasbourg road cir-cuit at an average 75mph, which at that stage boded well for Sunbeam chances in the race. However, when Fiat began practising their drivers Felice Nazzaro (winner for Fiat of the 1907 Grand Prix at Dieppe), his nephew Biagio and Pietro Bordino were soon returning average speeds in the high 70s/80mph range.

Anthony Heal wrote: "The Sunbeams seemed unable to reach peak revolutions on the long straight and it was decided to use a lower axle ratio, which gave rise to big-end trouble. Oil pressure was increased but too late it was discovered that the rev-counters were reading 300rpm too low; with the lower axle ratio the engines were do-ing close on 5,000rpm. It was not surprising that on the fifth lap both Guinness and Chassagne stopped at the pits to retire with broken valve stems. Segrave, as No 21, had been in the back row for the rolling start but he had worked up to seventh place at the end of the first lap, and was fifth, close behind Bordino's Fiat on lap seven. He continued to hold fourth place, behind the three Fiats of Bordine, Felice and Biagio Nazzaro until he stopped to refuel on the 21st lap. His Sunbeam was reluctant to re-start, (riding mechanic Jean) Moriceau having to push it to get the engine going again. The pit stop took 2 mins 26secs but three laps later the car stopped again and Segrave had to retire with the same trouble that had afflicted his team mates..." – "wholesale valve failure". At the pit stop as Jules Moriceau was refuelling the car the churn he was handling slipped and spilled fuel onto Segrave's driver's seat and over his over-alls. His instant reaction was to ignore the ice-cold drenching and return to the race but once back in action the corrosive fuel rapidly began to burn into the unfortunate Major's skin. Within a few miles he was in agony from the chemical burns, and after final surrender as his car's engine failed he faced several weeks of extensive treatment and acute discomfort before regaining true fitness.

Tragically, meanwhile, a design weakness in the dominant Fiat design's rear axles led to that in Biagio Nazzaro's car fracturing, causing a wheel to break free and triggering a catastrophic high-speed accident which the younger Nazzaro did not survive, while his riding mechanic Felice Germano sustained severe head injuries. Team-mate Pietro Bordino's Fiat retired with a less catastrophic rear axle failure, and while Felice Naz-zaro won overall – only being informed of his nephew's death post-race – extensive cracking was reportedly found on the winning car's back axle.

But while the Fiats with their Tipo 404 six-cylinder engines had dominated, Ernest Henry's stellar reputation was severely compromised by his Sunbeam design's race failure, and it would be some years later before it was really re-established, long after the end of his much-diminished career.

After the race, all four of these 'Strasbourg'cars were returned to the factory, re-furbished and disposed of. However, Segrave subsequently one of the cars was en-tered in a two-car race at Brooklands on September 30, 1922, winning the '2-Litre Championship' event at no less than 92.81mph, for 8½-miles, while lapping at 99.81mph. This plainly demonstrates the performance potential of these 2-Litre GP cars, comparing very well to the same driver's speed over the same distance with the 3-litre 8-cylinder Sunbeam in 1921, when he won another race at 94.64mph and set a fastest lap of 101.64mph.

For many years subsequently, and by several of its intermediate owners, this particu-lar car was believed to be 1922 GP Sunbeam chassis number '4.22'. Indeed, the reg-istration document issued when the car was re-registered for British road use as 'EVB 998' (issued in Croydon in January 1946) stated this to be the case.

The reason for this identification was almost certainly the presence, attached to the car bodywork's bulkhead and dashboard, of two plaques both engraved with number '4.22'. It was not until 1977 when many layers of old paint were removed from the front dumb-irons that the actual – and original - chassis number stamping was re-vealed to be 'No. 1.22'. An interested party extensively publicised a claim that this number had itself been applied during the Paul Grist restoration carried out at that time, but forensic metallurgical examination conducted in 2006 in response found no evidence whatsoever of any previous or alternative stamping having ever been applied at that site, which is entirely consistent with the chassis frame stamp locations found on all three sister chassis frames. It was also alleged that the chassis number stamp typeface differed from that used by the Sunbeam Motor Car Company in period. This is also evidently untrue since the type face or font plainly matches that of the sis-ter cars and on other contemporary Sunbeam cars.

Over subsequent years from the late-1920s the continuous provenance trail of this particular car is well established. It was initially found and bought in 1929 for £10 in a burnt-out state by Jack 'Jock' Leith of Fort William, Inverness-shire, and London SW1 although the fire damage was not the result of the seven-years previously prac-tice conflagration at Strasbourg. Jack Leith, with the aid of Booth & Croft, also in London SW1, re-furbished the car before selling it in 1935 to the young but already established London motor dealer – and in later years the wonderful motor sports pho-tographer - Guy Griffiths for £100.

Guy Griffiths sold it in 1937 to Ken Burness, who in turn sold it in 1939 to a Canadi-an, Major W.K.Johnson of Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire.

Around 1944, it was acquired by John Grosscurth of nearby Maidenhead, who would eventually also acquire the sister 1922 GP Sunbeam 'No. 2.22'. It would appear that Mr Grosscurth died about that time and that both cars amongst others passed to Ray-mond Grant who sold them to Douglas Armstrong in 1946.

Two years later a Mrs Cooney of Cobham and Windsor became the owner until she sold this car to contemporary Army officer and incipient car dealer and motor racing owner/driver Colin Crabbe in 1962. His subsequent partner Roger Hancock apparent-ly owned a share in the car but it was eventually bought by Paul Grist about 1973 who set out on a full restoration.

A full summary of this magnificent road-useable Grand Prix racing two-seater car's full provenance is as follows:

Registration number DA6436.
The first car to be built.
1922 Sunbeam Works
1922 Brooklands testing (unpainted), Jean Chassagne driving.
1922 June IoM testing, Jean Chassagne, Kenelm Lee Guinness, Henry Segrave driving.
1922 Strasbourg Spare / practice car, driven by all team members. After his own assigned car had been damaged by fire during practice, Henry Segrave adopted this spare prototype car for the race.
1934 Jock Leith of Inverness for £10 "badly burnt extremely rusty", engine block and head cracked. Leith had the car rebuilt at Pavilion Road, Knightsbridge. Work included repair or replacement of cylinder block, pressure oiling was installed and accordingly the dash drip feed removed. Modified body installed with a 1924 cowled radiator, a "square stubby tail" replaced the original. 'Motor Sport' (October 1934) observed the work and reported "Chassis is stamped No. 4, so it is possibly a practice car". This attribution is incorrect since it was not the chassis but the cockpit and bulkhead plates attached to the bodywork then carried which were stamped 'No. 4'.
1935 March 26, Guy Griffith a motor dealer of London, W9 purchased the car from Jock Leith for £100 "fairly dilapidated" and said it was "dumped as she was ineligible to race". Griffith raised the compression using Martlet pistons, installed new Zenith triple diffuser carburettors and changed valve timing and offered it for sale in December 1935 for £200 "rebuilt last year...many new parts".
1935 Donington Park opening meeting, Guy Griffith, DNF (accident, damaged bodywork, bent front axle).
1935 September 7 - Southport '100' beach race, Guy Griffith No. 12.
1937 G. Ken Burness of London EC3.
1937 Donington Park Club circuit - 1st VSCC event, G. Ken Burness, two podium places.
1938 Prescott, G. Ken Burness.
1938 May 7, Donington Park, G. Ken Burness.
1938 August, Poole Speed Trials, G. Ken Burness (24.45sec).
1941 Major W. K. Johnson (Canadian) of Colnbrook Bucks "His car is labeled No. 4...the chassis having been completely stripped" (Autocar 7 February 1941). Riley radiator and supercharger...Louis Giron worked on it". It was in 1941 that the Sunbeam engine was removed and Riley engine and ENV gearbox fitted.
1941 try-out on road with 1.5 litre Riley engine and ENV gearbox (Autocar 13 June 1941).
1942 Body replaced with a new full width two-seater body by John Wyer previously of Sunbeam – later renowned team manager of Aston Martin, then of the Gulf-JW Automotive World Championship of Makes team.
1945 (or thereabouts) John P. Grosscurth of Maidenhead Berkshire, "in bits".
1946 Raymond Edwin Grant of Cippenham for sale, engine - presumably original Sunbeam engine since an as-original unit did indeed replace the temporary Riley unit at some point - rebuilt.
1946 Douglas Armstrong of Farnham Royal, Bucks, prominent motoring journalist (and bon vivant) advertised for sale in 'The Motor' 1948 April "much modified" for £225.
1948 Mrs Cooney of Chobham and Windsor for £250 labelled Chassis No. 4, Engine No. 4 registered 'EVB998'.
1948. Luton Hoo speed trials, Mrs. Cooney, "scarcely a runner".
1962 Colin Crabbe for £50. Engine damage repaired.
1963/5 Sold to unknown owner.
1973 (or thereabouts) to Paul Grist who recalls receiving the car complete with its Sunbeam engine which he rebuilt. It had been acquired with two SU carburettors which Paul replaced with a pair of matching Solex units. The car was mechanically complete with original radiator, oil tank, fuel tank, gearbox. The brake servo had been removed and the cable actuation replaced by rods.

Both John Wyer and Anthony Heal visited Paul Grist while he was restoring the car , Wyer had been an apprentice at Sunbeam when the cars were being built. Cameron Miller was located nearby and Paul had access to his sister car for comparison.

Rebuilt and rebodied in a 1922 Strasbourg style body. Hitherto unsuspected yet clearly original chassis stamping uncovered when heavily-painted chassis frame stripped bare. Replacement engine and dash/bulkhead plates – note, most significantly not the chassis frame - then stamped with 'No. 1.22' (to match the freshly-discovered original frame stamping), car re-registered accordingly as 'DA6436'.
1974 July Dijon Parade, driven by 1961 Formula 1 World Champion and three-time Le Mans 24-Hour race winner Phil Hill.
1978 Bill Lake. Two large Solex carburetors installed.
1978 Prescott Hill-climb, Bill Lake.
1978 Goodwood, Bill Lake.
1984 Tim Hewison of Melbourne Australia.
1985 Nick Langford & John Sheard of O'Neil Sheard of Australia.
1989 Graham Little purchased via auction sale.
1999 Silverstone '100 years of Sunbeam"
2004 to present vendor, England - who returned the engine to Paul Grist for rebuild and preparation.



In 1978 it became the property of Bill Lake of Haywards Heath, Sussex who kept it until 1984, after which it then enjoyed a brief period in Australia before returning into the care of Graham Little of Oswestry, who in turn sold it in 2004 to the present ven-dor, a committed Vintage car enthusiast with well-tuned appreciation of good engi-neering and fine workmanship. He recalls how impressed he was by these aspects of the car at first sight, but that when he was offered a brief test drive in it he made the mistake of "not changing my 'office' shoes. I was going quite quickly into the first tight corner I encountered when my wide shoe caught both the brake and throttle pedals simultaneously – and the latter proved far more effective than the former. The result was that I hurtled into that corner far too fast, steered into it in desperation...and then found that the Sunbeam flashed round without any problem whatsoever – it proved as good handling and agile as a Type 35 Bugatti I had driven previously. All things considered, I had to have it."

At that time he was not at all bothered by whichever of the team drivers might have used the car during 1922 testing and development, the Strasbourg race nor perhaps at Brooklands thereafter. It was only into the 2000-and-teens that questions really arose about whether or not it had been Henry Segrave's car in that ultimately abortive Grand Prix de l'ACF – as latest expert research appears to indicate.

Overall this is a wonderfully presented, beautifully patinated one-hundred year-old works team racing car from the marque which would – the following year, 1923 – actually win the French Grand Prix at Tours with a Fiat-copy 6-cylinder-engined 2-litre car developed after the experience gained with 'No. 1.22' here and its sisters, the preceding year.

Major Henry O'Neal de Hane Segrave went on to establish himself as Britain's great-est motor sporting star of the 1920s, adding three World Land Speed Records (all set in Sunbeam cars), and the World Water Speed Record while adding the accolade of being not only first person to hold both titles simultaneously but also being the first to travel at over 200mph (320km/h) in a land-borne vehicle. In 1930, shortly after setting his World Water Speed Record in his twin-Rolls-Royce R-Type V12-engined boat Miss England IIon Lake Windermere, north-west England, he crashed fatally in another run there, reputedly having struck a floating log at around 100mph.

Today this magnificent centenarian Vintage Grand Prix Sunbeam survives as a won-derfully tactile, vibrant, handleable living memorial to its creators at Britain's most prominent motor racing marque of the roaring 'twenties, and to all who drove her then.