The David Plant Collection, Ex-Percy Evans Sunbeam Sprint Special, 1924 Sunbeam 500cc Sprint

A receipt on file dated 17th August 1986, signed by E P (Percy) Evans, records the sale of this Sprint Sunbeam to the current vendor for £1,250. Also on file is a certificate for the Ramsey Sprint, Isle of Man, dated Tuesday 2nd June 1987, awarded to the vendor while competing on this machine. The vendor recorded a time of 11.14 seconds at 64mph, finishing in 3rd place. A programme for the Ramsey Sprint is present in the history file.

The file also contains two articles from the Sunbeam Motor Cycle Club (Marston Sunbeam Club & Register) Journal, Winter 2013-14 issue, entitled The Unorthodox Sprinters of Percy Evans. These describe Percy Evans of Cardiff as an inventive engineer and enthusiastic sprint competitor who campaigned a number of unusual and highly modified Sunbeam-based sprint machines from the 1950s onwards.

Further reference to the Evans sprint machines appears in a 1999 issue of Classic Bike, in which journalist Peter Watson recalls riding a Percy Evans sprinter at a National Sprint Association meeting at Wiscombe Park, Devon, in September 1977. Watson was handed Brian Lewis's Evans sprinter, while Cyril Luton competed on another. Watson described his mount as a 1924 Sprint-framed machine, built up with a variety of components including a 1921 sidevalve crankshaft assembly, Norton connecting rod and JAP speedway piston, assembled by Evans around 1955. The valves were reportedly taken from a Bedford TK, while the gearbox was a Sturmey-Archer unit from a 1925 AJS, and the machine used the heavier forks from a Sunbeam Model 90. The completed machine weighed approximately 220lb and was reputedly capable of 90mph. Luton's machine was described as a 1926 sidevalve Sunbeam with a heavily modified Model 90 engine. That same year Evans was awarded the VMCC John Griffiths Memorial Shield for his contribution to Vintage racing. A photograph caption in the article suggests that Dave Parry's Sunbeam, another ex-Percy Evans machine based on a Sprint model, may correspond to the machine described by Peter Watson as ridden in 1977.

Another recollection appears in the Sunbeam Motor Cycle Club (Marston Sunbeam Club & Register) Journal, in which Archie Beggs recalls the distinctive flat-tank Percy Evans Sunbeam, raced and sprinted in early Vintage events. Beggs notes that Evans used Norton internal components and a Sturmey-Archer gearbox, as Sunbeam close-ratio gears were not available, and that the machine performed very well in competition.

Beggs encountered the machine again many years later while viewing a collection on the Isle of Man. The then owner had purchased it at auction and was unaware of its history, but the machine's provenance was confirmed by a distinctive detail: the Sunbeam tank logo was not a transfer, as none were available at the time, but had been carefully cut from brass shim and soldered to the tank by Evans himself; it is an example of the ingenuity of Evans, who worked professionally as a quarry maintenance engineer. The engine turns over.

Following a period of inactivity, this motorcycle will require recommissioning and/or restoration to a greater or lesser extent before returning to the road and thus is sold strictly as viewed. Prospective purchasers should satisfy themselves with regard to this motorcycle's completeness, history, authenticity, originality and mechanical condition prior to bidding.
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