Sunbeam History:
John Marston who was apprenticed to the Jeddo Works of Wolverhampton as a metal lacquerer started sunbeam. In 1859, at the age of 23, he bought two existing tinplate manufacturers and set up on his own, John Marston Co. Ltd. Marston was an avid bicycler, and in 1877 set up the Sunbeam land Cycle Factory, producing bikes known as Sunbeams. Between 1899 and 1901, the company also produced a number of experimental cars, but none of these were offered to the market. The first production car named as a Sunbeam was introduced in 1901, after a partnership with Maxwell Maberly-Smith. The Sunbeam-Mabley design was an odd one, with seats on either side of a belt-drive powered by a single-cylinder engine of less than 3hp. The design was a limited success and production ended in 1904.In 1905, the Sunbeam Motorcar Company Ltd was formed separate from the rest of the John Marston business, which retained the Sunbeam motorcycles and bicycles. Starting in 1912, they had also branched out into aircraft engines, introducing a series of engines that were not particularly successful commercially. During World War I, the company built motorcycles, trucks and ambulances. The company also participated in the Society of British Aircraft Constructors pool, who shared aircraft designs to anyone that could build them. On August 13, 1920, Sunbeam merged with the French company Automobiles Darracq S.A. Alexandre Darracq built his first car in 1896, and his cars were so successful that Alfa Romeo and Opel both started out in the car industry by building Darracqs under licence. Sunbeamsgreat age was really the 1920s under Coatalen’s leadership with very well engineered, high quality, reliable cars — and a great reputation on the track. They did not really survive the depression, in 1935 went into receivership, and sold to Lord Rootes. The last true Sunbeam was made in 1935. The new entry model “Dawn” was a typical mid 30’s design with independent front suspension.

Sunbeam Overview:
Sunbeam was a marque registered by John Marston Co. Ltd of Wolverhampton, England, in 1888. The company first made bicycles, then motorcycles and cars from the late 19th century to circa 1936, and applied the marque to all three forms of transportation. A Sunbeam was the first British car to win a Grand Prix race, and set a number of land speed records.

Other Sunbeam Details:
During the great depression, the Rootes Group headed by brothers, William “Billy” and Reginald purchased Sunbeam. They quickly introduced a new marque in 1938 called Sunbeam-Talbot, which combined the quality Talbot coachwork, and the current Hillman and Humber chassis and were assembled at the Talbot factory in London. After a series of models, the Rootes was itself in financial trouble. In 1964, 30 percent of the company was purchased by Chrysler, which was attempting to enter the European market. Chryslersexperience with the Rootes Empire appears to have been an unhappy one. The last Sunbeam produced was the "Rootes Arrow" series Alpine/Rapier fastback (1967-76), after which Chrysler, who had purchased Rootes, disbanded the marque.