WB's Sunbeam rises once again

It has to be mildly pleasing to hear that a car which you once owned is still in good hands, having perhaps been restored.

The Sunbeam 16 shooting brake which Jenks and I once shared, and which he used as transport for his racing motorcycles, was eventually left to rot in Jenks’ field. However, it has now been fully restored and given a smart touring body.

We acquired it after it had been used by an enthusiastic doctor, who had the second body constructed to replace a fabric saloon body which had become derelict after many years of service, including Alpine tours. The only non-vintage item, apart from the replacement body, was the 1931 Sunbeam brakes, so effective that during an MoT check the tester, having asked me to stop, nearly went through the screen.

I have heard since that a similar Sunbeam, a 1931 Tickford saloon once owned by the late George Bance, and which I had forgotten I had stored for him when it was in a derelict condition, then went to J W Crosley. In 1978 he sold the car on to T H Stone, who passed it on a year later to Jeff Wright in Soham. He put in much work on it before Bob Frost, who looks after the STD Register’s photo library, took it over. After 40 years off the road it is now running like a new car.