1923 Sunbeam 14hp Two Seat Tourer with Dickey

The 14hp was Sunbeam’s first four cylinder car after the First World War. The well proven overhead valve 1954cc engine had magneto ignition and provided good performance, particularly with such light coachwork. The Sunbeam Talbot Darracq Register has long been a good supporter of these cars and there’s much technical knowledge and advice available.

This particular 14hp Sunbeam really is a wonderful piece of social history, with just three custodians in all. It’s well documented story begins on the 6^th of September 1923 when it was supplied new by George Oates & Co, Motor Engineers of Wellington, Somerset, for a cost of £684.1.3, to Frances Gill of Beaconsfield and was to be her first and only motor car. She celebrated the Sunbeam’s arrival by taking it on a tour of Scotland with a friend. In the winter of 1939, Miss Gill had the misfortune of skidding on ice en route to Stoke-sub-Hamdon; the motor car tipped on its side onto a grass verge but luckily, a platoon of Infantry were passing and pulled the Sunbeam upright with no apparent damage caused. Soon after and because of petrol shortages, the motor car was laid up for the duration of the Second World War. After the War ended, the Sunbeam was removed from storage and enjoyed on a tour of Britain, apparently without any incidents whatsoever. When the motor car needed new tyres, Miss Gill had them made at Dunlop via the Sunbeam Owner’s Club. By the early Sixties, increasing traffic and advancing age meant that the Sunbeam became too difficult to manage for its custodian, so in 1964 it was sold to the dealer Louis Rapaport of Manchester, who retained ownership for eleven years. Apparently in 1966, the motor car made an appearance in the Morecambe and Wise film “That Riviera Touch”.

The current collector owner purchased ‘Mary’ the Sunbeam 14hp in 1975 and has since carried out many improvements. All coachwork was treated to a hand repaint with coach enamel in 1977, and the brakes were relined and the motor car rewired. The engine was comprehensively reconditioned in 1998 - 99 by specialists Roger Carter, Roger Harle, Ivan Dutton and F. J. Payne and Sons Ltd. A new fuel tank was fabricated by Star Engineering and we understand that only a nominal number of miles have been covered since this rebuild in the late Nineties. Recent attention has included the fitting of a new battery and four new tyres. The Sunbeam is equipped with German silver Rotax lamps and the original tools in their correct cloth bag. YA 6880 is well known to the S.T.D Register and featured in two 2020 newsletters.

The history file includes the original sales invoice (detailing the full specification), together with an original handbook, the RF60 registration book, the V5C registration certificate, historical photographs of the Gill family, correspondence, further information on the Sunbeam during Miss Gill’s ownership, invoices and a photocopy of the coachbuilder’s drawing.

SOLD