>From Chris McGovern's Alpine: The Classic Sunbeam:
"It was intended that the Harrington Alpine be marketed in the standard
trim form, with the optional extra of trimming to customers' requirements.
But because of the sudden influx of orders received after the announcement,
most of the cars were personalized and very few were actually made in
standard form. Apart from the various types of trim available as optional
extras, three stages of engine tune were offered, the result of work
carried out in conjunction with George Hartwell, Ltd. The third stage was
fitted with twin 40 DCOE Weber carburettors, with a 10.2 to 1 compresssion
ratio. This was capable of over 110 mph, and gave 0-60 mph in 10.6
seconds, and yet still returned around 22 mpg when driven hard under test
conditions.
"The most prolific of the Harrington Alpines must be the Le Mans,
which dropped the Alpine name from its title, and was known in the U.K. as
the Sunbeam Harrinton Le Mans, and in North America as the Sunbeam Le Mans
G.T. It was introduced at the Earls Court Motor Show in 1961 as a limited
production model, in celebration of Harper and Proctor winning the Index of
Thermal Efficiency as the 1961 Le Mans. The body conversion was more
radical than the previous Harrington Alpine, being fitted with a glass
fibre fixed head coupe style roof, which was bonded onto cut down rear
wings, disposing of the fins completely, and incorporated a large rear
window/cum luggage door which opened in the same whay as modern hatchbacks
do today."
Then came the "C" type from 1962 to 1963 which used the Series 2 Alpine
body, and put the fins back on. Then came the "D" type in 1963 which used
the Series 3 Alpine body and the vertical fins and front door quater
lights. Very few "D" types were built, some might have been built on a
Series 4 body, but only one is known to exist.
Under a caption of a picture of an engine of a Harrington Le Mans - the one
without the fins, McGovern comments "The engine of the Le Mans was
allegedly tuned to the same specification as that of the car which ran in
the 24 hour race." At the end of the book, in the Appendices, there is a
reprint of a 1962 article from "Autocar" on the Harrington Le Mans. In the
article, it says "the increase in price over the normal ALpine does not
merely include these body alterations but also a moderately high degree of
tuning to the engine. The small extra weight penalty that this body work
entails is more than compensated for by increased power; the engine
modifications are carried out by George Hartwell Ltd., of Bournemouth, a
firm which has had many years' experience of tuning these power units.
Modifications to the engine include a new cam shaft, reshaping of the inlet
and exhaust ports, and a change of choke and jet sizes in the two
down-draught Zenith carburettors. These alterations, it is claimed, raise
the power output from 80 bhp at 5000 rpm to 96 bhp at 6000 rpm. This,
however, must be a purely theoretical figure, since the point of valve
crash is reached well below this engine speed at 5800 rpm."
So there you have it. The cars did come tuned differently than the
standard Alpine. Except that the changes were not visible from looking at
the outside of the engine (unless someone opted to be even hotter with the
Webers). Hopefully for those that are lucky enough to have one of these
cars, someone has not previously swapped standard carbs, cams or heads for
their hot ones. McGovern also warned that there are some private parties
who have tried to convert Alpines into Harringtons by recreating the
fiberglass tops. However, he said most of these conversions failed to also
do the "substantial" body reinforcement modifications. Do I see a need for
a HAC here?
I also have an article in an old Horn about Harringtons. I can't get to it
just now. But, I do seem to recall that it said the C and D type
designations were not official factory designations.
I know, I need to get back to work.
Jay
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