>> Here is a picture of a 1899 model from the "Complete
>> Catalogue of British Cars 1895-1975" by David Culshaw &
>> Peter Horrobin. It is the only picture of a pre-1900 model.
Well, I've had some feedback on the picture Bob posted last week. I don't
have a positive ID on the car unfortunately. The driver however had been
identified as a Mr Morgan! Don't ask me how the boys in the STD Register
knew that.
The car in Bob's picture has the horizontal engine which means it cannot be
the first Sunbeam. The first car had a conventional vertical arrangement.
I was wrong in one respect. I thought that the second model (described as
No. 2 on my homepage) from 1900 was completely different to the first car
from 1899. They were closely related as it turns out and the second car may
in fact have been the first car rebuilt with a new engine. This means that
the first and second cars would have looked very similar.
Just to confuse matters though it appears that Sunbeam built three examples
of the model I call "No. 2". The first is the one I describe above which was
based on No. 1. The two subsequent cars had different bodywork. The car in
Bob's picture could be any one of these cars.
By the way Bob, one of the people my contact consulted was also named Bob
Hamilton. :-)
Russ Maddock
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