Vintage Thing No. 164 - Gullwing Sunbeam Alpine

This is a CAD image developed by Stuart Brown in response to the photo below (Image : Stuart Brown)

This is a mystery car that Stuart Brown is trying to track down. Finding any information about it would be a bonus.

The only known image of the car in question. (Photo : Facebook)

Our story begins with this mysterious photograph on the Facebook group page for 50s and 60s specials. This is the junction of Oxford Street and Vere Street in 1960s London. Look at the car on the right about to join the traffic. 

Stuart has modelled the whole car including the interior (Image : Stuart Brown)

Despite a wealth of knowledge among the members of this group, nobody was able to identify it. Close inspection suggests it has the proportions and tail lamps of a Sunbeam Alpine, although the nose is completely different. 

The wrap-around windscreen has a pronounced dog leg and - if you look really closely - the door shut lines extend into the roof so they may have hinged at the top like a Mercedes 300SL coupe from the 50s.

The wheel trims obscure the wheels but it seems reasonable to assume that this car was based on a Sunbeam Alpine.

This is the book in which the photo originally appeared (Photo : Facebook)

The image had been scanned in from a book on buses and trolleybuses but the origin of the image, including who took it and when, remain unknown.

Stuart Brown became so fascinated by this car he used his professional CAD skills to model the car in virtual 3D and develop images of what this vehicle might have looked like.

A conjectural view without the pedestrians (Image : Stuart Brown)

He didn't have a lot to go on. The original is partially obscured by two pedestrians so the front shut line of the door and the angle of the screen are conjectural but I say he's done a fine job.

This looks like my attic! Acquiring this pile of old magazines gave Stuart his only lead so far (Photo : Stuart Brown)

The mystery car may not have had gullwing doors. Perhaps they could have opened as Stuart has shown, hinged from the front bulkhead.

He's also - against all the odds and after a massive trawl through old magazines - turned up this interesting advert from Autosport magazine from 1964.

It seems reasonable to assume that this could be the same car but in red (Photo : Stuart Brown)

So it was based on a Sunbeam, a 1961 model, and would have been either an Alpine or a Rapier, although the proportions are wrong for the latter. It also had a special chassis as well as the glamorous aluminium bodywork.

However this car was red when advertised! The plot thickens.

£200 sounds a bargain for all that skilled fabrication.

You want in red? Easy with CAD (Image : Stuart Brown)

So who built it? Stuart has visited Bishops Waltham but Hoe Farm is no more. Nobody he's found on his visit or in searches on the net has identified the vendor called Jones. 

So if anyone knows anything more about this car, please get in touch via the comments on this blog or contact Stuart direct via CAD CAR.