Sunbeam of Wolverhampton, through their Chief designer Louis Coatalen, had risen to pre-eminence in the competition field with developments of their production cars at Brooklands and the Coupe de L’Auto races in the period from 1910-1913.  Achieving a famous 1-2-3 victory in the 1912 Coupe de L’Auto (a 3-litre formula) the 1913 event proved disappointing for Sunbeam, only finishing third to two Peugeots driven by Boillot and Goux. Peugeot had turned up with a revolutionary design by the Swiss engineer Ernest Henry, a three litre 16 valve, twin-overhead camshaft, four cylinder engine, with the camshafts directly driven by a train of gears. This was without question the most advanced and powerful racing engine of the day. It had been developed in a separate works set up specifically to produce the ultimate racing machines. It was so ingenious and successful, that it had enormous influence on engine design for many years to come, and this breakthrough was not lost on Coatalen

With the Coupe de L’Auto formula going down to 2½ litres for 1914, Peugeot, like Sunbeam sold off their 3 litre cars and started work on the new formulae for the 1914 Tourist Trophy (TT) and Grand Prix (GP).  One of those Peugeot’s went to Jacques Menier in France while another was bought by Henry Royce to study and was kept by him until the start of WW1.  The third went to Louis Coatalen, which had been on a publicity tour in the hands of Dario Resta (an Italian born naturalised Briton) during the Autumn of 1913, and in extreme secrecy was brought to his home Waverley House, Goldthorn Road in Wolverhampton, aided by Jean Chassagne. Here it was totally stripped and detailed drawings were made of all the parts by two of Sunbeam’s draughtsmen, Hugh Rose and Ted Hatlands, enabling scaling up of perfect copies to a 3.3 litre version for the revived RAC Tourist Trophy race, before it was reassembled. When the car was back together it was driven to Moorfield Works so that the engine could be bench-tested before returning it to France without trace.

Coatalen had Tourist Trophy experience and had previously designed, built and driven special cars for the 1906, 1907 and 1908 races for Humber and Hillman.  The new RAC formula for the revived Tourist Trophy consisted of only two major specifications, an unusual engine capacity of 3310cc and a minimum weight of 21 1/2 cwt, or 2,408lbs including the driver and riding mechanic.  The 600 mile race, over the 37 ½ mile Isle of Man (IOM) circuit, involved 16 laps spread over two days taking place on 10th and 11th June 1914, and attracted Sunbeam plus eight other manufacturer’s entries. 24 cars in all.

Coatalen had not only to consider up-scaling his Peugeot ‘copy’ design to TT spec, but also to the 4½ litre capacity limit required of the Grand Prix de L’ACF in Lyon taking place on 4th July 1914.  For this latter up-scale he wanted to further develop and improve the Peugeot design, so some serious redesign and modifications were done, especially to the valve gear and lubrication system, and IOM2 seemed to be the test-bed for these improvements.  Sunbeam had intended building eight chassis to cover the two races, although how many individual cars were actually completed (as opposed to being repurposed) remains uncertain, as the GP and TT cars were very similar in design, so flexibility certainly existed for the cars to be re-engineered for the Grand Prix, fitted with 4½ litre engines, slightly longer wheelbase, deeper radiators, and higher gearing, if necessary. What is certain is that they made four TT specification cars.

That 21½ cwt minimum weight allowed Coatalen to design a car based on a modified 12/16 chassis, but with underslung rather than outrigged rear axle, and running gear which was perfectly able to cope with the further power increase delivered by the 4½ litre engines for the very fast Lyon Grand Prix circuit.  The TT cars had engines set back in extra long sub-frames and certainly in the case of IOM2, predrilled for the option of fitting the larger engine, as is still clearly evident on the sub-frame. It may even have been tested with the 4 1/2 litre engine prior to the TT. By the end of March, the 1914 TT cars with 3,265cc (81.5 x 156.4mm) capacity engines had been built in the Racing and Experimental department and were being tested at Brooklands. In May further tests were carried out there in company with one of the GP cars, ironing out the finer details which always took place with new racing cars, and as this was the first time Sunbeam had used wire wheels with knock-off nuts, drivers and mechanics put in a lot of practice changing wheels.

The three ‘copy’ chassis, with short wheelbase of 8’10” and track of 4’8” were well suited for the twisty Isle of Man circuit and these Tourist Trophy Sunbeams were not only direct clones of their Peugeot counterparts, they shared virtually no components with production Sunbeam cars of the period. The fourth car IOM2, whilst outwardly identical had a much less slavish adaptation of the Henry engine design including improved valve operation using ‘finger’ tappets operating on the camshafts, rather than the rod and stirrup of the Henry design, weighing about a quarter of that on the ‘copy’ cars. 2-bolt crankshaft journals were also tried rather than the normal 4. With different gearbox ratios, dry sump lubrication, the oil tank beneath the driver and a scavenger/pressure pump system, this was the car on which the Sunbeam Company based their entries for the Grand Prix, enlarged to 4 1/2 litres, and were in most respects identical to IOM2. Regardless of how IOM2 was going to perform on the IOM, Coatalen must have decided this latter valve arrangement was superior to the copy cars, as all the Grand Prix engines were manufactured to the same ‘finger’ tappet design.

A maximum of three cars per team were allowed to race at the TT, although four cars were prepared and all set off for the Isle of Man, temporarily registered on 23rd May 1914 by the Sunbeam Motor Company with IOM plates MN523, MN524, MN525 and MN526. Three being pure ‘copy’ cars, and the fourth, IOM2 as MN526 for Dario Resta, with Tommy Harrison his riding mechanic as race car number 15, which had all the GP car modifications and was used as a flying test bed. Riding mechanics were essential as the fuel pressure was maintained by a hand pump, the oil feeds needed monitoring and punctures were a regular occurrence requiring rapid wheel changes. Captain HW Bunbury was the spare team riding mechanic and amongst the pit crew.

They gathered at the Fort Ann Hotel in Douglas, where several professional and amateur photographs were taken of the team before the race. All four cars took part in the practice sessions in the days beforehand, but only three would start the race which included IOM2.

The race itself is thoroughly described in Anthony Heal’s excellent book “Sunbeam Racing Cars 1910-1930”, but the night before the race it poured with rain, so splash guards were fitted over the offside front wheels on the Sunbeams and studded tyres replaced plain treaded ones on alternative wheels in time for the start at 9 am. That said, with the roads still very wet, the cars set off at 90 second intervals. The Guinness brothers kept ahead of the field, but Resta suffered a conrod bolt failure and IOM2 was out, retired at Ramsey with a hole in the crankcase and a smashed conrod and piston, however he was able to return slowly along the coast road to headquarters. Algernon Guinness retained second place until lap 14 on day 2, when a seized universal joint on the prop-shaft ended his race. Kenelm Lee Guinness finally won averaging 56.44 mph for 600 miles, with Riecken’s Minerva finishing second, twenty minutes later. Sunbeam also earned the Henry Edmonds Trophy awarded for the fastest assent of the hill from Ramsey to the Bungalow.

Back to Wolverhampton with all four cars and IOM2 left there for a thorough examination of the whys and wherefores of the damage. 

The Sunbeam Technical Director’s report after the race, included substantial technical details and specifications, noting “Resta had trouble because we used studs instead of the usual cap bolts and one came loose during race”. He also later added “the history of these IOM racers is very romantic”.

The Sunbeam Experimental and Racing Department was being overstretched, as they also had to produce racing engines for the motor boat races in Monaco and two types of aeroplane engines, however three cars were indeed completed and readied for the Grand Prix in early July. The team arrived in Lyon only shortly before the race, lacking testing and familiarisation with only one practice day left. The 4th July start had the cars off in pairs, and Mercedes were back with no less than a five car team and took a 1, 2, 3 victory, with Goux fourth in Peugeot II and Resta fifth in Sunbeam II. Chassagne’s Sunbeam I was out with conrod bolt failure, and Guinness was also out with a broken piston. 

Just as August brought the start of WWI, the GP cars were sent off to America with pointed tails attached, for Indianapolis and board track racing. One was crashed, it’s engine finding it’s way in due course into a 1914 Peugeot chassis. The other two took part in 1915, subsequently returning to England and being fitted with 6 cylinder, 4.9 litre engines for testing, returning in 1916 for Indianapolis, when Joseph Christiaens finished 4th.

Dario Resta also went to America to drive for Peugeot, winning the Vanderbilt Cup in 1915 and again in 1916, when he also became the first Englishman to win the Indianapolis 500.

In the latter war years, the Sunbeam racing department had a stock of dismantled TT components including the ‘copy’ TT engines, axles, gearboxes, and radiators etc, with parts being used when and where appropriate. It seems the only car still complete was IOM2, now fitted with new super-spec con-rod bolts and a sheet brass patch riveted over the exit hole (still clearly visible today in the original crankcase), as basically everything that was racing was in America. Ironically it’s failure on the Isle of Man, meant IOM2 remained the only standard Tourist Trophy car, thus saved from being re-engineered into a GP or 6-cylinder chassis,

After the war ended, the Sunbeam racing department re-chassis’d the other spare TT engines, radiators and components, reassembling the cars with tourer bodies using the parts as available. As far as is apparent, they did this with two of the ‘copy’ engines, IOM1 and IOM4, the pair being sold in the early 1920s. Both cars survive, have long histories themselves and been put back close to original specification, with IOM3 seemingly being consumed as spare parts in the process. The three surviving cars are accepted by all authorities to be genuine TT examples.

Sunbeam’s face at the odd organised event after the war was thus likely, though not definitely, to be IOM2 and we find mention of a TT Sunbeam at Liverpool speed trials on 16 May 1921, driven by C V Cozens which got two places, including a first, and on 4th June 1921, Henry Seagrave got fastest time of the day at Holme Moss Hill Climb. 

All of which saw IOM2, painted grey in TT specification, like its 1913 predecessor duly equipped with mudguards and running boards supporting a battery box and lights, sitting at Sunbeam Agent, R F Fuggle in Bushey Heath for sale in 1923 at £500.  It was snapped up by a young 23 year old New Zealander, C W F (Bill) Hamilton who was in the UK to help his father consult London medical specialists unavailable at home. In 1921 Bill had borrowed £9,000 from his father to buy the 23,000 acre Irishman Creek hill sheep station in Mackenzie country at an altitude of 2,400 feet in view of Mount Cook.  He sold his Bugatti when his father’s health prompted him to engage the previous manager to look after the station for him while they took off to stay with Bill’s sister Kitty and her husband in London.  At a loose end, and seeking a replacement for the Bugatti, he had not taken long to find Fuggle’s, and shortly afterwards, a welcome invitation to spend a weekend in the country with an old friend was arranged, so complete with IOM2 he went to meet Peggy Wills, the elder sister of Matthew and Lucy (of the tobacco family) at the Smithson family home in Finchampstead.

Bill and Peggy clicked, went for a tour of Scotland with friends in the Sunbeam and a Harley-Davidson combination, were married in October 1923 and returned to Irishman Creek on the P&O Moldovia in November, with the Sunbeam following on a later ship. From this moment onwards, IOM2 became the only TT car with a completely clear identity, due to it’s isolation in New Zealand and the incredibly detailed history recorded there. The car arrived in Christchurch at Lawrence Motors in Tuam Street in April 1924 to be greeted by a large and interested crowd.

The rest of 1924 was spent getting Irishman Creek into shape, and building and equipping a workshop. Bill was however wary of that riveted brass patch on the Sunbeam’s crankcase and was determined to completely strip down and check over the whole engine before venturing to the 1925 Muriwai Beach race meeting about 20 miles west of Auckland.  Now registered MK390, he prepared the car with assistance from Stan Jones, a garage proprietor in the small country village of Fairlie - a long testing run across a dusty shingle road from Irishman Creek station. See photograph of Bill Hamilton, Stan Jones (his riding mechanic) together with Jim and Bill Bain with IOM2 outside the workshop in early 1925.

All preparation duly done, Bill and his mate Andy Irving with a Brescia Bugatti drove 700 miles over rutted and shingle roads up to the North Island, Auckland and beyond to Muriwai Beach for the New Zealand Motor Cup. An extraordinary photograph shows the car parked with the tent, as they were sleeping among the Muriwai sand dunes where they camped and did their pre-race tuning and repairs in that challenging environment. Races were run at low tide with the sand damp and firmly packed.

Held on 21st February, Race 4 was the main attraction of the meeting and was over 50 miles with seven turns for the New Zealand Motor Cup. Lined up against IOM2 amongst others were, an Indianapolis Stutz, a modified type 22 Bugatti, a 30/98 Vauxhall and a Grand Prix Itala. From a rolling start, it was a 12 1/2 mile lap, there and back down the long beach of 6 1/4 miles, with a hairpin at each end. After a close fought race, Hamilton won by 36 seconds at an average speed of 81.5 mph, and Bill with Stan Jones as riding mechanic were rewarded for their efforts with the big prize of the New Zealand Motor Cup.

An attempt at the Australasian 5-mile Speed Record was to be staged at the end of the day but due to the rising tide, was postponed to the next day when conditions were better. Bill duly returned with the Sunbeam on the Sunday and achieved his first Australasian Land Speed Record covering the distance, two ways, at an electronically timed average of 2 min 59.6 seconds, equal to 100.27mph, thereby becoming the first person verified to officially record the magic 100mph in the whole of the Southern Hemisphere. Following his momentous achievements Bill enjoyed a leisurely tour with the car on the long way back home again.

Matthew Wills also arrived in New Zealand and purchased neighbouring Opawa Station in March 1925 and with a strong wish to beat brother-in-law Bill, made contact with R F Fuggle to purchase one of the 3 litre straight eight cars, the very car in which Chassagne had won the 1922 IOM TT race, which he received just in time for the 1926 event. So a threesome team went north for the NZ Motor Cup in 1926, with Bill not the least bit worried about his opposition who was in a later car.  For not only had he obtained from Sunbeam a crate full of their remaining 1914 TT spares, he had done some aerodynamic work on replacing the original big bolster tank with a new smaller one in a streamline tail, and replacing the original Claudel Hobson carb with a set of twin Claudel carbs that cured the idling problems caused by the single Claudel.

On 13th February 1926, at Muriwai Beach, race Four was again the prestige race of the day for the New Zealand Motor Cup over 50 miles with nine turns. Bill was leading in IOM2 for much of the first two laps until RB (Bob) Wilson, in the big 5-litre Stutz really opened up, while Wills made good use of his four-wheel brakes on the wet sand in the 1922 eight-cylinder car to finish second, with IOM2 third. This was the only occasion that the later car was faster than the 1914 car. However, race six was the 18-mile Open Handicap with 5 turns and Bill in IOM2 beat the lot. Bill Hamilton always maintained that the 1914 car was appreciably faster and easier to handle than the 1922 Sunbeam due to it’s more rugged design and lighter unsprung weight.

Another attempt at the Australasian 5-mile Land Speed Record was to be staged at the end of the day but again due to the rising tide, was postponed to the next day. Bill with IOM2 returned on the Sunday, however he was unsuccessful in his efforts, recording a time of 3 min 19.6 seconds at 90.18mph on the wet sand.

Afterwards Bill then returned home to really get to grips with the workshop.  He made up a set of alloy pistons with a higher compression ratio and much reduced reciprocating weight, which allowed maximum revs up from 3,000 with the iron pistons, to some 3,300rpm at which the very long stroke reached heady piston speeds for the time.  He fitted twin ACME carburettors and a lot of fast practice runs over those shingle roads led to a final collapse of the central main ball bearing in the engine, which in turn, broke the crankshaft at the centre.  The crate of spares had this massive new ball race and Bill set about welding the shaft and getting it reassembled, improving the oil feed to the bearing races in time for the 1927 race.

On 5th March 1927, the big race at Muriwai Beach with nine turns lacked Matthew’s eight-cylinder 1922 TT car, which had dropped a valve in practice, Bert Shorter’s (ex-Count Louis Zborowski’s) 2 litre Miller, which had thrown a rod and Meredith’s eight-cylinder Bugatti with various ailments.  Bill started behind the Strasbourg car but soon overtook it and led for 25 miles up until around half way, before his main oil pipe fractured well down the beach and he was out. The Strasbourg 2 litre was no match for the Stutz which just crossed the finish line before its crankcase disintegrated.

By the 1928 Muriwai meeting on 4th February, Matthew Wills had given up and sold the 1922 car to George Henning, who duly lined up for the big race, event 5, the New Zealand Motor Cup as did Bill Hamilton with IOM2, Wilson with the Stutz, now totally rebuilt by Mason-Porter, the Miller now owned by Keith Cutten and thus properly rebuilt and repaired, Bauchop with the Thomas Special, Charlie East from Sydney with a type 37 Bugatti and Hugh Carter with a Mercer.

The revived Stutz got a lead, being really pushed by the Miller, with the rest some 40 seconds later, but the Miller lost its earth wire and Cutten didn’t find the problem in time to rejoin the fray, so Wilson could relax a bit, but only a bit as Bill was only four seconds behind.  Both the East Bugatti and Carter’s Mercer were well back, and Henning dropped a valve in the eight cylinder car wrecking one cylinder block and holing the crankcase. At the end, Bill in IOM2 came second in 36 minutes, 28 seconds to Wilson’s 35 minutes 56 seconds for his third win, who thus kept the New Zealand Motor Cup. Later that day, IOM2 then took second place in the 12 mile All-comers Handicap. At the conclusion of the meeting it was intended for a five mile speed test, however the holiday crowds invaded the beach preventing the attempt. Nevertheless returning the following day a suitable one mile stretch was located when IOM2 averaged 95.1mph.

By this stage, IOM2 had a top speed in the vicinity of 115 mph, but drag on the beach prevented this being attained at Muriwai. Therefore nearer to home, on 3rd March 1928, Bill Hamilton took IOM2 to the Oreti Beach race meeting, the second of three such events four miles South of Invercargill. Organised by the Southland Motor Sports Association, Oreti Beach was considered to have less drag, and they had a great day of racing, including winning the 24 mile Dominion Speed Cup, beating Andy Irvine’s Bugatti, not only receiving a miniature but the sizeable sum of £150, equal to more than £8,000 today.

After the meeting the electronic timing gear was set up and put in position for an attempt at the national mile record. CWF Hamilton in the Sunbeam had really good runs, setting an electronically-timed Australasian Flying Mile record of 33.0 seconds, an average speed of 109.09mph. a truly astonishing feat in what was a 14 year old car.

The final recorded ‘in period’ race with the Sunbeam was on 17th March at Waikouaiti Beach, when Bill and IOM2 won the twelve mile Dunedin Championship race, beating Andy Irving’s Bugatti and averaging 74.1 mph.

For 1929, Peggy’s parents gave the Hamiltons a trip back to the UK, and she, having sold her much campaigned Alvis in New Zealand, went looking for a replacement and bought a second hand 4½ litre Bentley.  In June they both took cars to Le Mans to see the Bentley 1, 2, 3, 4 exercise.  Bill decided to enter the 1930 Brooklands’ Easter Meeting and Bentley Motors allowed him to use their workshop to prepare the car, resulting in three wins in a day, a feat never to be equalled, and much fame.  But the family’s return to NZ with the Bentley saw IOM2 moved down the pecking order.

The Hamilton Sunbeam story however had not ended in 1928, as the car continued to feature for years to come. Bill subsequently decided to reconvert the old racer to a family touring car, building a light tubing body frame, suitable mudguards, fitted lights and modified a four-branch exhaust and under body pipe, re-spoking the wheels and changing to well-base 20 inch tyres from the original beaded edge ones, giving it quite a modern look for the ‘30’s. According to Peggy, this was their only road car for a number of years.

A two page illustrated article was written in the April 1938 issue of Motorsport following a visit, concluding with “This car, which I understand is still going well, must be the one driven by Resta. The New Zealand one is probably the only one existing in it’s original state, for the old racing body still remains hung-up in the rafters of Mr Hamilton’s wool shed awaiting the revival of racing in New Zealand”

However, with Bill’s contracting and machinery business taking all his time, IOM2 began to languish in the back of the workshop, that is until in 1940 when it was sold to John Farnsworth who put the car into touring trim with a hood, side-curtains, dynamo, headlamps and other creature comforts, which it still lacked.

In an illustrated letter to The Autocar published on 6th February 1942, this was evident and Farnsworth noted “Maximum speed in full touring trim was just about 100 mph, this corresponding to 3,100 rpm.  Third gear gave 65 and second about 40 mph.  Road holding was superb, aided by the marked crab-track and suspension was hard in the ‘pur-sang’ manner.  The standing quarter mile could be covered in a fraction under 20 seconds.  The safe rev limit was 3,300.  This was with the high compression alloy pistons, the original steel pistons rev limit was 3000.  Running around town I regularly obtained 22 mpg on a 50-50 petrol-benzole mixture”. He related “I had stripped the engine at Christmas 1940, and found it in well-nigh perfect condition, and with careful handling it should last for years yet”.

John Farnsworth was a flying instructor but since flying instructors had other things to do in 1941 he decided to sell the car. He had quoted in Autocar, “it has gone to a good home”…. unfortunately it hadn’t, it went to Andy McIntosh in Invercargill who had seen Hamilton competing with it at Oreti Beach. McIntosh, had raced, used and appreciated similar cars himself, having owned Brescia Bugattis, a Hudson, and a Brooklands 200 mile Horstman. IOM2, albeit somewhat disguised by this time, was still a potent and well known car.

Not long after its purchase McIntosh was demonstrating the Sunbeam engine to a friend in his garage, allegedly blipping the throttle near 5,000 rpm while stationary in neutral as if it was a Bugatti, when he revved the motor once too often, and with a clattering thud a rod came through the side. The super bolts didn’t let go, the little end parted company with the rest of the rod, which simply came through the side of the crank-case.

McIntosh had what today would be referred to as a recycling business and at that point the Sunbeam joined the cars in the yard outside.  Fortunately word quickly reached Bill Hamilton that his old Sunbeam was about to be broken up, and he immediately despatched his nephew, Dick Georgeson in some haste to buy the car back. Luckily McIntosh only had time to cut off the front and rear of the chassis together with the axles, selling them as trailer sets, (which astonishingly were both later tracked down and reunited). The majority of the car, including engine, flywheel, clutch, gearbox, and steering, all in the subframe unit, together with radiator, instruments, oil tank, aeroscreen, hand fuel pump and other minor parts were collected and returned to Irishman Creek by Georgeson and safely stowed in the garage attic.

The next chapter in the Sunbeam story took place when a Vintage rally stopped overnight at Irishman Creek during Easter 1954 and the after-dinner conversation soon centred on the old Sunbeam and its fate.  Hamilton mentioned that the remains of the car with some factory spares from Sunbeam lay in one of his sheds and after further discussion it was decided that the Vintage Car Club would undertake to restore the car, and that Bill was happy to make the donation on that basis. 

The car was duly collected by Andrew Anderson (a founder member of the VCCNZ) in a 40/50 Napier, who jolted down the narrow track from Irishman Creek to the main road that afternoon loaded down with the dismantled Sunbeam. All of this was then stowed in his garage until a Club committee was formed, under the direction of Bob Turnbull and Graham Hall to decide what to do with it all. This included all the major parts collected from McIntosh plus some factory spares located at Irishman Creek. All went with Bill Hamilton’s blessing to the Canterbury branch of the Vintage Car Club of New Zealand. Anderson and Hamilton were well known to each other as the family foundry had been a supplier of castings to CWF Hamilton Ltd.

For four years the committee formed to restore the car discussed restoring it, but they finally decided that the Club itself was not prepared to make the investment in time and effort. Finally at the Executive Meeting on 2 November 1957, Rob Shand moved that Andrew Anderson’s offer to take it all over and restore the car be accepted, seconded by Bert Tonks and carried.

Andrew Anderson then set about recovering the trailer sets which were found in the most unlikely places around Invercargill, and the search for unique IOM2 parts, lost for more than 15 years had amazingly successful results.  In 1962 the front axle set was found under a trailer on a farm near Invercargill, where it had been lengthened by 18”. Three years later the distinctive underslung rear axle was discovered beneath a lime spreader near Bluff, both original axles with respective chassis sections were officially verified and now reunited with the rest of the car.  The original bonnet sides turned up in Invercargill.  The round 30 gallon bolster fuel tank originally taken off the car in 1926 was found at Irishman Creek (still containing gravel, presumably for ballast) where Bill was using it as a fuel tank for a stand-by diesel engine in his workshop, the other carburettors and original exhaust manifold were also discovered. 

One problem was that Anderson was unable to get measurements to confirm the original length of the chassis side-rails (which had been used as fence posts), however the exact details fell into his lap rather unexpectedly after another Vintage rally to Irishman Creek.  A club member sleeping off the effects of the night before in one of the farm buildings awoke blearily to study the rafters in an effort to work out where he was and why, when to his amazement he saw up there what appeared to be body components of a Vintage car.  It was the side panels, body sections and rail that had enclosed the bolster tank that Hamilton and Jones had removed when they built the pointed tail for the 1926 Cup race.  These had been replaced by the crude touring body during the 1930’s, mentioned in the 1938 Motorsport article being in the wool shed.  These body components (which remain with, or are still part of the car today) clearly showed the chassis mounting points and from these the Andersons were able to confirm the length of the missing chassis section, ratified by a visit to England to see a sister car. With measurements of the side-rails being the same as a standard 12/16 chassis, an original one of these was located in Auckland to help with the IOM2 rebuild, and an exacting restoration was commenced, with Ian Taylor doing much of the work grafting on the original end sections and reassembling the chassis. Other helpers included Bill Inglis, Gordon Sharpe and Trevor Timms.

The engine was another problem because the patched crankcase was now ruined after the McIntosh blow-up, so it was decided to invest £1,500 in having a new crankcase cast.  A fourth connecting rod was carved from a sold billet and the lightweight 8 to 1 compression pistons that Hamilton had fitted (in place of the drilled steel pistons from the factory) replaced by modern 7 to 1 pistons. Brian Middlemass, curator of the Queenstown Motor Museum handled the rebuild of the 3.3 litre engine while the Andersons pressed on with the assembly of the famous works Sunbeam. Missing parts such as clutch and brake mechanisms were copies from the ex Matthew Wills car, by that time owned by Rob Shand. Finally by 1979, IOM2 was running again,

The measure of Andrew Anderson’s thoroughness ensured that IOM2 remained a highly original and authentic 1914 TT team car, the only one to have left Sunbeam in that form, and unique in being the only surviving Tourist Trophy Sunbeam with existing parts of it’s original body. It retains all of it’s major components sitting in the rebuilt chassis. Retaining it’s original radiator marked IOM2, distinctive TT exhaust manifold, original instruments and all three of the inlet manifold and carburettor set ups used variously in the TT (Single Claudel Hobson), the 100.27mph record in 1925 (twin Claudel’s), and the 109.09mph mile record in 1928 (twin ACME’s). The original IOM2 block, with the overhead cams and timing gears is in it’s original sub-frame driving through the racing ‘EX’ gearbox with TT gear ratios, sitting on it’s Rudge wheels and IOM front and rear axles with Houdaille shock absorbers on each corner. One of the first trips after restoration was the historic and nostalgic run from Fairlie along the road across Ashwick Flat – (now tar sealed) to Irishman Creek station where the New Zealand part of the TT Sunbeam saga had started 55 years previously in 1924.

Andrew Anderson eventually sold IOM2 to the well known car dealer Charles Howard of Queens Gate Place Mews, London SW7, and it was repatriated to it’s home country, after 62 years in new Zealand, where it was bought by Nick Ridley in Suffolk at the end of 1986. Nick engaged the very capable hands of Cecil Bendall and Roger Steere of Brentclass in Hitchin to put the car in rally ready order. As the car was painted grey, and with Nick understanding and being told the cars were painted purple for the race in the Isle of Man, Nick asked Cecil what shade of purple the cars had been, and Cecil, being the mischievous character he was said, I know exactly what colour they were and pulled a violet handkerchief out of his top pocket and told Nick, “it was exactly the same colour as this”! Hence the car was duly painted violet and as Nick was a prominent member of the VCC of GB who became it’s President in 1989-1991, the famous Sunbeam became a familiar and highly visible entrant in VCC events across the country. Formally authenticated by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain with dating certificate number 2051, it was frequently seen in VSCC hill climbs, sprints and races such as Prescott, Weston-Super-Mare, and Mallory Park.

Nick loved his cars, but there was always another one around the corner and in February 1997, he was persuaded to part company with IOM2 by Tim Moore of Cambridgeshire, a Veteran/Edwardian car specialist who has owned the car since. For many years IOM2 was looked after by Tim’s in-house restoration company, Level Texture, where it received a bare metal strip down, and everything inspected and any necessary work was attended to. At the same time an exacting new replica TT body was formed with another colour change to it’s present smart black livery. Once again being carefully prepared for proper and regular use, as (almost) all of the previous owners have done during it’s lifetime.

More recently, Captain HW Bunbury’s personal photograph album has come to light, which contains his own photos taken on the Isle of Man and his cloth TT arm brassard for IOM2, car number 15 which have been reunited with the car, together with an original set of the RAC Tourist Trophy regulations.

IOM2 has continued to be used on various events in recent years, notably several invitations to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, continuing to be exercised at VCC and VSCC events, and returning to the Isle of Man for the 90th anniversary and the Centenary Rally celebrations in 2014 where, along with the surviving TT Humber, was the guest of honour, comfortably winning the recreated Henry Edmonds Trophy timed hill climb from Ramsay to the Bungalow. The car is not averse to an occasional visit to a concours field and has won trophies from church fetes up to class wins at Louis Vuitton.

The Sunbeam TT cars with their sophisticated double overhead cam engines were truly the first steps which put Coatalen on the path to design three different Land Speed Record Breaking cars for the company, notably the 350hp ‘Bluebird’ in 1922-25, being the first to attain 150 mph, the 1926 Sunbeam Tiger, and in 1927 the 1,000 hp car that was the first to better 200 mph.

IOM2 continues to attract attention everywhere and is eligible for the world’s most exclusive events, including in 2023 being chosen to take Formula 1 World champion Max Verstappen on the ‘Drivers Parade’ at the British Grand Prix.

With less than 100 genuine pre-WW1 race cars surviving, and standing out with a continuous verified and most detailed history, IOM2 is one of the most exciting, fine handling, famous, authentic and without doubt outstandingly successful examples from the era. A legendary car, so technically advanced, which weaved it’s rich story around truly extraordinary and heroic characters that all contributed to the history of the car and a bygone time.

Detailed, continuous and verified ownership history:

1914   Sunbeam Motor Company Ltd Wolverhampton.

1923   CWF (Bill) Hamilton, Irishman Creek, NZ from Sunbeam via RF Fuggle at £500

1940   John Farnsworth

1941   Andy McIntosh, Invercargill

1941   CWF Hamilton (again), collected by Dick Georgeson

1954   Vintage Car Club of New Zealand, Canterbury Branch, donated by Bill Hamilton

1957   Andrew Anderson, Heathcote, by committee decision of VCC of NZ , 2nd December 1957

1986   Nick Ridley, Sprowston, Suffolk, via Charles Howard, Queens Gate Mews, SW7

1997   Tim Moore, Sawston, Cambs, 26th February 1997

For further information contact timmoore106@btinternet.com