• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Fastback Sunbeams

Share this page

aeronca65t

aeronca65t

Great Pumpkin
Offline
Here's two Sunbeams I have not seen before...both fastbacks with "That '70s Styling". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/square.gif

The Stilleto (a fastback Imp...also called the "Sport")
StilettoH.jpg


The Rapier H120. Similar to the Hillman Hunter and looks like my old Plymouth Cricket (US version of the Hunter) with a Barracuda back-end. Some of these had Holbay 120 HP engines.
h120b.jpg
 
We had a 69 Alpine GT coupe like the one in the picture.It was black.Unfortunatly it was rear ended by a Ford 1/2 ton at a red light.He didn't see the light or that there were 10 cars stopped and it was the last one in line.My son was driving and when he was hit he had the brakes on and reaction was that he pushed harder which then was only a slight hit to the car in front but the driver had his foot on the gas and left foot on the brake and went pow causing all the other cars to be damaged in sequence. Amazingly the sunbeam took the full force of the impact causing some good damage but it was pulled out and a new trunk lid attached.It sat for many years after that and was finally parted out last winter.I still have gauges and some glass plus miscellaneous parts if anyone is interested.
 
Thanks for showing those pictures.
I came across a Rapier H120 in a junk yard last week and had no idea what i was looking at.
Even in it's sad state (everything was stripped off and it was being reclaimed by the earth /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cryin.gif) it looked like a realy neat car. I had never seen one before.
 
Within North America in particular, the fastback Alpine is considered to be the lower rung of desireability as Sunbeam's go... Also few were sold here anyway as I understand...

Here is one of my favourite pictures of a friend's car collection out in Ontario

379158_da52b9e403.jpg
 
Stiletto and Sport are actually not the same. Both had the twin carb powerplant but the Stiletto was the fastback while the Sport used the more familiar saloon body.
 
Aeronca: Have you ever seen an Alpine with a top like this?

cd_12.JPG


Dad bought this car on eBay and resold it to someone in CA who is boxing up the hardtop and wheels and shipping them to PA for him. Trying to find out more about it before I go home in a week. The alpine will hopefully be running before I head back here in January.
 
I've seen that hardtop before. I forget the maker, but it's an aftermarket one of course, not factory. Doubt there'd be many surviving examples left.
 
The best-known were probably the Harrington fastbacks, of which this is not one, I think. I don't remember this one.
 
That aftermarket fastback top is certainly interesting... Not all that good looking, but I'd imagine rare by now and well worth preserving.

[Edit]

Just looked at the E-Bay auction, that angle from the back looks much nicer, I take my first comment back. And I also notice in the comments that the fastback top was quite popular during the auction, more popular than the car itself...
 
The Plymouth Cricket was the Hillman Avenger. I notice the Rapier uses the tail lights from the Hunter estate. I miss the Hillman Hunter. Were they ever imported here?
 
I know I've posted this link here before, it's Franka's Imp Site, and this page is about the Stilletto. Still a great resource if you want to know about the Imps and variants. I've still got a soft spot for the Beech Sport Racer... there's one still competing in the Pacific North West, still has the Imp engine in it, although the owner's about to take the Imp trans out and replace it with a Hewland.... I'll try and find a photo.

PZ /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/england.gif
 
Back
Top