Arriving at the MahyMobiles Museum, in Leuze-en-Hainault, which is sort of in the middle of nowhere in Belgium, I expected to find a few cars in the car park, those belonging to others who were visiting, and indeed, there some. Not many, but certainly some. Of course, car museums tend to attract enthusiasts who often have nice or interesting cars but even so, I was a little surprised to see that a bunch of classic Sunbeams constituted the majority of the cars there. Closer investigation suggested that this Belgian group were clearly on some form of tour as there were event plaques on most of the cars. There were around 20 models here in total, so of course I had to take a closer look before heading on into the museum, and this is what I saw:

The majority of the cars were Sunbeam Alpine models from the “Series” production run of 1959 to 1968, a rival to the MGB that sold in far lower numbers and which is quite rare even in the UK these days, let alone in Belgium. The first open 2-seater Alpines were based on the Hillman 14 and its successor the Humber Hawk. Rootes replaced them with a softer new smaller 2-seater sports convertible coupé based on the current Hillman Minx and its variants. Kenneth Howes and Jeff Crompton were tasked with doing a complete redesign in 1956, with the goal of producing a dedicated sports car aimed principally at the US market. Howes did some 80 per cent of the overall design. He had been on the Studebaker team at Loewy Studios and then at Ford in Detroit before joining Rootes. The Alpine was produced in four subsequent revisions until 1968. Total production numbered around 70,000. Production stopped shortly after the Chrysler takeover of the Rootes Group. The “Series” Alpine started production in 1959. The Series I was built on a modified floorpan from the Hillman Husky estate car with a 1,494 cc engine and made extensive use of components from other Rootes Group vehicles. The running gear came mainly from the Sunbeam Rapier, but with front disc brakes replacing the saloon car’s drums. An overdrive unit and wire wheels were optional. The suspension was independent at the front using coil springs and at the rear had a live axle and semi-elliptic springing. The Girling-manufactured brakes used 9.5 in (241 mm) discs at the front and 9 in (229 mm) drums at the rear. It had dual downdraft carburettors, a soft top that could be hidden by special integral covers and the first available wind-up side windows offered in a British sports car of that time. Coupé versions of the post-1959 version were built by Thomas Harrington Ltd. After the Le Mans Index of Efficiency success of 1961, Harrington sold replicas as the “Harrington Le Mans”, using a fastback body and an engine tuned to 104 bhp. Unlike the Le Mans racers, these cars had a more integrated rear roofline and were without the tail fins of the roadsters. Until 1962 the car was assembled for Rootes by Armstrong Siddeley. 11,904 examples of the series I were produced. One of the original prototypes still survives and was raced by British Touring car champion Bernard Unett. The Series II of 1960 featured an enlarged 1,592 cc engine producing 80 bhp and revised rear suspension, but there were few other changes. When it was replaced in 1963, 19,956 had been made. The Series III was produced in two versions: GT with removable hardtop only (no soft-top) and the ST with soft-top (stored behind the small rear seat). Other distinguishing features were: high fins; quarter-height window for guide post; roll-up window rear edge angular; vertical spare tyre. tanks in fins; all chrome bumper guards; later “flat” rear window hard top; Series 3 badge on front wing and Rootes Group badge centred low on the bonnet. The rarest production Alpine, the Series III was produced from March, 1963 to January, 1964 for a total of 5,863 units. It was a transitional model, incorporating many of the modifications of the later low fin cars such as roomier boot, later hard top (common with Tiger), tube type rear shocks, improved micro cell seats, and a vacuum brake booster. The 1592 cc engine was de-tuned in the GT for smoothness.

For the Series IV, made in 1964 and 1965, there was no longer a lower-output engine option; the convertible and hardtop versions shared the same 82 bhp engine with single Solex carburettor. A new rear styling was introduced with the fins largely removed. Automatic transmission with floor-mounted control became an option, but was unpopular. From autumn 1964 a new manual gearbox with synchromesh on first gear was adopted in line with its use in other Rootes cars. A total of 12,406 were made. The final version was the Series V, produced between 1965 and 1968. This has a new five-bearing 1,725 cc  engine with twin Zenith-Stromberg semi-downdraught carburettors producing 93 bhp. There was no longer an automatic transmission option. 19,122 were made.

By 1967 Rootes’ “Arrow” range was ready. As well as the Hillman Hunter, the range also included a new generation of Sunbeam Rapiers, with fastback coupé bodies and a sporty image. Like the earlier Series I to Series V models, it was a two-door pillarless hardtop. The Arrow Rapier – or Fastback, as it came to be known – launched in October 1967, was a four-seat coupé based on the chassis of the Hillman Hunter Estate. Although the Rapier used the tail lamps and rear valance from the Hunter Estate, the rest of its superstructure was unique. The Rapier used the Rootes four-cylinder, five-bearing 1,725 cc engine, which was tilted slightly to the right to enable a lower bonnet line, in common with the other Arrow models. With its twin Stromberg 150CD carburettors the engine produced 88 bhp at 5200 rpm. Overdrive was standard with the manual gearbox, and Borg-Warner automatic transmission was an optional extra. The Fastback Rapier continued almost unchanged until 1976, when it was discontinued without a replacement. During its lifetime it formed the basis for the more powerful Sunbeam Rapier H120, introduced in October 1968] and identifiable by its boot-lid spoiler and polished sill covers: it shared its Holbay Engineering-tuned 110 bhp engine (with twin Weber carburettors) with the Hillman Hunter GLS. The Rapier was also the basis for the slightly cheaper but similarly bodied, single-carburettor Sunbeam Alpine Fastback introduced in October 1969. Rapier running gear (though not the estate chassis) was also used in the Humber Sceptre MkIII, Hillman GT and Hillman Hunter GT models from the Arrow range. Between 1967 and 1969, the Rapier was built at Ryton-on-Dunsmore, but from 1969 until its demise in 1976, it was built at Rootes’ Hillman Imp factory at Linwood in Scotland. In all, 46,204 units were built (including Rapier, H120 and Alpine versions). Maximum speed of the Rapier was 103 mph (166 km/h) and it could reach 60 mph (97 km/h) from rest in 12.8 seconds. In the United States, the Rapier was marketed as the Sunbeam Alpine GT. The Sunbeam Alpine Fastback, introduced in October 1969, was essentially a Rapier with a simplified specification, developed to fill a gap in the Arrow range above the Singer Vogue. It used the same 1,725 cc engine as the Hillman Hunter which, fitted with a single Stromberg 150CD carburettor, developed 74 bhp at 5500 rpm. Transmission options included overdrive on cars with a manual gearbox or a Borg-Warner automatic transmission. The Alpine, though well equipped, was less sporty in style than the Rapier. It had a wooden dashboard with fewer instruments, instead of the Rapier’s cowled plastic one, and wood instead of metal on the transmission tunnel. There were also different wheel trims, no aluminium sill finishers (nor the polished ones of the H120) and no vinyl trim on its C-pillars. Above all at £1086 in the UK it was significantly (for the time) cheaper than the £1200 Rapier. Maximum speed of the Alpine was 91 mph (146 km/h) and it could reach 60 mph (97 km/h) from rest in 14.6 seconds. The Fastback Alpine was discontinued in 1975, before the Rapier and H120.

Rather older a model was this Sunbeam-Talbot Ten roadster. The Clément-Talbot and then the Sunbeam Motor Car Company businesses fell into the hands of Rootes in 1935, and the new owner’s strategy was clearly to use the prestige of the Talbot name for selling larger numbers of lower priced cars than hitherto. This Rootes’ Talbot Ten was one of the first products of the Rootes strategy intended to open Talbot’s planned shift down-market and add a genuinely small car to the proposed range. A star of the 1936 Motor Show it was a lengthened Hillman Aero Minx with a stronger chassis all updated at short notice by Talbot’s Georges Roesch and rebadged and so another variant of the existing middle market saloon, the Hillman Minx. Reviewers described the car as an attractive refined and well-equipped small car. The Talbot Ten was rebadged Sunbeam-Talbot Ten in August 1938. Rootes had decided to make no large luxury car using the Sunbeam name but keep the name alive by linking it with Talbot. Although apparently just a rebadged four door version of the Talbot Ten the new Sunbeam-Talbot Ten was given a whole new all-steel body with four doors. Changes included pressed steel wheels but covered by wheel discs, a normal lever for the gear changes, better instruments, and slightly reshaped front mudguards. Synchromesh was dropped from first gear and then later from second gear. The new body was on effectively the same chassis but the engine and the radiator were moved 3.5 inches forward. This body was again made in Acton but by British Light Steel Pressings in their Works next door. Cars exported to Europe were badged Sunbeam. The car was undoubtedly the most elegant small saloon of the period. The classic saloon featured the streamlining increasingly characteristic of mainstream British cars in the later 1930s, along with “stand-alone” headlights. Power came from a 1185 cc side-valve engine for which 41 bhp was claimed. All four wheels were suspended using semi elliptical leaf springs. Top speed was quoted as 68 mph (109 km/h). In 1948 the Sunbeam-Talbot Ten was almost exactly twice the price of the new Austin A40 Devon and slightly slower on the highway. Visually the faster Sunbeam-Talbot 2 Litre was virtually indistinguishable from the Ten, but it was actually about 3 inches (7.6 cm) longer in wheel-base and overall body length. Production numbers for the Talbot Ten, made between 1935 to 1938 were: -4 dr saloon: 2,450 DHC: 581; tourer: 554; open two-seater: 0; Other: 9; chassis: 56. For the later Sunbeam-Talbot Ten, built between 1938 and 1948: 4-dr saloon: 5,655 DHC: 767; tourer: 822; open two-seater: 11; Other: 2 In 1948 the Sunbeam-Talbot Ten was replaced by the full-width bodied Sunbeam-Talbot 80 which was essentially a restyled version of the same car and shared the same roof pressing.

Parked up with them, so presumably part of the same group was something very different, an Auto Union 1000. The Auto Union 1000 is a luxury compact front-wheel drive automobile manufactured by Auto Union GmbH between 1958 and 1965. It was the first (and in many markets the last) model branded as an Auto Union by the manufacturer since the 1930s; it replaced the DKW 3=6, although the latter continued in production until the end of 1959. The two cars were broadly similar, but the new car had its two-stroke engine enlarged to 981 cc yielding a 10% – 37% (depending on model) power increase. Apart from the enlarged engine capacity, which now provided 44 PS (43 bhp) in the base model, the 1000 featured the old four-ring Auto Union badge across the grille along with the Auto Union name above it, in place of the DKW badge that had adorned the nose of the earlier models, as well as a smooth boot lid. For the European market there were three distinct series of the 1000/1000S ; (not including the 1000SP or 1000 engined DKW Munga); The first series was known as the “model 58” or AU1000/58, which was available as the 1000 Coupe de luxe only with the 44 PS engine. This model was available for 1958/59 only and was released in late 1957. The second series was known as the “model 60” or AU1000/60 – which, in two door form was the first model to feature the “panoramic” windscreen. The third and final series was known as the “model 62” or AU1000/62, which was an improved version of the “model 60” – featuring front disc brakes, Lubrimat, wider track rear axle, larger boot and other refinements. The first car of the “model 60” line was a 1000S Coupe chassis number 6820000001, completed at Düsseldorf on 27 July 1959. There were 25 pre-production cars built. The first production 1000/1000S was chassis number 6820000026. Over time the “model 60” 1000 series gained a four-door and Universal in the range, all produced at Düsseldorf. Production of all “model 60” second series cars was switched to the third series “model 62” on 29 September 1961. Production of the third series of 1000/1000S was gradually closed from late 1962. The final 1000 Universal was completed on 31 October 1962, and the final 1000S four door on 13 November, in both cases at Ingolstadt. The details of the final European 1000S assembled are unknown, as the final batch of production contained CKD and SKD (Completely Knocked Down and Semi Knocked Down) kits, which were assembled later, outside Germany. The final European 1000/1000S manufactured (note, not assembled) though, was a 1000S Coupe de Luxe chassis number 6820146387. In addition to the two- and four-door saloons, a “pillarless” Coupe shared the profile of the saloons apart from the absence of any fixed B pillar. A three-door station wagon version was also offered (essentially, an updated DKW F94U), now branded as the 1000 Universal, between 1959 and 1962 (1959/60/61 only for right hand drive). For the new decade, the coupe and four door was renamed Auto Union 1000S. In August 1959, an eye-catching wrap-around windscreen with vertical strip speedometer was introduced on the two door models of the “model 60” series (AU1000 limousine, AU1000 Coupe and AU1000S Coupe). Neither the windscreen nor the name changes entirely concealed the fact that at a time when competitor designs employed the modern ponton, three-box form, this Auto Union’s body along with most of its technical features descended directly from that of the Zwickau-developed DKW F9 prototype of 1938. Fortunately in 1938, the front-wheel drive DKW design had been an innovative one.

This small display of cars was an unexpected bonus, and whilst it only took a few minutes to admire them all and to capture them with the camera, further increased the enjoyment of the trip to the MahyMobiles museum. It was just as well that I paused to see them on arrival, as when I came out of the museum, they were all gone, presumably headed off somewhere else on the time together.