Sunbeam Silver Bullet - Forgotten Land Speed Challenger
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- The story of the 48-litre Sunbeam Silver Bullet, which attempted to break the Land Speed Record at Daytona in 1930.
FURTHER READING
I buy a lot of books! Here are a selection of books that have inspired me or have been useful in my research.
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Thrust: The Remarkable Story of One Man's Quest for Speed by Richard Noble
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Railton: Man Of Speed by Karl Ludvigsen
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Goldenrod: The Resurrection of America's Speed King by John Baechtel
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Speed Duel by Samuel Hawley
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The History Of Speed by Martin Roach
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Donald Campbell: The Man Behind The Mask by David Tremayne
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Bluebird and the Dead Lake: The Classic Account of how Donald Campbell broke the World Land Speed Record by John Pearson
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Leap into Legend: Donald Campbell and the Complete Story of the World Speed Records by Steve Holter
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Bluebird CN7: The Inside Story of Donald Campbell's Last Land Speed Record Car by Donald Stevens
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Parry Thomas: The First Driver to be Killed in Pursuit of the Land Speed Record by Hugh Tours
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Quest For Speed: The Epic Saga of Record-Breaking On Land by Barry John
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The Fast Set: Three Extraordinary Men and Their Race for the Land Speed Record by Charles Jennings
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Man Against the Salt by Harvey Shapiro
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Ultimate Speed: The Fast Life and Extreme Cars of Racing Legend Craig Breedlove by Samuel Hawley
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Infinity Over Zero: Meditations on Maximum Velocity by Cole Coonce
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Speedquest: Inside the Blue Flame by Richard Keller
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Crusader: John Cobb's ill-fated quest for speed on water by Steve Holter
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Archive: Pathe, AP, Alamy, Getty, Shutterstock, National Motor Museum Trust & Unknown Sources used under fair use / fair deal. Copyright in all other material acknowledged.
Good video- thank you for posting it. The current title of "The World's Fastest Sunbeam" is held by Dr, Larry Mayfield of Pahrump, Nevada. He drove his modified Sunbeam Alpine, similar to the one at 9:50 to an average speed of 204.913 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. This was accomplished on 16 September 2010 at the "World of Speed" event.
That one at 9:50 was a Tiger, an upgraded Alpine modified by Carroll Shelby with a V8 Ford engine, it was ditched when Chrysler bought the Rootes (apologies for Rooted on my unedited post, an iOS predictive text correction that I missed) Group who manufactured Sunbeam, Hillman, Humber , Singer, Talbot, Commer and Karrier, British brands, Chrysler V8s were too big and heavy to fit the small sports car so that was that!
Check the bounce at 8:50 , dunno if i woulda been too keen to do that at 200mph either. Good vid cheers.
Definitely not the sort of track that you would want to be going like a Bat Out of Hell along.
I live in Ainsdale Southport and i am always thrilled to learn about the land speed record attempts made on our local beach thanks for posting
I just love the old cars, there nothing like them.
Even the failed attempts to break the Land Speed Record are interesting.
Another great episode. I'm honest, I didn't know the Silver Bullet and the tale of you sometimes you get so in over your head with a project is a stark reminder that sometimes all you need is to stop, take a step back and look at the issue from a broader angle.
Great documentary. I'm in my 80's, and a keen follower of LSR history, and yet, have never heard of this project. Failure is like a bad smell, people like to bury it. Pity the American press, lived up to their usual--- sour grapes, or glee at our, RARE failure, something THEY were most experienced at, in that era.
Another excellent short doco. All information, no fat. Thanks again for highlighting the forgotten.👍👍🇭🇲
Very sad it was scrapped in the end. It looked beautifull!
Silver Bullet was known to schoolboys of my generation in the 1950s and it’s embarrassing failures explain why, unlike other speed record cars of the era, it was invisible in the range of Dinky Toy models. Thunderbolt, Golden Arrow, the Spirit of the Wind, various Bluebirds etc were all still available in my day
Yes and I miss those Dinky speed record cars together with the other range of cars.....
I've been eagerly waiting for a new upload.
Just discovered your channel today. I spent my youth in the early 70's reading about the classic Grand Prix drivers - and the LSR saga. Absolutely loved this vid - took me an hour to watch, what with all the pausing to read background text and check out details. Apparently you're back after an absence. Let me assure you that there are people out there who want to see this content.
Thank you very much for your comments, I really appreciate them! I'll keep making videos if folks keep watching, and I'll try not to leave it as long before the next one...
Another great episode. I never get tired of watching these and listening to the stories.
Really well sorted summation of wheel-driven land speed record pursuit in the era. There's a wealth of information here. I could easily watch it again
Between this channel and Rex's Hanger, I'm learning so much about the 20s and 30s!
I named my first go cart the Silver Bullet. Because of this car. Glad you covered it!
What absolutely spellbinding videos of a Golden age that by definition can never be repeated rock on scarf and goggles
Always enjoy your videos, thanks very much.
You should keep up this as a series for "forgotten land speed challengers", especially for some of the crazy cars in the 60's onwards - really fascinating to see. Everyone knows all the cars that broke records so it's really interesting to see the ones that tried and failed.
As always a very interesting video on the Sunbeam "Silver Bullet". Looking at the period photos it really looked impressive and very cool but also the engines showing an almost fanatical attention to details looked very tidy. I was very surprised to know that the engines had an unusual cooling system using melting ice rather than a radiator to avoid the drag of an open radiator. The big drawback that it had to be filled with ice, about, 280 kg before each run. The great drawback was the engines were supercharged, using a large centrifugal blower, geared to 17,000 rpm. An increasingly common aero engine practice of the time, in both the Napier Lion and the Rolls-Royce R-type, but was a first for Sunbeam. But it created a lot of problems with the pipes suffering from overheating and backfire....
Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
never know this even existed up until now
😊 thanks great episode I really enjoyed that one if only they had left that supercharger 😔 alone, Sunbeam might have had a different future. Still a real eye opener 👀
On the staggering speed they achieved this early into race cars and engineering. Great channel I look forward to the next one 😀
I was born, raised and still live in Wolverhampton. The Sunbeam buildings still stand but have been redeveloped into living and office spaces. I believe it's very short sighted of Wolverhampton city council that there isn't a permanent museum dedicated to the City's motorsports and record breaking history. There's a Sunbeam pub but no museum.
Geez I'm enjoying these videos. You're doing a fantastic job. What a time it must have been with all the competition, and so many engineering lessons were yet to be learned. The LSR numbers are all so high now that hardly anyone can afford to build a "car" to challenge them, the days of the record being broken every time someone had a go must have been fantastic indeed. Now you basically have to break the sound barrier to be in the running, and the "cars" are essentially aircraft that run along the ground. Back in the 20s and 30s the sound barrier was still 30 years away, and that was eventually achieved in a rocket powered aircraft, never mind about a car. Phew.
It's amazing how far we've come and how much we've learned. Today pretty much any two-bit mechanic who dabbles in forced induction would look at the layout of the Silver Bullet's powertrain and know that it would be hugely problematic, or at the very least would be ineffective. The lessons have been well and truly learned, and that progress is due just as much to the setups that didn't work as much as the ones that did. I have no doubt the Silver Bullet taught many things to many people in its fraught time as a runner, so perhaps it wasn't a complete failure. Those involved took their payment in knowledge and experience rather than glory.
Glad you're enjoying the channel!
These cars were extremely expensive back then too. Basically everything was custom made and would be very expensive to build. They were usually built by wealthy people along with help from other wealthy people. They weren’t just average people building a car in the shed out back.
With modern engines and cheap turbos I’d say it’s far easier for an average person today to do land speed racing and at least have a chance to be competitive. There are numerous classes. Unless you’re chasing the absolute top level it wouldn’t be unreasonable to put something together and at least have a try at it.
Wow. This one was the first I didn´t know anything of at all. Gorgeous car, sad story. And excellently told as always. Thanks so much!
Thanks for posting that and the work put in to producing it. My Grandfather, Lucien Coatalen, worked in the drawing office but unfortunately died before I was born so I never got the full story, only what my Grandmother could remember.
Thanks so much for getting in touch, and I'm glad you enjoyed the video, particularly with your family connection. I hope I pronounced Coatalen right!
Many thanks from Germany, this video is amazing 👏
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video! I thought I was familiar with every British land speed contender but this one was new to me. Seems like the addition of a supercharger late in the project was its Achilles heel and by the sound of it, the designer had just a little too much emotional investment in that particular modification. If the supercharger was part of the original concept, the designer would have made provision for one for each of the engines and would no doubt have slightly lengthened the chassis. Which leads one to suspect that he had persuaded someone important to allow him to supercharge the engines late in the project. That's how it seems to me, anyway.
Another great video of LSR history. Shared to Land Racing Forum & others.
Thanks for sharing!
I've enjoyed this video.
Fascinating as always. I knew nothing about this car, thanks for the upload👍
And this is why intercooling is so important with high boost levels.
Fantastic video. I absolutely love that era of automotive history. Many interesting stories and players and especially the design of the vehicles themselves
Great to see the cars that never quite made it .
Thanks for uploading
Glad you enjoyed it!
I’ve never seen or heard or this car before. So sad it was scrapped 😩🤦♂️
Thanks for this, I never knew of this attempt.
Fantastic video. I volunteer at Brooklands and this would have looked fantastic there ! So sad
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great story. Thanks for the great videos.
Another superb episode.
Very well made documentary, if only Sunbeam had ran the car with its two engines, and then developed the car with a suitable super charger for other record breaking runs... *
Great video!! It was just a flawed design. Proof that money doesn´t make the problems go away.
as a driver my concern would be the tires disintegrating
Good vid,well put together.
Cheers.
Excellent, thanks!
Quality episode
Enjoyed!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love this
Great, as always.
Given that the land speed record (with a rocket sled) is Mach 8.6 I'm not sure what the point of all this is anymore.
Thanks for this video, scrapped.........hate that word, too bad it wasn't saved.
I live in Saltburn by the Sea which was used for record attempts and racing in the 1920s. Maybe you could look into it?
Great videos you do, great research and film clips/stills.
Thanks for your comment, very much appreciated. I'll look into Saltburn, as I've been toying with the idea of a video about land speed venues through the years. I've got a lot of other ideas at various stages of preparation ahead of that though, so it may be a while!
❤🇬🇧 excellent
A wire to the Weisel brothers might have worked wonders.
They seem to have forgotten the old kis theory
It’s seam to be a very English thing to over complicate things
I had no idea about this sunbeam and how quick they were back in the day to scrap everything 👍👍
May I ask if the choose for a supercharged engine for the Silver Bullet could have been somehow inspired by the greatly performing volumetric compressed FIATs that were racing head to head with the Sunbeams in Grand Prix races - a tecnology introduced pioneristically in motorsports by Turin's carmaker in 1923?
Good point - quite likely, also it should be noted that Sunbeam were building aircraft engines at the time, and aircraft were already using supercharging.
In theory it should have been faster than the Golden Arrow, but I think the Silver Bullet always looks light and unstable in the footage of its runs.
I know this was back nearly 100 years ago, but with just 20 hp per litre I am surprised these things could actually move a vehicle let lone create new speed records !
It's astonishing to think my 12 year old road bike is making 600 hp for a 1.3 litre engine .
How times change
@@peterherrington3300 What bike is that - surely you must have modified it to get 600bhp ?
@@thakery5720
Of course it's modified , big turbo on it .
My road bike
And a Volkswagen Veyron has problems doing that speed 90 years later.😂😂
A pity the metric conversion on skid length at 9:38 didn't apply to real speed in km/h. A clearly approximate 400 yard skid is an approximate 366 metres, so rather less than the 644 metres stated. conversion figure....
Active aero, before active aero was a thing!
Shame to think the factory is now apartments
Its HS Marston on Wobaston Road, next door to JLR engine plant and Moog. Still has the original railings now painted black, car parks now Discovery Park.
Clearly see it on the video still, can see Stafford Road and what was Lucas.
Sunbeams Silver Fiasco apparently!
Pip Pip, a Stiff Upper Lip, and Carry On Mate as they say while toasting with a Pint of Guinness. Jolly Good ole Bean. The Brits are different.
@@faerieSAALE The Brits ruled the world, invented pretty much everything copied by others and didnt rely on Irish Guiness but proper ale!
Next gary gabelich's blue flame please
Any video that says, "Forgotten X," I will avoid watching. Nothing is forgotten because some individuals, or a few individuals - do not happen to know about it. No more "forgotten" anything videos.
I´ve always wondered what type of tyres they had in those days, capable of speeds well beyond 200 mph. They didn´t have high-speed radial tyres, so what was the trick?
Other land speed tyres were made specifically for the job by Dunlop at great expense.
I believe "up to 2 minutes at 200 plus" mph was deemed safe
Sponsored by Coors Light. 😉😉
In a way this design was more interesting because it failed - and failed because of the design.
1 ton is exactly 1000 kg
1 tonne (metric ton) is 1000 kg.
1 US ton is 907.18 kg
1 UK Imperial ton is 1016 kg
🇺🇸👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻😁
history forgets the losers
Except that German fellow in 1933.
Well, well, English cars never had any good reputation for reliabilty.....