Description
This is Lot 348 in the Bonhams Spring Stafford Sale on April 20 & 21, please see the Bonhams website for full details.
Sunbeam first adopted overhead-valve engines in the mid-1920s having established its not inconsiderable sporting credentials with sidevalve machines. Changes to the OHV engine were confined mainly to its top-end: early flat-tankers featured a straight-ahead exhaust port, then later in the 1920s the fashionable twin-port cylinder head became an option before Sunbeam standardised a single-port design in 1934. Pushrod enclosure had arrived by 1930 to be followed a couple of years later by partial enclosure of the rocker gear.
Introduced in the autumn of 1930, the all-new Model 10 featured an OHV twin-port engine incorporating an in-sump oil reservoir; its conventional cycle parts were lighter than hitherto, and for the first time there was no fully enclosed chain case on a Sunbeam roadster. The Model 10 was a capable performer of exceptional frugality, over 100mpg being achievable.
The late owner purchased this Sunbeam Model 10 at Bonhams' Harrogate sale in November 2012 (Lot 423, invoice on file). At the time it was described as follows: "Restored to a high standard and kept in storage, this very rare Sunbeam remains in good order and should require only the minimum of recommissioning before returning to the road." Today the machine is a nicely presented older restoration that requires recommissioning (the engine turns over and gears select). There is no registration document with this Lot.
