[ OUR CARS ] 1961 Sunbeam Alpine Series 2
Owned by Gareth Evans (gareth.evans@bauermedia.co.uk)
Time owned 15 months
Latest/total miles 0/45,112
Latest/total costs £2241/£18,641
Previously Rebuilt ’box and pre-2025 reset
Screen shot: flying rock damaged Sunbeam’s windscreen at Donington
It doesn’t matter how much you plan; the beginning of a new racing season always turns into a frantic last-minute scramble. This year is no different, and it’s all because of a pesky Ginetta G31.
I’m being slightly unkind there. In fact, the driver and passenger of said – very rare – Ginetta were lovely chaps and came to talk to me several times at Donington Park in February when I was shaking the Sunbeam down for the first time, having recognised the Alpine from the pages of this very magazine.
We’d been having a wonderful time on the track too, but an spinning car had strewn some of Donington’s kitty litter out from the gravel tap and right across the circuit through Old Hairpin. The Ginetta’s sticky tyres flung a rock into the air, and I watched in slow motion as it collided with my near-vertical windscreen, leaving a bullseye right in my eyeline.
These things can happen, but little did I know that it would pose a big problem for me in the run-up to the new season, which kicks off with Fiscar at the VSCC Spring Start meeting on the Silverstone National track layout in early April.
Being a Series 2 Alpine, windscreens aren’t easy to find. The design changed for the Series 3 onwards, so most units are for later cars. A glass-weld repair failed miserably, and then jacking the car up caused the bullseye crack to expand to the screen’s edge. I managed to locate a used screen near Leicester for a decent price (£180) and set about retrieving it.
Vacuum leak in spindle bearings needs further investigation
It didn’t fit. No matter what we did, the frame would not sit as it did before, and the hard-top wouldn’t latch closed. Comparing it with the old screen it was clear there were differences, and also why this screen was so reasonably priced – I’d been quoted £522 for a new one.
As I write, my final shakedown session is approaching, so, steeling the wallet for impact, I bit the bullet and bought a new screen, installing it with the cheerful expert help of my friends Pete and Ollie from Project Heaven Restoration the day before my track day at Silverstone.
But that’s not the end of my recent travails. Regular Classic Cars readers will note that I’ve been through several inlet manifolds, but I’ve finally settled on a good one, provided as a blank by Sunbeam expert Chris Draycott and machined by Phil Cornut for my Weber carburettors to sit at the optimal three-degree angle. This went on along with a wider, fruitier exhaust system.
A rolling road and rejetting session (also at Project Heaven) highlighted the benefits of these changes, finally getting the car back towards the power it made last year, having been 15 percent down on the dynamometer before the Donington Park day. That Redline manifold was a red herring, causing turbulence that ultimately cost me performance.
But it also highlighted a vacuum leak in the throttle spindle bearings. Ironically this was the only thing I didn’t replace when I rebuilt the carburettors, so they’ll have to come off yet again… but not before my Silverstone trackday.
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