During February of 1925, but much nearer home, Henry Seagrave and Parry Thomas were at Montlhery with a six cylinder supercharged 2 litre car, with the view of a spot of record breaking. They made attempts on the 12 and 24 hour world records in which they were unsuccessful, but they did take a number of records including the 3 hours at l02.74m.p.h. but engine trouble and a snow storm put paid to the longer distance records.

Various other records fell during the year to both Seagrave and Campbell. The first big race of the year for Sunbeam came on June 20th when the Wolverhampton cars made their debut at Le Mans for the 24 hour race. Louis Coatalen had decided to enter two cars for the 1925 Les Vingt Quatre Du Mans and prototypes of a new super sports model were prepared for this testing race. It was first held in 1923 and happily is still an annual event.

These positions were held for the next couple of hours but then the Sunbeam speeded up and moved into second place to increase its speed yet again to begin to catch the leader. Unfortunately it couldn’t quite manage it and the Lorraine Deitrich driven by de Courcelles/Rossignol won, having covered l,388 miles at an average speed of 57.83m.p.h. The Chassagne/Davies Sunbeam had covered about 45miles less at 55.9m.p.h. and another Lorraine Deitrich finished third. Of the 49 starters only 20 finished, the Sunbeam being the only British car amongst them. The Seagrave/Duller team received an award for covering the greatest distance in the first hour and the winning car received a 500 franc prize for the most comfortable body.

Sunbeam were not very successful in the other continental races of that year. Three of the six cylinder supercharged 2litre G.P. cars were entered for the French Grand Prix at Montlhery to be driven by Seagrave, Count Masetti and Count Conelli. The race, over a distance of 620 miles was won by Robert Benoist driving a Delage with team mate Louis Wagner 2nd. Masetti brought his Sunbeam in 3rd but both Seagrave and Conelli had retired with mechanical trouble in the early stages of the race, which had been marred by the fatal crash of Antonio Ascari of the Alfa Romeo team, who then withdrew from the race.

Only one Sunbeam was entered for the Spanish Grand Prix, again held at San Sebastian. The car was driven by Masetti, who when going very well in 2nd place in the 450 mile race, had to retire at half distance.

As usual, the following season’s models were exhibited at the motor show. The 1926 Sunbeam range consisted of the previous season’s 14/40, now reduced by £60 to £625, and the 20/60 which remained at £950. The 12/30 had been dropped and several new models were introduced. Sunbeam were keen to market their super sports 3 litre car which had a six cylinder 75 x 110mm engine with double overhead camshafts and two Claudel carburettors. This very fine car sold for £1,125. Also new for 1926 was the 30/90 with the straight eight engine, which could be had in two versions. The first had cylinder dimensions of 80 x 120mm and a capacity of 4825c.c. The second was slightly larger at 85 x 120mm with a capacity of 5028c.c. The former was listed at a chassis price of £1,050 and the later at £1,250. If ordered with standard or limousine bodywork the price to £1,850. The finish would be in claret, or dark blue. These were very fine motors, but rather expensive.

The company continued to be in financial difficulties as indeed were the whole of the STD group and early in 1926 it was made known that no new racing cars would be built as Sunbeams, only the French Talbot Darracq taking part in international racing. No dividend had been paid on the £1 ordinary shares for a number of years and payments on the £1 Preferred ordinary shares were in arrears since1923. Profits over the three years since 1923 had been a little over £396,000 and there were many calls on the cash and the situation was decidedly gloomy.

Star were continuing to build excellent cars at Frederick Street and the body works at Bushbury were in full swing.

At this time some craftsmen were brought in from the Surrey works of Weyman to oversee the building of fabric bodies. New models introduced at this time were the o.h.v. 14/40 and 20/60, all with four wheel brakes. Towards the end of the year a number of 14/40s were supplied to the Royal Army Service Corps.

The motor industry has always had its ups and downs and Star was no exception. At one period during 1926 they were very slack and men were laid off, some of them for as long as six months. Then of course there was the General Strike in May which caused a lot of difficulties. Star closed both the Frederick Street and Bushbury works and other major Wolverhampton motor firms had similar problems. Sunbeam were at a standstill with about 2,500 men out, but at Guys about 500 were out and something like 200 employees were at work, so some production continued. A.J.S. carried on with only about 60 out at their Graiseley works.

Leaving aside the strife, which did great damage to industry, we will look at what Guy Motors were doing. As already mentioned they were innovators and introduced many new ideas. One such was their move into bus manufacture in 1926 when they produced the first six wheeled trolley bus for Wolverhampton Corporation Transport. It also included several other advanced features such as regenerative braking. When the driver took his foot off the power pedal, power was fed back into the overhead wires and slowed the vehicle down to about 12m.p.h. without touching the brake. This system would be widely used but was not taken up by other manufacturers for something like seven years.

Just prior to the introduction of this advanced vehicle Guy had supplied Wolverhampton with a six wheel double decker motor bus, again years ahead of their competitors. The specification included a four cylinder 5 litre engine, which developed 38b.h.p. at 1,000r.p.m., a four speed gearbox and a normal control layout. Over the next few years large numbers were sold.

There were also new models in the motorcycle world. A.J.S. introduced their first overhead valve 500c.c. with cylinder dimensions of 74 x 93mm. It was in effect an enlarged 350c.c., which followed the T.T. design. It included duralumin rockers, double row roller bearings for the big end, and cylinder head fixing by two long bolts instead of a steel strap. This fine sporting machine cost £62.10s.0d. (£62.50.).

Diamond now offered three models. The first was a 147c.c. Villiers powered two stroke with Albion 2 speed gearbox and chain come belt drive. The second included a Villiers 172c.c. engine, a 3 speed Sturmey gearbox and all chain drive. The third model had a 300c.c. JAP engine, a Sturmey 3 speed gearbox and all chain drive.

Sunbeam offered a range of six excellent machines. The Model 1, a 347c.c. side valve machine with Sunbeam 3 speed gearbox and all enclosed chain drive was listed at £72. The famous overhead valve Model 9 sold at £91.7s.0d. (£91.35.). Sidecars ranged in price from £18 to £28.7s.0d. (£28.35). All models had quickly detachable wheels and 3" tyres were optional.

Moving on to the racing scene of 1926 we note that one of the first races of the year was held in South Africa on January 1st and 2nd. You can’t get earlier than that! The races were held over ten laps of a twenty mile circuit, including five miles of the main Port Elizabeth road, which was not closed to normal traffic for either practice runs or the race itself. Both the 350c.c. and 600c.c. races were won by C.H. Young riding Royal Enfields. In the smaller class R.F. Brown took 3rd spot on his A.J.S. whilst other riders of the Wolverhampton machines came in 4th, 5th and 8th. In the 600c.c. race 2nd and 3rd places went to A.J.S. riders P. Lievardt and J.W. Du Toit.

There would be numerous other victories for A.J.S. but we shall now move to June and the Isle of Man again. Wolverhampton was well represented in the 1926 Junior T.T. race. There were 7 A.J.S. machines, 4 Sunbeams and 3 HRDs. The Senior included 8 HRDs, 6 AJs and 3 Sunbeams.

Conditions were near perfect on race day and on practice form the Cottons and their star rider Paddy Johnson were favourite to win. Many felt however that Italian ace Petrio Ghersi could well pull it off. He had been very fast indeed in practice and right from the off it was the Italian who shot into the lead breaking the lap record from a standing start, putting it to 62.12m.p.h. Ghersi led for the first four laps but was then delayed and Johnson went into first place, soon to have an advantage of 39 seconds. Things soon changed when Ghersi regained the lead after an almost super human effort. The Cotton rider now really dug the spurs in and went through to win by 20 seconds from the Italian, with Cottons in the next two places. This was followed by a sensational ruling. Ghersi was disqualified on a technicality, he had used a sparking plug of a different make from that stated on his entry form. This gave the Gloucester made Cottons the first three places.  Johnson had averaged 60.20m.p.h., a  lightweight record. F.G. Morgan finished 2nd, about 23 minutes behind the winner with W. Colgan 3rd. Fastest lap fell to Ghersi who went round in 35minutes 49seconds, a record speed of 63.12m.p.h.

But what of the single Diamond. When rider Syd Gleeve collected his machine just prior to the start he discovered it had a flat tyre. He duly repaired it, but this meant a late start and he went off in 21st place instead of his allotted 6th spot. Gleeve rode a steady race from then on and came onto the leader board in 11th place on lap 4. Next time round he moved up one place and held this position for some time, eventually moving up several places to finish in 7th place. This was Diamond’s best ever T.T. result. Incidentally Syd Gleeve's fastest lap time was 44 minutes 32 seconds. Diamond were only a small company but they had the courage to compete with the worlds best and it is a great pity that their T.T. efforts did not enjoy more success.

The race got off in good conditions and at the end of lap one Handley led Simpson by 22 seconds with Bennett  14 seconds behind and  Dixon in fourth place. By the end of the third lap Simpson led Handley by four seconds, but Bennett had been driving the Velo with a whip, lapping in under 34minutes. He took the lead at the end of lap four with an advantage of 2 minutes 32 seconds over Handley. Simpson was in 3rd spot and George Dance was going well on his Sunbeam in 6th place. Clarrie Wise on an A.J.S. and Eddie Twemlow on an HRD retired.

Bennett kept up the pace and on lap 5 went round in 32minutes 56 seconds, an average speed of 68.75m.p.h., a Junior record. It proved to be the day’s fastest lap and put the Velocette no less than 7 minutes 56 seconds ahead of Jimmy Simpson's A.J.S. in 2nd place. Wal Handley on his Rex Acme was 18 seconds behind in 3rd place.

Alec Bennett could now ease off and cruise home, and did so to win the 1926 Junior T.T. in the record time of 3hours 57minutes 37seconds, an average speed of 66.7m.p.h. He also set the fastest and record lap, and became the first  man to win three T.T. races. 2nd place fell to Jimmy Simpson who was 10 minutes 25seconds behind the winner. Wal Handley brought the Rex in 3rd and Freddie Dixon finished 4th.

Of the Wolverhampton machine placings Charlie Hough finished 8th, Frank Longman 9th, C. Bell 18th and J.H. Stevens 19th on his A.J.S. Jock Porter took 25th place on the only Sunbeam to finish and Kenneth Twemlow brought his HRD home in 11th place. Among notable retirements had been King of the Sprinters George Dance and Charlie Dodson on Sunbeams and George Rowley on his A.J.S.

After that excellent Junior everyone looked forward to a cracking Senior with a needle match between Stanley Woods making his first T.T. appearance for the Norton team and Wal Handley on a very swift ‘V’ twin Rex Acme. Right from the start Jimmy Simpson dug his spurs in and took his AJ into the lead, covering the first lap in 32 minutes 27 seconds, an average speed of 69.68m.p.h. This was the fastest Island lap to date and that from a standing start, giving the AJ rider a lead of 37seconds over Stanley Woods with Handley in third place. Petrio Ghersi had his Guzzi in fourth place just ahead of Charlie Hough's A.J.S. and Tommy Spann’s Sunbeam, with Frank Longman close behind on his A.J.S.

On the 2nd lap Simpson maintained his cracking pace to complete the lap in 32 minutes 9 seconds, a speed of 70.42m.p.h. This was the first time the Island had been lapped at over the 70m.p.h. mark, a fantastic performance that put the Wolverhampton machine 2 minutes ahead of Wood’s Norton. Handley's Rex was giving trouble and Ghersi retired. Hough and Longman came up into 3rd and 4th places, followed by Spann and Howard Davies on his HRD.

Then came bad news, J.H. Stevens crashed on his A.J.S. at Brandish Corner, which of course caused worry in the A.J.S. pit where his parents were watching the race, however news soon came through that no serious injuries had been incurred.

The meteoric Simpson retired with engine trouble at Kirkmichael which put Woods into a 10 second lead over Hough, now Howard Davies who had been in 3rd place, crashed and came into the pits to retire with nasty facial injuries. The very exciting Senior T.T. continued and when the riders started their 5th lap the positions were as follows. Stanley Woods on a Norton was leading from Charlie Hough and Frank Longman, both riding an A.J.S., Wal Handley followed on his Rex Acme and he in turn was followed by Joe Craig on a Norton, Eddie Twemlow on an HRD, and George Rowley on an A.J.S. That was the leader board and there were 9 Wolverhampton machines in the first dozen. By lap 6 Woods had increased his lead to l minute 25 seconds, over Hough, whilst Longman still held 3rd place. Handley had really turned the wick up and was the man to watch. George Rowley had moved up to 7th place and Graham Walker had brought his Sunbeam onto the leader board.

The last lap of the Senior brought great excitement. Hough had speeded up and now lay only 39 seconds behind Woods with Handley just one second down on Longman. Around the course the talking points were: Could Hough catch Woods? Could Handley catch Longman? And indeed could Handley gain the lead?  Fate now took a hand, Hough crashed at Sulby, fortunately without serious injury, but was out of the race after a fine ride. This put Woods into a safe lead of over 4 minutes, and interest now focused on the battle between Handley and Longman. The Rex rider just managed to pull out that bit extra to take 2nd place. So the 1926 Senior T.T. ended with a win for Stanley Woods riding a Norton with a time of 3 hours 54 minutes 39 seconds, an average speed of 67.54m.p.h. Wal Handley’s Rex Acme was something over 4 minutes down with Frank Longman in 3rd place on his A.J.S.

Other Wolverhampton machine placings were C.P. Wood on an HRD in 5th place, George Rowley and his A.J.S. in 6th, followed by Achillie Varzi on a Sunbeam, and  S. Jackson and Kenneth Twemlow on HRDs. Graham Walker came 16th on his Sunbeam and was followed by H.F.Harris on an HRD, and Clarrie Wise on an A.J.S. Ossie Wade came in 21st on an HRD. Of the 22 finishers 10 were riding Wolverhampton made machines.