The Mention of Clarrie Wise reminds me that like Sunbeam's George Dance he was not really a road racing man. Clarrie's forte being trials. He was a member of the A.J.S. team in many international events collecting gold medals and silver cups galore.

Soon after the Isle of Man races Jack Emerson had a brace of HRDs at Brooklands, winning the 200 mile race at 84.27m.p.h. The Italian Grand Prix fell to Achillie Varzi riding a Sunbeam and the 350c.c. and 500c.c. classes of the French Grand Prix fell to A.J.S.

Nearer home again and to the Ulster Grand Prix, no longer a handicap race. 1926 brought good results for Wolverhampton machines for the first time Sunbeam’s Competitions Manager Graham Walker won the 500c.c. race at 70.43m.p.h., also setting a record lap of 75m.p.h.

There were some changes to the 1926 Amateur T.T. The race distance had been increased from 5 to 6 laps, a distance now of 227 miles. Everyone enjoyed good weather for the practice period but then came the rains and race day dawned with roads awash and the dreaded mist on the Mountain. The race proved a runaway for “A. Reserve”, the non de plume of Rex Adams. He adopted it so that his parents would not know he was racing until it was all over.

Adams or “A. Reserve” rode an A.J.S. and led by 28 seconds at the end of the first lap. He increased his advantage on each lap to finish 12 minutes 8 seconds ahead of M.I. Dawson’s HRD. D. Oldroyd took 3rd place on a Sunbeam. The winner’s time of 3 hours 52 minutes 23seconds at an average speed of 58.46m.p.h. was a good performance in the truly terrible weather conditions. The winner also made the fastest lap of 61.76m.p.h.

Whilst the only A.J.S. in the race had proved to be the winner, there were numerous other Wolverhampton made machines in the race. Riders of HRDs claimed 2nd, 9th and 21st places and Sunbeams came 3rd, 5th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 17th and 19th. All told it proved to be a very good race for the riders of Wolverhampton made machines.

You may have noticed that no mention has been made of Len Randles. It will be remembered that he won the first two Amateur T.T.s and looked like doing it again the following year until mechanical bothers forced him out. He had also ridden very well in the June T.T. Whilst returning from a trial he met with a serious road accident and was badly injured. The injuries ended his racing career, which was a great pity as he was a rider of tremendous ability and could well have become a member of one of the leading works teams.

An advert from 1926.

Leslie Farrar, nephew of the Wolverhampton concerns Managing Director Frank Farrar left his employment at the Austin Motor Company to work on the project. A medium size six cylinder vehicle of good quality was envisaged that would sell at a reasonable price.

Some experience was gained by visits to factories in America, where it was learned that mass produced engines could be supplied at a very low prices, for example six cylinder engines could be supplied at around £28 per unit.

In the event three prototype cars were built and road tested and they proved quite satisfactory, but the state of the industry at that time caused Villiers to think again and the idea was dropped.

Now to 1927 and a look at Sunbeam. As noted above, cash difficulties had curtailed the Wolverhampton factory’s racing programme. Coatalen was still responsible for the group’s competition activities. Talbots would still be racing and Coatalen was keen to keep the Sunbeam name in the limelight, and so he and his staff cast around for ideas to accomplish this. Sunbeam had held the land speed record three times and on the last occasion with a 12 cylinder 4 litre car pushing it to l53.33m.p.h. This took place in March 1926 and was the first car to travel over 150m.p.h. It had been driven by Henry Seagrave, but a few weeks later the record was broken by Parry Thomas at Pendine Sands. He reached 169.3m.p.h. and on the following day, April 28^th, he tried again and increased his speed to over 170m.p.h.

Whilst the Sunbeam and previous record cars had been quite conventional racing cars Thomas's car “Babs” was very special, being powered by a 27 litre Liberty aeroplane engine. This heralded the end of the “ordinary” record breaker, from now on they would be monsters.

Perry Thomas’s record of 171.02m.p.h. stood until February 1927 when Malcolm Campbell took his latest “Bluebird” to Pendine. The car was powered by a 22 litre l2 cylinder 450h.p. Napier “Lion” aeroplane engine and he pushed the record to 174.8m.p.h.

Whilst all this had been going on a very special record breaker was under construction at Sunbeam, and this was really a monster. During the last months of 1926 Louis Coatalen had decided to put the Sunbeam name forward to take the land speed record again. Sunbeam had built the first car to exceed 150m.p.h. and now the sights were on 200m.p.h. This was a very ambitious plan but calculations had shown that it could be done, if tyres could be made to withstand such speeds. As so often Dunlop got down to it and of course did produce suitable tyres.

The engines had cylinder dimensions of l22 x l60mm and were mounted one in front and one behind the driver. They had two overhead camshafts to each bank of six cylinders and there were eight BTH magnetos firing two plugs per cylinder. The engines were fitted with four Claudel carburettors and the car weighed 3.5 tons.

The starting procedure was quite complicated. The rear mounted engine was first started by compressed air and when running a friction clutch engaged, coupling it to the front engine and a positive dog clutch was engaged. There was a geared up drive to a massive three speed gearbox and a final drive to the rear wheels by side chains. The whole chassis was enclosed in a streamlined body, the first of its kind. For the record attempt the rear wheel covers where removed to help cool the rear tyres. Though known as the 1,000h.p., an excellent publicity figure gave the actual power at around 870h.p. at 2,000r.p.m.

A massive test rig had been constructed in the experimental department at the Moorfield Road works and tests proved satisfactory. The question now arose of a suitable venue for the attempt, as both Pendine and Southport were considered unsuitable. After a lot of discussion the choice finally fell on Daytona Beach, situated in Florida. This had been the choice of Henry Seagrave who would be driving the car.

The car and personnel travelled on the “Berengaria” and during the voyage they heard the tragic news that Parry Thomas had been killed whilst making a record attempt at Pendine. This could have been disturbing for the Sunbeam party as it was reported that the accident had been caused by the breakage of a driving chain. The Sunbeam also had chain drive, but on “Babs” the chains were only protected by a thin metal cover, whereas on the Sunbeam they were enclosed in armoured cases. None the less prior to the record attempt they were very thoroughly inspected, and incidentally when on the test rig at the works the chains had run red hot.

The team arrived in America and travelled directly to Daytona where the record attempt was due to be made on March 20^th. At about 10a.m. Seagrave started on his first run and what a thrilling sight it must have been as the great red car streaked down the course with its driver only just able to keep it under control. At the end of the run all the tyres were changed and the car started back again with Seagrave fighting for control. It had been a most successful run. The flying kilo had been covered at 202.988m.p.h., the flying mile was at 203.792m.p.h. and the flying 5 kilometres was achieved at a record speed of 202.675m.p.h. Thus beating the previous record by no less than 28m.p.h., the greatest margin of increase to date. Seagrave went down in history as the first man to travel at over 200m.p.h. on land, a very fine and wonderful achievement.

There were many congratulatory telegrams and messages, one of which came from Malcolm Campbell, the previous record holder, who was now well prepared to have another attempt. This he did in 1928 and took the record by a little over 3m.p.h. Sad to say Sunbeam would not again hold the record, but happily the car still exists. Louis Coatalen had wished to gain world wide publicity at little cost, and this he had done. The car had cost around £5,400 including labour, most of the expenses of the American trip having been met by the component manufacturers and sponsors. It had all been achieved at a fraction of the cost of running a Grand Prix racing team.

With Sunbeam’s racing activities curtailed the Wolverhampton cars were not seen in the big international events, none the less they still featured in many home events. At Brooklands Kaye Don notched up a number of successes. In the six hour race three of the 3 litre sports cars were entered. They were driven by Henry Seagrave, George Duller and J.W. Jackson/N.Turner. Duller won the race having covered 386 miles. Seagrave retired but the other Sunbeam finished 6th. At the September Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb the famous mechanic Bill Perkins took 2nd place in the 2 litre class, driving a 2 litre supercharged six cylinder car and then with the ‘V’ 12 supercharged 4 litre, won the over 3 litre class.

A 1921 Sunbeam 6h.p. tourer.

The Star Motor Company were also able to sell all the cars and commercials produced at the Frederick Street works, though in much smaller numbers than Sunbeam. More buildings were being erected at the Bushbury site with a view to an early move there for all production. During 1927 a number of cars were supplied to King Ibn Saud including some Harem cars. Also during the year cellulose finishes were introduced.

The cars offered by Star included a four seater tourer, with a four cylinder 11.9h.p. ohv engine and cylinder dimensions of  69 x l30mm. It sold £4l0. The l8/50 five seater saloon, fitted with a 17.9h.p., six cylinder ohv, 75mm y 120mm engine cost £850.

For sometime Star had named their various models after stars, for example the 14/40 side valve four cylinder, two seater was the "Argo" and cost £410. The "Draco" a five seater tourer was listed at £425 and a saloon version the "Dorado" cost £475. The cars all shared a common chassis and engine.

Quite a lot of publicity was made of the fact that the well known tropical explorer Mrs. Diana Strickland was to drive a car across Africa at its widest part and that the car chosen would be a Star. She left Wolverhampton during May with a 14/40 named "Star of the Desert”. It was a standard vehicle except that the body had been fitted out to give some sleeping accommodation. Mrs. Strickland's journey proved to be a success having covered 7,236miles over some of the wildest country in Africa in a running time of 58 days, though she was away for little over a year.

Designed to take 20 seater coach bodywork, it was said to be faster than some of the cars. During the last three months of 1927, 105 cars and 5 commercials were sent out.

Nothing has been said about Clyno for sometime. This is not to say that nothing was happening at the Pelham Street works. On the contrary they were very busy, and whilst the larger Clyno, a competitor to the Morris Oxford was not doing too well, a smaller model was a serious competitor for the Morris Cowley.

A fully equipped four seater saloon now cost £200, which was very good value. Production stood at around 300 cars per week, making the Wolverhampton concern the third largest motor manufacturer in the country.  It really is a marvel how they managed such production in the rather cramped Pelham Street works. A move to larger premises was afoot and at the beginning of 1927 Clyno moved to a large new factory at Bushbury, premises that would later be occupied by Britool. As well as cars an 8cwt Van was brought out to sell at £173 and proved quite a success.