Sunbeam

Sunbeam was a British car marque built by the Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited of Wolverhampton, which operated between 1905 and 1934. John Marston had registered the Sunbeam name in 1888 for his pedal cycles, and car manufacture began in 1901. Designer Louis Coatalen pushed the firm into motor racing, Grand Prix competition and land speed records, and Sunbeam also built its own aero engines in the First World War. Slow sales and the cost of racing led to a receiver and a forced sale, and the Rootes brothers took the name, which from 1938 they added to the Talbot range as Sunbeam-Talbot and in 1954 used on its own again. Sunbeam appeared as a marque on new cars until 1976 and then lived on as a model name.