DO YOU REMEMBER – THE SUNBEAM STILETTO?
By Andrew Roberts |
10th December, 2020
The year is 1967, and your dilemma is a) craving a new Porsche 911 while b) having a most unsympathetic bank manager. Fortunately, the Rootes Group had just launched a new car ‘for men whose wives think they’ve given up sports cars’. The advertisement further invited the reader to ‘show her how luxuriously saloon it is – four deep seats, the front ones reclining, plenty of room, and swish twin headlamps’.
Nor should your spouse be informed of the ‘race-bred Sunbeam engine, ZOOM fastback styling, vinyl covered roof, twin carburettors, rally instrumentation and servo-assisted brakes’. Anyone who took such copy seriously was the sort of person who tried to emulate the opening credits of The Simon Dee Show in their 1965 Hillman Super Minx Estate. Nor was the Pathe News coverage of the 1967 Earls Court Motor Show much of an improvement;
In reality, the Sunbeam Stiletto was a very likeable machine with no direct British equivalent as an affordable mass-produced rear-engine coupe. Besides, who could resist a car with twin coach lines, elaborate wheel trims and seats upholstered in ‘Beautiful, breathable Amblair upholstery’? That the Hillman Imp possessed great potential was evident virtually from the outset. On 8th May 1963, The Motor noted it could ‘be hurled into corners at speeds which would be suicidal with most saloons’.
There is no place here for yet another revival of the “Imp Story”, so let us say that it was an incredibly ambitious vehicle, one boasting the UK’s first all-aluminium, SOHC mass-production engine. Nor, despite the mythology was the lack of FWD a sales drawback, as demonstrated by the success of the Imp’s rear-engine rivals – the NSU Prinz 4, Renault R8 and Simca 1000. The problems with this extremely likeable car stemmed from a premature launch, a company financially weakened by recent industrial disputes and the issues of the new factory in Linwood.
The Singer Chamois made its bow in late 1964 and, as befitting a competitor to the Wolseley Hornet and Singer Chamois, it boasted extra instruments and a walnut veneered dashboard. Two years later, Rootes unveiled the Sunbeam Imp and the more upmarket Chamois Sport. Twin Stromberg CD125 carburettors, a new cylinder head and a high lift camshaft and a new cylinder head augmented the familiar 875cc engine, resulting in a top speed of 90 mph.
The range was further expanded in late 1966 with the Imp Californian coupe, and in the following year, Rootes introduced the Stiletto; an attractive combination of the Californian’s body with the Sport engine for just £813. Bill Boddy of Motor Sport thought it ‘great fun to drive, and quite civilised into the bargain’. Asides from the limited accommodation – it was never more than a 2+2 at best – the Sunbeam was clearly a worthy alternative to the Mini Cooper Mk. II.
Yet the car from Linwood never captured the public imagination in the same manner as BMC’s offering. Rootes had reflected many of the Imp’s faults within a few years of its launch but the negative image, alas, prevailed. The Stiletto had the further misfortune to be launched at a time when Chrysler was absorbing the Rootes Group into its empire. Production ceased in 1972 while the Imp continued until 1976.
As Keith Adams wrote in www.aronline.co.uk it ‘was a victim of that oft-repeated mistake of launching a car before it had been fully developed. Reputations are hard earned and easily lost’. And in the case of the Sunbeam in particular, that was a great pity.
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