Sunday 21st May 2023 was designated “Harrington Day” by the Transport Museum Wythall, Worcestershire. When I saw that, visions of the Sunbeam Harrington car came to mind and I decided that I must put in an appearance just to see what examples of those cars turned up. The weather Gods were kind to us, cool to start with but with bright sunshine that brought warmth as the day progressed.
It had been many years since I had visited the Motor Transport Museum; what an amazing place it now is, a real Mecca for bus and coach enthusiasts. Whilst I cannot claim to be one of those, I do like the body style of coaches both old and modern and enjoy looking at them whenever I see them. There were certainly plenty of them to look at today, as you would expect, many of them had Thomas Harrington coachwork. Here is one that particularly caught my eye –
1939 Leyland Cheeta LZ5 with Thomas Harrington ‘Observation’ style coachwork.
There are more coach photos later on but first I must cover the primary reason that I attended this event, the Sunbeam Alpine Harrington cars. Here they are –
1961/2 Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans. Based on a Sunbeam Alpine Series II. There were 250 built half of which were shipped to the States.
Seacrest Green Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans. This car was on the joint Sunbeam Alpine Club and Sunbeam Tiger Club stand at the 2022 Classic Car Show held at the Birmingham NEC.
Sunbeam Alpine Harrington
A Sister Car –
1963 Triumph TR4 GT Dove by Harrington
TR4 GT Dove badge. L. F. Dove & Company was a Triumph dealer in Wimbledon and commissioned Harringtons to build around 50 of these GTs, inspired by the earlier Sunbeam Alpine Harrington design.
The Rootes Archive Trust Centre (RACT) Stand
It was good to see a number of Trustees manning the RACT stand. Given that the Sunbeam Alpine Harrington and the Harrington Le Mans are Rootes Group products it was most appropriate that RACT was present. With help from their Alpine and Harrington friends, what an interesting stand it was. Here are snapshots of some of the content –
The Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans storyboard 1
The Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans storyboard 2
I had the privilege of seeing the only works built Sunbeam Tiger Harrington Coupe at the Amelia Island Concours FL. in 2016 –
More Coaches with Thomas Harrington bodies-
A scale model
Cars in the Car Park
At events like these, I often find interesting cars in the visitors’ car park, today was no exception. Here are a few –
1954 Austin A90 Six
c. 2003 Smart Roadster Coupe
Jaguar XK8
Nick
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