Sunbeam Alpine Harrington Coupe

Sunbeam Alpine Harrington Coupe.

In 1959 Sunbeam presented its Alpine Roadster, as a direct competitor for the MGA. The car was built as a unitary steel body, but the suspension was following conservative wisdom with a leaf sprung life axle. Engines varied from 1500 cc to 1725 for the last versions.

The most famous version of the Alpine is the Tiger fitted with 4.2 litre Ford V8. Another lesser known version is the Harrington Coupe, designed by coach builder Harrington on the basis of the roadster. It generated a little more space than the factory hardtop which was available for the roadster.

The engine was tuned by George Hartwell, and power increased from 78 to 89 BHP and ultimately 104 BHP. The car was made famous when it successfully participated in the 1962 Le Mans 24-Hours. Since then the type became known as the Harrington Le Mans Coupe. There were two series, A and B. Overall exact 400 examples were produced.

Here are two, one at the Silverstone Historics in 2005, and one at Retromobile 2005 in Paris.

I would like to make a minor correction to this post. The Harrington Alpine shown in your pictures (3000 RW) that won the Index of Thermal Efficiency at Le Mans was actually in 1961 and not 1962. There were more than 2 types, or series as we call them, of Harrington Alpine produced. The Harrington Alpine, The Harrington Le Mans, The Harrington Alpine Series 'C' and The Harrington Alpine Series 'D'. In total there were less than 400 examples. We estimate 384 units. Please visit [URL="http://www.harringtonalpine.org"]www.harringtonalpine.org [/URL]for information regarding these cars and current registry of survivors.

Hi Allan,

Welcome to UCP

Thanks for the update and corrections. Just wondering, last year I saw a Harrington Tiger being auction off at RM in Monterey. Was that a factory version or an aftermarket conversion?

Pieter

[QUOTE=henk4;671503]Just wondering, last year I saw a Harrington Tiger being auction off at RM in Monterey. Was that a factory version or an aftermarket conversion?[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/frame.php?file=car.php&carnum=2548[/url]

A contibution to oddballs.
An Austin Sheerline replacement proposal which luckily never saw the light of day.
[IMG]http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t165/barrie5000/Sheerlinereplacement.jpg[/IMG]

Harrington Le Mans at Canberra, Australia in 2009

Interesting picture of the Harrington rear door.
Looks like a fhc E-Eype's
[IMG]http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t165/barrie5000/Ultimate%20Car%20Forum%20Album/CoysAuction2009E-type.jpg[/IMG]

With reference to the odd looking Sheerline above I have heard that Austin experimented with a turbine engine version.
Does anyone have further info or pictures or was it just an April fools prank?

I found this

[url=http://www.austinmemories.com/page19/page19.html]Gas Turbine[/url]

Love the Alpine Roadster! Super-love the Harrington Coupe!