The Sporting Sunbeam Rapiers
In the Fifties and Sixties, the Sunbeam Rapier had a distinguished record as a competition car, with Rootes "works" entries on most of the major rallies of the time, in the hands of people like Peter Harper, Paddy Hopkirk and Peter Proctor, all stars of the day, who took the car to innumerable class awards as well as some outright wins. And success was not confined to the rally scene, as the Rapier was also a successful racing saloon.
Not surprisingly, competition success at the highest level, and a reputation as a tough and reliable rally car, encouraged many amateurs to use the Rapier for their sporting activities, and any British rally of the early Sixties would have included a large number of Rapiers in its entry list. Even today, the Rapier remains a popular rally car, and is used by a number of drivers who look to its enduring reliability to get them through some of the longer and more demanding of the classic rallies taking place today.
For those who would like to try classic rallying for the first time, the Rapier makes an ideal car to tackle some of the smaller and cheaper events.
For example the Road Rallies run by the Historic Rally Car Register (HRCR) all take place at weekends and offer excellent value for money, through being organised by volunteers from local motor clubs and requiring the minimum time off work for most of us.
The rounds planned for 2006 include a good mixture of daytime, night and full weekend road rallies, specially selected to please all tastes. To encourage the older cars there is a special award for the best performance in a pre-1960 car, although classes recognise the experience of the driver and navigator, which has long been proven to be the most important contributor towards success in road rallies.
For a full list of events, visit www.hrcr.co.uk For those who prefer something less competitive, but would also like to venture a little further away, there is a series of events on the continent, open to any car over 20 years old. No special equipment or competition licences are required, with the emphasis on fun rather than competition. All events include ferries, hotels and the prize giving dinner within the price.

Organised by the Blackpalfrey Motor Club of Kent, this was the 4th UK Rally in the HRCR,s Clubmans Challenge.

For Nick and I this was our first event in his well prepared Hillman Avenger and we were not out of place amongst the Porsches, MG's Minis Triumphs and Sunbeams entered.

Starting and finishing at The Moat at Wrotham the rally took in 150 miles running on the quiet roads in the Weald of Kent, and consisted of 6 regularities, 8 special tests and a fantastic final tulip section through Mereworth Woods.

Incredibly at the end of the event three cars were tied for the top spot with 9m 38s of penalties, the tie-decider was the first special test and the Mini Cooper of Geoff Twigg and Matt Fowle were declared the winners having been the fastest of the three.

The regular Sunbeam boys all had a good day and finished the event without succumbing to any harm, Robin Shackleton / Ralph Lodge, finished 11th Fastback H120, Gary Steeden / Roy Baker were 25th Series IIIa Rapier, Peter Kleyn / Gaius Hiscox 29th Sunbeam Alpine sports and Nick Smith / Tony Beale 33rd Hillman Avenger.

Tony Beale

The weekend of the 17/18th March saw the first event of 2007 for Classic Rally Tours.

The Honfleur Rally was a two day event with a series of regularities and sections around the lanes of France.

42 cars entered the event ranging from Austin Healeys and Porsche 911's to Sunbeam Rapiers. There are 6 events planned for this year.

The event was won by Mark and Sue Godfrey in their MGB with the Harrisons in their Triumph TR3A in second place. These two with Robin Shackleton and Ralph Lodge [not in their usual H120] in a standard London Taxi also took the team prize for 'A Taxi and 2 Sports Cars'.

The taxi was bought on Ebay with 317,000 miles on the clock and with Ralph navigating from the back seat finished a very credible 8th overall. It is the first time we are aware of a London taxi competing on this type of event and the pair said their only problem was being flagged down by several Frenchmen on the route !

Also pictured are the Sunbeam Rapiers of the Huggetts [finished 20th] and the lovely Series V of Peter Baulch and Martin Male [finished 30th].

Other Rootes cars on the event were the Sweetmans in an Alpine, the Haggertys in a Superminx and Lloyd /May in their Tiger.

Robin Shackleton

Shackleton/Lodge take 3rd in Sunbeam Rapier H120

The Tour of Cheshire is the inaugural round of the HRCR Clubmans Series and organised by the Knutsford Motor Club. It was a challenging event with 12 regularities and 9 special tests. There were 68 starters and amongst these 6 Rootes cars.
This rally is one of the best organised and attended with many members of Ecurie Ecosse attending as marshalls so Tony Mason, Russell Brookes, Tony Fall, Roy Fidler and others were present.
It was a challenging event and with new tyres on the Rapier we were determined to do well, if you start the year well it always seems easier to keep ahead.
We had our most successful result finishing 3rd overall, Top Expert and we took the team prize in our 'All Bumpers and No Spots Team' The prizes were presented by Mike Broad a very successful rally navigator in the 1970's who often partnered Russell Brookes to many wins in his 'Heat for Hire' sponsored cars.
Other Rootes finishers were 18th the Powleys Hillman Imp, 24th Valentine Sunbeam Stilletto, 32nd the Macintoshs in their lovely Series II Rapier, 37th Sunbeam Alpine, 40th the Clarkes in their H120 and 50th a Hillman Imp sport.
A special mention to David Clarke who partnered his father in their H120 on his first rally and took the Under 18 Navigators award. Well Done David.

So 3 Rapiers with points for the SROC Championship and a great start to the year.

Robin Shackleton.

1. The championship will run from 1st January until 31st December 2005, and will be open to all full members of the club.

2. The winner will be the member who collects the most championship points during the year from up to 4 qualifying events. Members may claim for as many events as they wish, but only the best four scores will be counted.

3. Qualifying events are any competitive event for which a full list of competitors results are published. These can be rallies, races hill-climbs, autotests etc., or even the local Round Table treasure hunt.

4. Points will be awarded to members competing in Sunbeam Rapiers, who make a claim by sending a copy of the published results in "hard" or electronic form to the championship coordinator within six weeks of the event. The number of points awarded will depend on the number of entries and the member's finishing position. For example, if the member wins an event in which there are 12 competitors, they would receive 12 points, for 2nd they would receive 11, for 3rd 10 etc. down to 1 point for last place, or for non-finishing.

5. In the event of a tie at the end of the year, the winner will be the member who has submitted the most sets of results, and hence competed in the most events during the year.

6. The winner of the championship will be presented with the Rosemary Smith bowl to hold for one year, and any other awards as may be deemed appropriate. The awards presentation will take place at the National Rally in the year following the championship year in question.