Incredible story of Wolverhampton's famous Sunbeam car that missed its land speed record target
Sleek and powerful, the Silver Bullet was Wolverhampton's shot at reclaiming world-beating glory, but it was to miss its target.
The supercar created by Sunbeam aimed to set a new world land speed record, but fell short – so short that the company is said to have paid the driver Kaye Don £5,000 for "damage to his reputation".
For Peter Morrey, who has researched the story, it is also part of his family history, as his maternal grandfather Percy Jones was one of that Wolverhampton team which aimed to beat the world.
"The house was a Sunbeam-owned property, before he purchased it later. He was picked up in the mornings in a chauffeur-driven car, and driven home at the end of the day. That shows you what they thought of Percy," said Peter, a past member of the Sunbeam Talbot Darracq owners society and one of the conservators of hundreds of Sunbeam works photographs.
One of his photos shows Kaye Don in the driving seat in a mock-up of the Silver Bullet with Percy kneeling by him measuring the distance from the base of the seat to the pedals, in the Experimental and Racing Department on the first floor of the works.
Born in Oswestry in 1884, Percy's career had begun in the age of horse-drawn carriages, in which he specialised in the quality leather seats and the cabin interior. A Master Craftsman, he moved to the Daimler car company in 1904 as trimming shop under-manager, before being headhunted by Sunbeam in 1905 to become trimming shop manager there. At the time the Wolverhampton company only had 20 workers, but Percy's trimming shop alone was to grow to over 50 staff.
"He specialised in designing and building seats, both for driving and passenger use, and car cabins in wood and steel from 1905 to 1935.
"Grandpa Percy had an enormous amount to do on the Silver Bullet, and its driver Kaye Don, as he did with every racing or record car, and all their drivers, measuring the size of their body and the fitting of the seats, steering wheel and pedals.
"My father Eric, who used to be an assistant to Percy at Sunbeam in the 1930s, told me of all the successes and failures of Sunbeam cars through the ages. He knew a lot of the important Sunbeam folk who lived in Wolverhampton, Bilston, Penn and area. There were 4,500 workers there at the time. I could name a lot of them, and what they did."
Sunbeam knew the sweet taste of record success as in 1927 the Sunbeam 1000hp, nicknamed The Slug, had set a new world land speed record of 203mph.
