The Sunbeam-Talbot Ten is a compact executive car or small sports saloon manufactured by Rootes Group in their

Clément-Talbot Clément-Talbot Limited was a British motor vehicle manufacturer with its works in Ladbroke Grove, North Kensington, London, founded in 1903. The new business's capital was arranged by Charles Chetwynd-Talbot (whose family name became the brand- ...

factory in North Kensington between 1938 and 1939, and then reintroduced after the Second World War and sold between 1945 and 1948. It was at first a two-door then a four-door sports saloon. A

drophead coupé A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving ex ...

version and a sports tourer version were also available.

Talbot Ten

The

and then the

Sunbeam Motor Car Company Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited was a British automobile manufacturer with its works at Moorfields in Blakenhall, a suburb of Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, now West Midlands. Its Sunbeam name had been registered by John Marston in 1888 fo ...

businesses fell into the hands of Rootes in 1935, and the new owner's strategy was clearly to use the prestige of the Talbot name for selling larger numbers of lower priced cars than hitherto. This Rootes' Talbot Ten was one of the first products of the Rootes strategy intended to open Talbot's planned shift down-market and add a genuinely small car to the proposed range. A star of the 1936 Motor Show it was a lengthened Hillman Aero Minx with a stronger chassis all updated at short notice by Talbot's

Georges Roesch Roesch, Georges Henry, born Geneva 15 April 1891: died 7 November 1969, automotive engineer, was the Swiss-born son of a German-born blacksmith turned Geneva garage operator and his French-born wife.Anthony Blight, ''Georges Roesch and the Invincib ...

and rebadgedJohn Bullock, ''The Rootes Brothers'', Patrick Stephens, Sparkford Somerset and so another variant of the existing middle market saloon, the Hillman Minx. Reviewers described the car as an attractive refined and well-equipped small car.Anders Detlev Clausager. ''Sunbeam-Talbot & Alpine In Detail: 1935-1956'' 2010 Herridge & Sons / Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust.

Bodies

The pillarless two-door saloon body made at the Darracq Motor Engineering Company works in

Acton Acton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Acton Australia * Acton, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Acton, Tasmania, a suburb of Burnie * Acton Park, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, formerly known as Acton Canada ...

was probably shaped by Rootes' Ted White, manager of Rootes' body engineering department. The open tourer was made by Whittingham & Mitchel and the drophead coupé with an intermediate ''

coupé de ville Coupé de ville — also known as town car or sedanca de ville — is a car body style produced from 1908 to 1939 with an external or open-topped driver's position and an enclosed compartment for passengers. Although the different terms may ha ...

'' position was made by Abbott of Farnham.

Sunbeam-Talbot Ten

The Talbot Ten was rebadged Sunbeam-Talbot Ten in August 1938. Rootes had decided to make no large luxury car using the Sunbeam name but keep the name alive by linking it with Talbot. Although apparently just a rebadged four door version of the Talbot Ten the new Sunbeam-Talbot Ten was given a whole new all-steel body with four doors. Changes included pressed steel wheels but covered by wheel discs, a normal lever for the gear changes, better instruments, and slightly reshaped front mudguards. Synchromesh was dropped from first gear and then later from second gear.When a car was at rest the then current synchromesh device could block a gear's engagement The new body was on effectively the same chassis but the engine and the radiator were moved 3.5 inches forward. This body was again made in Acton but by

British Light Steel Pressings British Light Steel Pressings Ltd was a company at Warple Way, Acton, London producing bodies for the vehicle industry. British Light Steel Pressings Ltd (BLSP) was formed in 1930. In its early years it made pressings for various purposes. In 193 ...

in their Works next door. Cars exported to Europe were badged Sunbeam. The car was undoubtedly the most elegant small saloon of the period. The classic saloon featured the streamlining increasingly characteristic of mainstream British cars in the later 1930s, along with "stand-alone" headlights. Power came from a 1185 cc side-valve engine for which of power output was claimed. All four wheels were suspended using semi elliptical leaf springs. Top speed was quoted as . In 1948 the Sunbeam-Talbot Ten was almost exactly twice the price of the new Austin A40 Devon and slightly slower on the highway. Visually the faster Sunbeam-Talbot 2 Litre was virtually indistinguishable from the Ten, but it was actually about longer in wheel-base and overall body length.

Production

* Talbot Ten 1935 to 1938: :2-dr saloon: 2,450 DHC: 581; tourer: 554; open two-seater: 0; Other: 9; chassis: 56 * Sunbeam-Talbot Ten 1938 to 1948: :4-dr saloon: 5,655 DHC: 767; tourer: 822; open two-seater: 11; Other: 2 In 1948 the Sunbeam-Talbot Ten was replaced by the full-width bodied

Sunbeam-Talbot 80 The Sunbeam-Talbot 80 is a 4-door 4-light sports saloon which was produced by English manufacturer Sunbeam-Talbot from 1948 to 1950.Ian Nickols and Kent Karslake, ''Motoring Entente'', Cassell, London 1956 The 80 was introduced in July 1948 as a ...

which was essentially a restyled version of the same car and shared the same roof pressing. File:1947 Sunbeam-Talbot Ten Drophead Coupe 1.2 Front.jpg, 1947 Sunbeam-Talbot Ten Drophead Coupe File:1948 Sunbeam Talbot Ten Tourer 9682994106.jpg, 1948 Sunbeam-Talbot Ten sports tourer

References

Notes

External links

* *{{commons category-inline, Sunbeam-Talbot Ten 80 Cars introduced in 1938 1940s cars Compact executive cars Sedans Convertibles