Sunbeam Alpine: the civilised British sports car (1959–1968)

Most British sports cars of the 1950s asked their owners to suffer for the badge. The Sunbeam Alpine took the other road: wind-up windows, a hood that worked, a heater that heated, and handsome transatlantic lines over dependable Rootes mechanicals. Launched in 1959 and refined through five Series, it was the sports car for people who liked comfort with their open air, and it found its way into film history before any Aston Martin did.

From rally name to roadster

Sunbeam had used the Alpine name before, on a low-slung two-seater of 1953 to 1955 whose rally exploits, including class success on the gruelling Alpine Rally that named it, kept Sunbeam’s sporting reputation alive after the war. The name then rested until 1959, when Rootes applied it to an all-new roadster styled by Kenneth Howes with a confident nod to transatlantic taste, crisp, finned and modern, sitting on well-proven running gear from the group’s saloons. It looked expensive, and deliberately was not.

Series I to Series V: gradual civilisation

The Alpine evolved the way Rootes liked, steadily. The Series I’s 1494cc engine grew to 1592cc in the Series II; the Series III added a proper GT version with a removable hardtop; the Series IV of 1964 cropped the tall tailfins into the softer look of the later cars; and the Series V of 1965 fitted the five-bearing 1725cc engine, giving the most relaxed and durable drive of the family. Through it all the car kept its essential character: a touring sports car, happier covering ground briskly than being flogged, and far kinder to its occupants than the spartan norm of the class.

Dr. No and the film-star years

In 1962 the producers of the first James Bond film needed a sports car in Jamaica and hired a lake-blue Alpine Series II. So it was a Sunbeam, not an Aston, that gave 007 his first drive on screen, pursued through the Blue Mountains in Dr. No. The association has followed the car ever since, and it suits it: the Alpine was always more about style and capability than brute speed.

Harringtons, Le Mans and the Tiger

The Alpine’s sporting record is better than its gentle image suggests. The coachbuilder Thomas Harrington built fastback versions, the Harrington Alpine and Harrington Le Mans, and an Alpine-based Harrington won the Index of Thermal Efficiency at the 1961 Le Mans 24 Hours. Works Alpines rallied and raced throughout the early 1960s. And in 1964 the body gained its famous alter ego: with a Ford V8 in the nose it became the Sunbeam Tiger, an altogether angrier machine wearing the same polite suit.

What an Alpine is like to drive

The Alpine drives the way it looks: tidy, willing and unruffled. The steering is accurate, the ride is supple by sports-car standards, and the four-cylinder engines pull cleanly rather than fiercely, with the 1725cc Series V the strongest and smoothest of the family. Overdrive, fitted to many cars, drops the revs usefully at cruising speed and is well worth seeking out. None of them is fast against a big Healey, and an MGB will out-drag the smaller engines, but the Alpine covers real journeys with less noise, less draught and less effort than either, which was always the design brief.

The cockpit makes the same case. Wind-up windows, a full set of instruments, decent seats and a hood that can be raised from the driver’s seat were rare luxuries in this class in 1959, and they still shape the ownership experience now. It is the roadster for the owner who wants to arrive comfortable, and it turns more heads today than its period reputation as the sensible choice would suggest.

Buying a Sunbeam Alpine today

The Alpine’s unitary body is the whole story at inspection time. Check sills, floors, spring hangers, front crossmember and the areas behind the front wheels; the mechanical parts are tough, cheap and shared with millions of Rootes saloons, but structural repair costs real money. Watch too for Alpines dressed as Tigers, and for non-original engines, since the correct unit matters to value. Hoods, brightwork and Series-specific trim are the scarce items.

Running one is easy company: the 1725cc Series V happily keeps modern pace, overdrive makes a fine cruiser, a factory hardtop adds winter usability, and club and specialist support is strong on both sides of the Atlantic. Prices stay friendly, with usable cars from around £9,000, good ones £12,000 to £20,000, and only the Harringtons and the finest restorations beyond that, cheaper than the equivalent MGB or TR4 and, to Alpine eyes, the better-mannered car among the sports cars of the 1960s. Buy on the chassis, drive it far, and let the Bond trivia start the conversations.

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