Rare Sunbeam to go under the hammer

It cost £525 new in 1903. But more than a century on, a rare Wolverhampton-built Sunbeam car is expected to fetch up to £180,000 when it goes on sale at auction.

The stately motor was one of around just 75 of its type which were ever created and only three, including this one, are known to have survived.

The four-cylinder rear-entrance Tonneau, made at the company's Moorfield works, off Upper Villiers Street, will be going under the hammer at Bonhams next Friday.

The original owner, Warwickshire-born baronet and Royal Navy officer Sir Robert Arbuthnot, celebrated his 40th birthday in 1904 and the car, actually priced at 500 guineas, is thought to have been a gift to himself.

It was one of the first Wolverhampton cars to be given a number plate after licensing was introduced on January 1, 1904, the same year a 20mph speed limit was introduced.

For that reason Sir Robert had the car registered in County Sligo, Ireland.

Bonhams' spokesman Andrew Currie said it was common at the time for the more "speedster-type" of motorist to register his car overseas as it made prosecution for speeding more difficult. Sir Robert, who was Aide-de-Camp to King George V in 1911-12, was thrilled with his new Sunbeam.

After six months he penned a tribute to the car, which the company included in a 1905 sales catalogue. He wrote: "I have now run my 12hp Sunbeam car since April, a distance of 3,827 miles, and I am extremely pleased with the car in every way."

The car featured all the latest technology of the time, such as three brakes, including a steel spike, known as a sprag, which was pushed down into the road to prevent the car running backwards.

Sir Robert died in 1916 at the Battle of Jutland, the bloodiest sea battle of the First World War.