Thursday 6th February 1958
The Sunbeam Rapier Series II was announced, available in hardtop and convertible forms. It was a great improvement over the Series I. Rootes arranged for nine of the new cars to be in Monte Carlo for the press to try at the end of the Monte Carlo Rally (in which Peter Harper came 5th overall in a works-prepared Series I).
It isn’t as well-known today as the Alpine roadster, but the Sunbeam Rapier was the first and flashiest member of the Rootes Group’s “Audax” family. Debuting at Earl’s Court in October of 1955, it presaged the hyper-popular Audax Hillman Minx (bowing in May of ‘56) and donated most of its mechanical bits to the Alpine. It was also probably one of the most contemporary-looking British cars of the mid-1950s thanks to its transatlantic roots.
Work on the Audax (Latin for “bold”) cars began in 1951-52, but it was in 1953 that the firm re-upped its consulting contract with Raymond Loewy & Associates, who had consulted for Rootes since 1937.
The Audax family was the boldest Rootes project yet, as in addition to replacing the earlier Minx and its Commer derivatives, it would also provide new cars for Sunbeam and Singer, which Rootes bought in 1956. These new cars were unibodies and shared more parts than older Rootes designs, so style was key to differentiation, and Rootes leaned on Loewy’s group for help.
Clare Hodgeman and Holden “Bob” Koto were the primary “associates” who worked with Rootes’ “Two Teds” (style boss Ted White and staffer Ted Green), on the Audaxes. Meanwhile, engineering, overseen by Rootes veteran Bernard Winter, created a light, strong unibody and new OHV engines, which debuted in the outgoing Mark VIII Hillman Minx in 1954. Perhaps to attract attention, the first Audax to bow was the Rapier.
Rootes’ staff did most of the Rapier’s details, and it was not only the flashiest but the poshest Audax, with bodies finished in fine materials and two-tone leather at Thrupp & Maberly into 1963. At first, it came only as a hardtop coupe powered by a 1,390-cc four, with twin carbs from Oct. ‘56, but it was a hit from the beginning, and the company quickly set about improving it.
In early 1958, when this early SII car was built, the car sprouted tiny, Studebaker-esque Tailfins and got a convertible option (a body shared with the Minx). It also got an enlarged 1,494-cc version of the OHV four with 73 hp. It quickly found rallying—finishing fifth in the 1958 Monte Carlo Rally—and sales success, though it was soon overshadowed by the Alpine.
Another Audax derivative, the Alpine draped a sexy roadster body over the Hillman Husky’s short-wheelbase chassis and used the Rapier’s engine and most of its other pieces. Although the Rapier would sell quite well for a long time, from there on out the Alpine was the car that got the headlines and it certainly sold very well in America.
Sunbeam didn’t give up on the Rapier, however. In 1961, the Rapier Series III’s four was punched up to 1,592-cc and 80hp with the twin carbs, producing the fastest version of the car. That was the peak, though, as a long period of decontenting began in 1963.
Unlike the Hillman and Singer versions of the Audax, the Rapier was two-door only for its entire run. It was always meant as a relatively affordable, luxurious, small style car and did quite well in its home market. Unfortunately, by 1963 its finned vistage was starting seem dated and Rootes was losing tons of money on the Imp project.
That year, the Thrupp & Maberly connection was severed, with bodies (always built by pressed steel) coming to the main factory instead for trimming and finishing. The twin Zenith carbs also soon gave way to a single carb and a little less power.
Surprisingly, Rootes had actually designed a four-door successor to take on the Rapier name, but the top brass changed their mind at the last minute, and that car became the Humber Sceptre, a fancier version of the Hillman Super Minx and Singer Vogue. Instead, the Rapier got a light refresh in 1963 and another in 1965, as its successor was delayed during the Chrysler acquisition.
The final update, the Series V, debuted in the fall of 1965 despite still wearing its circa-1958 tailfins. By then sales had slowed to a crawl, and only 3,759 Rapier Vs were made in two years. The car was replaced by a new Rapier based on the Arrow-series Hillman Hunter. It was again very American looking, in Rootes’ finest traditions, this time resembling a scaled-down Plymouth Barracuda.
In America, it was marketed not as the Rapier but as a replacement for the Alpine. This Northern Irish one is an early Series II from 1958, though its DVLA paperwork says it’s a ‘57. These cars were sold in America and Canada, but Rapiers are pretty rare here compared to Minxes and even the later Arrow-based Alpine.
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