The three Sunbeam-Talbot 90s registered GWD 100, GWD 101 and GWD 102 were the main works team cars from 1948 to 1951, contesting no fewer than three Alpine Rallies in turn. This is the second of these, in July-August 1949, and here the cars are lined up at Nice after the end of the rally. The drivers were (from left to right) A G Douglas Clease (of The Autocar), John Cutts, Peter Monkhouse, George Hartwell, team leader Norman Garrad, and D Horton. This year the best result was for Monkhouse and Hartwell who were third in the 2-litre class and fifth overall. However, the Sunbeam-Talbot team was awarded the “Foreign Team Challenge Trophy” despite a fourth car (HUE 509, driven by Haines) having retired; the team award proper went to Citroën, and no other team finished intact. The cars were the early 90s, later known as the Mark I models, made from 1948 to 1950, with a four-cylinder ohv engine of 1944cc and 64bhp, and still a front beam axle on leaf springs.
Picture courtesy of the Richard Roberts Archive
Information kindly provided by Anders Ditlev Clausager
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