Cat. No. 1969/1. A3 print, W16.5 x H11.7 inches (W420 x H297 mm) Limited edition of 250. Numbered and signed by Tony.
£150 including Packing and postage worldwide.
Back story.Back in the 1960’s the car market changed from a sellers market to a buyers market.
The Rootes family, who owned the Rootes Group of Hillman, Singer, Sunbeam, Humber and Commer, were unhappy with this as they were salesmen and wanted to sell-up and get out.
Trouble was that each potential buyer simply said 2what exciting new models have you got in development for the future ?” The family were not interested in future models so there was nothing and the buyers walked.
Panic. Peter Ware the Engineering director responded by bringing in an Issigonis-type team under David Hodkin, ex ERA and Jack Channer, ex Bristol.
Peter Ware had brought me into the group as his PA/gofer because of the innovative engine design work I had been doing during my final year at King’s College, London. So I got the job of designing a new range of engines and transmissions. Now I have always hated working with gears so I gave someone else the transmission and concentrated on engines.
This made me Chief Engine Designer of a global top 10 car maker at the age of 25 !!!
I then designed a different configuration engine every month for the next 18 months. I retained all my drawings and have donated them to the Rootes Archives in Banbury.
Except one, which was not a Rootes engine but something I did for myself when I had a couple of spare days. A V12 Grand Prix engine. The drawing is very faded so I am trying to restore it to add to the site asap.
The new range was called the Swallow range and after 2 years of hard work it suddenly became clear that with everything new there were not the funds to make it !!!!
Even more panic.
We had a brainstorming session and Harry Sheron, Chief Engineer, suggested that the only way was to “raid the parts bins” and new bodies with as many existing developed ‘running gear’ parts as possible. He then walked out of the meeting and I was given the job. “Create a new range of cars to cover all Hillman, Singer, Sunbeam and Humber models. You have 18 months and £12 million budget !”
So I created the Arrow range. I could not afford two different wheelbase lengths so for the Sunbeam models I created a fastback coupe.
The project came in on time and on budget.
At this time we were doing competition work, mostly rallying and using a tuned version of our 1725cc engine by Holbay..
I had one of these engines installed in the fastback Rapier as my personal car. I liked it so much that I suggested to the board that we make a ‘derivative’ model. Holbay engine, rostyle wheel and big tyres and a bit of a ducks tail tweek at the back. I proposed that it should be a limited edition of 1,000 cars. I talked to the heads of the police, fire and ambulance people in the midlands asking them what colour was most easy to see so that when anyone saw a orange coupe they would know it was a Sunbeam H120 ( 120bhp, 120mph).
The car was so profitable that when I moved on (exhausted) they could not resist forgetting the ‘limited edition’ idea.
The drawing presented here is by me in the original orange livery.
PS footnote. The Arrow range made the company saleable and protected, at least for the time being, the 25,000 jobs and the factories.
PPS. About 2 million Arrow range cars were sold over a production lifespan of 25 years.
Tony Stevens
