Sunbeam Factory Literature

This article first appeared in the June 1995 issue of the Tigers East/ Alpines East newsletter. Used with permission of and thanks to the author Tom Wiencek. The following are his words:

If it was ever made it will be collected. This is true of everything, including Sunbeam factory literature. This article started out as a simple quest to find information on the stock options for my Series II Alpine. The deeper I dug the more I learned and the more people I met who were very knowledgeable on Sunbeam literature. Since I collected all this information, I decided to organize it and write an article for our membership to read.

I originally offered to write an article detailing the factory sales brochures issued for the Alpine from Series I to V, but after reading an article by Rande Bellman, (Which I have had since July of 1993, Sorry for taking so long Rande!) I do not feel qualified to write an article with the detail of Rande's on the Tiger. I hope someone else will take up this task. I have decided that my contribution will be two other articles. First I will cover the information that I have learned during my "literature search" and sometime in the future, I will write a detailed article on Sunbeam Accessory Brochures.

Table 1 lists the Rootes reference number, the model the literature covers and the title or a description of the brochure. The list has been sorted by numerical order. Three major groups can be seen. Literature that was given Rootes part numbers, literature for the home market and literature for export.

The first group contains factory manuals that were included with the car, bought for maintenance or were for special tuning of race vehicles. Specifically, these manuals were - Owner's Handbooks, very similar to today's owner's manuals, Work shop manuals which were used by the dealers or owners for repair reference, and parts lists used when ordering replacement parts, which listed every part (by Rootes part number) in an Alpine or Tiger and contained drawings of almost every part. All of these books are very helpful in the restoration and maintenance of Sunbeams. Reprints of owner's manuals, workshop manuals and special tuning manuals are readily available. Parts lists are harder to find but with a little looking or through the club's wanted ads a copy can be found.

The second group consists of sales literature that was given out at the Sunbeam dealerships in England. Most of the Rootes literature has a reference number on the last page. Brochures were issued in numerical order for each market. A series of letters followed the numbers and indicated the market and type of drive. All of the literature for England were marked with an H for Home Market. Other abbreviations were Ex = Export Market, LHD = Left Hand Drive, RHD = Right Hand Drive, CAN = Canada, FR = France, GM = Germany, USA = United States. Two sizes of brochures were printed for the Alpine. The folded sizes were 5.5 x 7 in. and 8.5 x 11.5 in. and when unfolded the sizes were 14 x 19.5 in. and 23 x 25.5 in. respectively. Both were very similar with the larger ones having more details of the new model`s features.

Many of the export brochures were almost identical to their home market counterparts. Only minor changes were made to reflect different country requirements. The most common difference was showing the cars as left hand drive. Sometimes this was done just by printing the original art from the other side and painting in or air brushing out the gas cap. It is interesting to note the decline in the number of sales brochures printed from 1959 to the 1964. This may be due to the smaller number of Series III and IV Alpines produced or may have represented a cut back in advertising due to the worsening financial condition of the Rootes company.

Some interesting unusual brochures were also printed. Rootes provided a service for purchasing a car in Europe, driving it while on holiday and then having it shipped back to your home country. Rootes also printed brochures which were to help their salesmen sell the cars by listing "Confidential Facts". Most of the facts were identical to those listed in the regular sales brochures but were given in far greater detail. Color chip books were also available. These contained small samples of the available paint colors for choosing which color your new Sunbeam would be. Brochures with the current prices were also printed.

When Chrysler took over Rootes the numbering system seems to have been dropped. The only Rootes/Chrysler brochure I have seen is a Green and White brochure which covers the Tiger and the Series V Alpine. It boldly proclaims, "Chrysler's New Sunbeams."

I hope that this list is helpful to all our Sunbeam literature collectors. I would gladly welcome information or xerox copies of any Tiger or Alpine literature that is not on this list. I would also be interested in receiving any corrections of errors in the original list. Please mail them to me and if I receive enough, I will publish an updated list. Finally, I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this list, especially Rande Bellman and Scott Christie.

Reference Number	Model	Description
Rootes Part Num.
6600259	Alpine	Voucher Book
6600681	Alpine I	Owner's Manual, 1959
6600719	Alpine I	Factory Parts List, 7/59
6600736	Alpine I	Workshop Manual, In German
6600806	Alpine II	Owner's manual, 1960
6600809	Alpine II	Parts List, supplement
6600865	Alpine I & II	Workshop Manual, WSM 124/3
6600937	Harrington Alpine	Owner's Manual, Harrington
6600938	Alpine III	Owner's Manual
6600951	Alpine II	Sunbeam Harrington Supplement to Workshop Manual, 1962
6600960	Alpine II	Special Tuning, 1962
6600988	Alpine III	Workshop Manual
6600992	Alpine I-V	Parts List
6600993	Rootes Range	Man Hour Schedule, 1964
6601053	Alpine IV	Owner's Manual
6601102	Alpine I-IV	Workshop manual, WSM 124/2 1964
6601124	Tiger Mark I	Owner's Manual
6601125	Tiger Mark I	Workshop manual, WSM 143
6601206	Tiger Mark II	Workshop manual, WSM 144
6601231	Alpine V	Workshop manual, WSM 145
6601245	Alpine V	Owner's Manual
6601339	Tiger Mark II	Owner's Manual
Home Market
0643/H	Alpine I	New Sunbeam Alpine
0644/H	Alpine I	New Sunbeam Alpine
0694/H	Alpine I	Prices, Color Schemes and Dimensions, Small Size
0753/H	Alpine II	SB Alpine, Sleek, Swift, Spectacular, Now with larger 1.6 L Engine, Large Size
0756/H	Alpine II	SB Alpine, Sleek, Swift, Spectacular, Now with larger 1.6 L Engine
0779/H	Alpine II	The Sunbeam Story, Alpine and Rapier
0850/H	Alpine II	Sunbeam the Sucessful Marque, Alpine and Rapier
0945/H	Alpine III	The Spectacular New Sunbeam Alpine, Large Size
0946/H	Alpine III	The Spectacular New Sunbeam Alpine, Small Size
0990/H	Alpine IV	The Spectacular New Sunbeam Alpine
1010/H	1964 Sunbeam	New Sunbeam Range, Alpine and Rapier
1044/H	Alpine IV	1963, Large Size
1028/H	1964 Sunbeam	Price List, October 16, 1963
1091/H	Alpine IV	Sporting Performance with Touring Luxury
1131/H	Tiger Mark I	Black Cover with red car and tiger's head.
1158/H	Tiger Mark I	Confidential Sunbeam Tiger Facts for the Salesman
1159/H	Tiger Mark I	Black Cover with red car and tiger's head.
1206/H	Alpine V	Single Sheet - Blue car
1228/H	1966 Sunbeam	New Sunbeam Range, Tiger IA, Alpine and Rapier
9307/H	1967 Sunbeam	New Sunbeam Range - Alpine, Rapier and Imp
Export Market
6004/Ex/CAN	Tiger Mark II	One Sheet - Black cover with white car
7174/Ex/USA	Alpine I	New Sunbeam Alpine - Inside Facts for the Salesman
7176/Ex/USA	Alpine I	The New Sunbeam Alpine, Sleek, Swift, Spectacular, Large Size
7177/Ex/RHD	??????????	.
7181/Ex/USA	Alpine I	The New Sunbeam Alpine, Sleek, Swift, Spectacular, Small Size
7248/EX/LHD	Alpine II	Sunbeam Alpine - Now with larger 1.6 L Engine, Large Size
7249/Ex/USA	Alpine II	Sunbeam Alpine - Now with larger 1.6 L Engine, Large Size
7255/Ex/USA	Alpine II	Sunbeam Alpine - Now with larger 1.6 L Engine, Small size
7256/Ex/FR	Alpine II	French Sales Folder, Small Size
7260/Ex	Alpine II	Salesman's Data Book - Facts for the Salesman
7669/Ex/USA	Alpine II	The Sunbeam Story - Alpine and Rapier
7693/Ex/GM	Alpine II	German Version of 7249
7698/EX/USA	1962 Sunbeam	Three Color folder of Sunbeam Line, Small Size
7704/Ex/USA	Alpine III	The Spectacular New Sunbeam Alpine, Large Size
7705/Ex/FR	Alpine III	French Version of 7704
7709/Ex/USA	Alpine III	The Spectacular New Sunbeam Alpine, Small Size
7746/Ex/USA	Alpine IV	Alpine - Sporting Performance with Touring Luxury, Large Size
7751/Ex/USA	Alpine IV	Alpine - Sporting Performance with Touring Luxury, Large Size
7763/Ex/USA	Tiger Mark I	First Tiger Brochure, Printed in black, white and blue.
7772/Ex/LHD/RHD	Alpine IV	Sporting Performance with Touring Luxury
7773/Ex/USA	Alpine IV	Sporting Performance with Touring Luxury, 1964
7786/Ex/LHD	Alpine IV	1965 Single Sheet
7787/Ex/USA	Alpine IV	Color one page Spec. Sheet with white car
7801/Ex/USA	Tiger Mark I	Black Cover with red car and tiger's head.
7823/Ex/LHD	Alpine V	Greater Power - Higher Performance
7824/Ex/USA	Alpine V	Greater Power - Higher Performance
7831/Ex/USA	Tiger Mark IA	Black Cover with White car
7855/Ex/FR	Alpine V	French Version of 7824
8240/Ex/USA	Alpine IV	Rootes Travel Services Abroad
Miscellaneous
No Reference #	Harrington A	The 1.6 Litre Sunbeam Harrington Alpine, Small Size
No Reference #	Harrington B	Sunbeam Harrington LeMans - New Pace Setting Performance, Large Size
No Reference #	Harrington B	Harrington LeMans - Cover shows car #35, Small size
No Reference #	Harrington C	The 1.6 Litre Sunbeam Harrington Alpine "C" Type, Small Size
No Reference #	Harrington D	Part Color Sheet - Harrington D
RL282	Series II	Dealer's Tri-fold Color Folder, Paint Chips
No Reference #	Alpine V	Large Post Card
No Reference #	Alpine V, Tiger IA	Green And White - Chrysler's New Sunbeams, Tiger and Alpine
No Reference #	Alpine I	Rootes Travel Services
No Reference #	Alpine III	Before You Make that New Car Decision
No Reference #	Alpine III	Italian Version of Series III by Touring of Milan, Nuova Linea Sunbeam Alpine