This is the story of a man and his love for Sunbeams – one of which flew the nest in the mid-80s and has since returned to John Jackson in a wonderful tale of events. These are his words.
My dad Ray owned and rode a good many motorcycles, but his true passion lay in working on them. After the war, he became involved as a mechanic in the grass track and speedway racing scene. This might have been where he developed his interest in Sunbeam motorcycles, as Sunbeam engines were often used in grass track and speedway frames of that era. Given the rich history of the Sunbeam brand, it’s no surprise Ray loved them. Sunbeams boast a serious racing legacy, with their first Isle of Man TT win coming in the 1920 Senior race. The company’s mantra during those early years was “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday.” In the pre-war golden era of motorcycle racing, if you wanted to win, riding a Sunbeam was most probably a winning combination.
By the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, Sunbeams were considered old news, and Ray was among a small group of enthusiasts who still cherished them. Most Sunbeam aficionados were early pioneers, works riders, or employees from the prewar years. Ray knew many of these ex-works riders, racers, and enthusiasts, including Ron Hooper and Frank Williams. Ray played a crucial role in helping Peter Woodward, one of the UK’s most renowned Sunbeam restorers, locate many rare bikes such as OX 5193 (a famous 1928 Model 90 Sunbeam) and a rare Sprint Sunbeam once owned by Ron Hooper.
In the late 60s, Ray acquired a 1924 350 ‘Model 10’ Sprint Sunbeam. These OHV Sunbeams were produced in very limited numbers (in both 350cc and 500cc versions) and were designed by the legendary Sunbeam racer and engineering guru George Dance.
This model 10 was once likely owned by the record breaking Pendine sand racer LV Thomas from South Wales, who raced it in the 1920s with great success. At that time, Pendine Sands was the UK’s speed mecca, with many land speed records set there by both cars and bikes. The book “Pendine Races” by Lynn Hughes mentions LV Thomas on an incredibly fast Dance-era 350 Sprint Sunbeam running on dope. Thomas regularly beat ‘works’ Nortons in the one-mile sprint. To quote the book, “LV Thomas is best remembered for his exploits on a 1924, George Dance-designed Sprint Sunbeam which regularly until the late forties performed David and Goliath feats on the Big Boys from the Midlands.“
In 1972 Ray, accompanied by my late brother Paul Jackson on Norton rode the Sprint to the 1972 TT to watch the great Italian racer Giacomo Agostini in his last race on the Island Circuit (after the death of his close friend Gilberto Parlotti during the 1972 TT Agostini announced that he would never again compete in the event). Tragically, Paul lost his life in a motorcycle accident in 1973. Afterwards, Ray’s younger son, my other brother Mark ‘Jacko’ Jackson, raced the Sprint at various events in the UK for a few years, riding it flat out on methanol as it was intended. Sadly Mark too is no longer with us.
After Ray sold it in 1993, the Sprint was meticulously restored by a well-known Sunbeam restorer from Leeds. Following the restoration, the Sprint was taken to the 1993 Marston Sunbeam Club annual rally, where it won the George Dance award for the best sporting machine. The Welsh Museum of Land Speed acquired the Sprint in 2003 due to its connection with LV Thomas, and it now resides there, pride of place in their collection. In the recent YouTube documentary “The Rolls Royce of Motorcycles – The Story of Brough Superior,” you can see the Sprint parked next to the famous CF Edwards Pendine Brough Superior, which was on loan to the museum for a while.
Around the same time in the mid-1960s, Ray also acquired another old flat tank Sunbeam from the same era as the Sprint. I asked my mum and sister to dig through the boxes of family photos, and they found a few pictures of this ‘other’ Sunbeam. One photo I had never seen before showed Mark sitting on this old Sunbeam in the Isle of Man with a big smile on his face. Mum recalled that Ray might have sold it in the mid-80s; he hadn’t wanted to, but they needed the money. A close inspection of the photos showed this old sunbeam had rear sets, a Brooklands can and no kickstart, hinting at a racing past.
A bit of Googling and Facebooking identified the ‘other’ Sunbeam as a 1920s 350 Model 8 “Parallel.” Sunbeam called it a Parallel because it had parallel top and bottom frame tubes on each side of the tank, distinguishing it from the Sprint Model, which had a sloping top tube and triangular tank. Sprints and Parallels were very similar in other ways and were sold together in Sunbeam’s new lineup of OHV racing machines. The 1926 Sunbeam brochure describes the Parallel as “intended primarily for road racing purposes” but we know they were also used on the road by the more speed-oriented riders of the day.
Knowing where the Sprint was I now needed to find the Parallel. But did it still exist? To find it, I needed key information like the registration and/or frame and engine number. I reached out to Jonesy, an old mate of Mark’s, and he hit the jackpot! Jonesy had some old photos of the Parallel at the TT in 1976 showing the reg plate.
Family photos also showed that Mark and Ray took the Parallel back to the TT VMCC vintage assembly again in 1978 and 79. A few weeks later, my sister also found the original buff logbook that Mum had kept for nearly 50 years which confirmed the registration, engine, and frame numbers. I checked the DVLA vehicle search, and it looked like was it was still out there somewhere.
I needed to find out more, so I quickly joined the Marston Sunbeam Club and Register and learned the Parallel was an early entry on the club register. It was a 1926 model and one of two 350 Parallels that still existed from that year, with only a handful of others remaining from the previous years of 24 and 25. The Marston Sunbeam Club and Register think it is highly likely it was raced either in period or post-war. I suspect Ray found it through one of his many contacts in “used and abused” ex-race condition and got it road worthy, as it first date of known registration is 1976. We may never know for sure if it has any racing pedigree or if it came via one of his ex-works pals, but we do have some unconfirmed stories about its ex-race past and we also know the Parallel was a popular race machine that came ready for competition.
The 1926 Sunbeam OHV instruction manual gives the new owner instructions to “fill the oil tank with Castrol R for racing” and “for racing remove the compression plate, use a jet one or two sizes larger and experiment with Fifty-Fifty.” Fifty-Fifty was a mixture of Benzol and Alcohol, the sort of “dope” fuel that the old timers like LV Thomas and George Dance would have used to get these old Sunbeams to really fly. We know they were a successful race machine, as the 350 class of the 1924 Manx Amateur Road Race (later renamed the Manx Grand Prix) was won by RC Brown on a Model 8 Parallel. The RC Brown Parallel now resides in the Marston Collection within the Black Country Living Museum.
In an amazing turn of events I managed to find Rays parallel again and its now back with the family. It will be ridden, enjoyed, and passed on to the next generation. The engine in it exactly matches the numbers in the old 1976 buff logbook my sister found, and it’s only had two owners since it was last in our possession. It will have its 100th birthday soon and will be heading back to the Isle of Man in 2026.
I’ll be forever grateful to the Marston Sunbeam Club and Register for their help and encouragement in getting the parallel back.
The next challenge is to uncover the first 50 years this bikes story before Ray found it, unfortunately since Ray’s passing in 2006, much knowledge has been lost. One of Rays old friends and Sunbeam guru Peter Woodward, now 92, recalls one of Rays Sunbeams belonged to Reg Dearden, the well-known Manchester motorcycle dealer, ex-TT racer, Norton expert and one-time owner of a famous supercharged Vincent Black Lightning. But we are no longer sure which one of Rays Sunbeams was Regs’s.
We know Reg rode at Pendine in the 40’s and 50’s. Perhaps Reg acquired the Sprint from LV Thomas on one of his many trips to South Wales? Sadly, we may never know. Or did Reg in fact once own the Parallel? Reg’s son confirmed that he would have been 20 years old in 1926. We know he rode a Norton in his first Manx Amateur Road Race in 1929 and continued riding Nortons for his whole career, but I wonder, did Reg race a Sunbeam before he became a Norton man? Again, sadly we may never know, but we will continue the search.
And what about post war before Ray found it? Well, there is a good chance the Parallel was part of the emerging UK VMCC racing scene in the 60’s. It’s rear sets and lack of kick start lack hint at race use, even more telling is its lack of a rear stand, a bunch of old pictures from a Cadwell Park VMCC race meeting in the 60’s shows all the motorcycles rested on axle stands or leant up against old cars and vans. Just as today’s rules dictate, stands were removed for safety’s sake. We also know Ray ran it on Castrol R, likely because it was already running on it for racing and was problematic to change.
A few race programmes from the late 60s feature a 1926 350 Sunbeam being raced by the Haddock family. A good friend of Ray’s, Roger Haddock, was a prolific vintage racer who lived close by – we think it is highly likely Ray acquired it through Roger. Sadly we may never know definitively.
But, no matter its history, the main reason our Parallel Sunbeam is so special to us is because it rolled off the production line at ‘Sunbeamland’ in Wolverhampton in the same year that Ray Jackson was born — 1926.
In memory of Ray, Paul and Mark.
an article by John Jackson for The Girder Club
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