Sunbeam's Italian job

Jan 5 2010 Ian Johnson

Sunbeam's Italian job

THE wonderful Sunbeams produced by the Rootes Group in the early 1960s are now few and far between but there is one that is as rare as the proverbial hens' teeth.

The Sunbeam Venezia, a two door coupe launched in September 1963 was powered by Rootes' 1,592cc 88bhp engine. The Venezia was roughly based on the floorpan used by such cars as the Rootes Group's Hillman Super Minx, but the big difference was that it was built in Italy by Carrozeria Touring of Milan.

Carrozeria Touring was already assembling Super Minxes and Sunbeam Alpines for the Italian market so the company had a flying start in breathing a little Italian style into a rather staid British basic design.

The company was also responsible for building the Lamborghini 350GT, Aston Martin DB4/5/6 and used Superleggera construction which utilises aluminium body panels fitted to a tubular steel frame.

The chic Venezia was treated to the same construction but only 145 were built, seven of which were for British customers. The problem was that the high price the car commanded placed it in the league of the British Jaguar and despite its Italian input, there really was no contest.

The company even considered convertible and V8 versions and plans were made to switch production to the Jensen factory in Britain. But none of these things materialised. However, there was a strong rumour at the time that Rootes boss, Brian Rootes had a V8 Venezia built to order. If so, I wonder if the car survived and where it is now? .

Venezia burst onto the market at a time when car launches were getting somewhat lavish, and what better place to throw off the wraps than St Mark's Square, Venice.

The launch car was even transported to the square by gondola. However someone forgot to set the handbrake and only quick thinking stopped the car car from going overboard and sinking out of sight - a portent of its looming demise because it really did the plunge at the end of 1964.

Looking at the Venezia, I cannot understand how Rootes thought it was going to get anywhere in the marketplace it was aimed at by having such a small engine. It needed a good 2.5-litre six-cylinder to even get a foothold. But if you pushed the Venezia hard and used the overdrive, you could coax it to near 100mph.

It was really aimed at the fashion-conscious Continental buyer, but they failed to be impressed by its expensive build methods.

Only 26 Venezias are known to survive, less than half a dozen of them in the UK.