The other day I was talking with David about Los Angeles car culture; David seems to be getting a bit disillusioned with it, finding that too much of it is centered around money and status. And while I’ll absolutely admit that is a part of LA car culture, I think there’s so much more, and I happened to see a fantastic example of what I mean while I’ve been out here: a rally-prepped (or at least it has the look) Sunbeam Stiletto.
A Sunbeam Stiletto is rare today in the UK, its home country; it’s as rare as a horse with a good credit score here in America, and yet here sits one, just casually parked at the end of a driveway along the side of the road in Silverlake.
And that right there – something impossibly rare and unexpected and wonderful, just out there amongst the normie grayscale SUV traffic – that’s what makes LA car culture magical.
I lived in LA for about 20 years, and on that time I never got tired of this aspect of Los Angeles car culture. It seemed like there was at least one example of everything drivable in LA, and if you stuck around long enough and kept your eyes open, you’d see it. While I lived in LA I saw cars like Tatra T87s and 603s, multiple kinds of Lancias, GAZs and Volgas and Okas, all manner of Fiats and Alfas and Saabs and Checkers and Citroëns and Ramblers and AMCs and Bricklins and Morrises and even got to know some of the owners of these strange and exotic cars, and then became one of them.
These aren’t necessarily expensive cars, or status-cloying cars, either. Take this Stiletto, for example. These aren’t exactly expensive cars, and they’re such deep cuts that only really painfully hardcore car geeks are going to even know what the hell they’re looking at.
This one is extremely well outfitted, and I know that can’t be cheap, but that doesn’t mean this is some rich-guy toy; I think this is more a work of genuine passion and not a car purchased as an investment, or anything like that, a theory supported by the choice of window sticker:
Aside from just emptying wallets since 1967, the Sunbeam Stiletto was a pretty fascinating car. It was the sportier, coupé version of the Hillman Imp, one of the very few mass-produced rear-engined cars from the British Isles. The Imp was the Rootes Group’s response to the Suez oil crisis and the Mini, arriving at the same basic goals – a cheap, useful, small car – from the opposite direction, with the engine at the back.
The Imp had the UK’s first mass-produced car with an aluminum engine block and head, and that engine – designed by racing engine builders Coventry-Climax – was a real gem, with overhead cams and canted at 45° in the engine bay. The 875cc engine made 50 hp from the factory, though I wouldn’t be surprised if this one has some extra horses crammed in there.
The Stiletto was the Imp’s sportier sibling, and took the Corvair-inspired Imp design language and gave it a very raked fastback roofline, creating a really handsome little car with delightful proportions.
It’s clean and crisp, athletic-looking, and smaller than you’d guess, but not too small. In rally livery like the one here, it’s even more fun. I’m not exactly sure of the origin of the livery, but I have found at least two other Stilettos wearing almost the same paint in the UK; I think this was the paint scheme of the Rootes/Chrysler Dealer Team?
That’s a lot of muffler going on there, almost serving as a rear bumper. And, this Sunbeam seems to have a nearly sunbeam-lumens-level reverse lamp setup there as well, which must make for some effective hindsight in this car.
The Sunbeam logo is pretty strange, and this Stiletto has a nice big one to scrutinize. There’s a lion, with a crown hovering over him, riding on what looks like a… red hat of some kind?
Turns out that’s exactly what’s going on. The reason for this peculiar scene is because it all comes from part of the coat of arms of the Earl of Shrewsbury. The crest is described, in that peculiar heraldic language, as:
“On a chapeau gules, turned up ermine, a lion statant with the tail extended.”
And, yep, that chapeau sure is gules, and holy crap is that lion statant, am I right?
This is all because Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, the 20th Earl of Shrewsbury, was one of the backers of Clement-Talbot, who made Talbot cars, a company that would later buy Sunbeam, becoming Sunbeam-Talbot.
All of this just reminds me how wonderful the carscape of LA can be. It always manages to surprise and delight me.
I actually prefer the Imp’s styling – it looks even more patently ridiculous with a fruity exhaust note as it takes hillclimb curves sideways.
But I wouldn’t kick this out of the garage for leaking oil. That’s what old baking trays are for.
I’m puzzled by the Scottish flag on the “Emptying Wallets…” sticker.
Maybe the blue & white livery is a Scottish thing?
Sunbeam was a solidly West-Midlands operation.
The Imp (and presumably all the variants) was banged together at a plant in Linwood, Scotland.
Yep, as was the later Hillman Avenger and Chrysler Sunbeam. The Rootes Group wanted to expand their operations at Ryton in Coventry, England, but the British government wanted to throw a bone to areas that were economically depressed (such as Scotland), and so the Linwood plant was born.
Last time I was in LA, we were riding in an Uber somewhere in that part of the city when I saw an early 70s Sunbeam Rapier parked by the side of the road. That’s the only one of those I’ve seen ever.
if he wants to see some project cars, he needs to head out to some jdm/honda meets or sit at a turnout on angeles crest.
David is seeing the expensive side because of where he is and what he is doing. He is a busy family man now. There is a ton of car activity in SoCal and California in general at every income level if you have the time. Up in NorCal we have a lot of car shows that have everything from Lowriders, ratrods, to the docent owned cars at the California Auto Museum. There are car clubs that have meetups that include Studebaker to Tesla if that’s you jam. There is something for everyone. I understand where David is coming from because I grew up with Monterey Car Week and Laguna Seca in my backyard so it’s easy to get a bit jaded but then I go to the Midnight Mass car show and a lot of it is guys building their projects in their garages and working day jobs.
I mean it’s Silverlake..
Lived there in ’70-71. Loved it so much.
David was nice enough to spend some time talking with me at WagonFest a couple of weekends ago, a Peterson event that was largely expensive German iron. Yeah, there’s a lot of that here, but there is so much more.
David is a busy man. If we know of a great local event coming up in Southern California, how can we let him know about it? He should get to appreciate the amazing automotive variety available in his adopted home. There’s an interesting car on every block.
Do Sunbeam Stilettos have “f***-me (fuel) pumps?”
(Given that they’re products of Sixties Britain, probably more like “f***-you fuel pumps,” but I still gotta ask.)
Yeah, as much as I acknowledge the downsides of living in SoCal, the variety of cars you see out and about is hard to beat. Yeah, there are plenty of clout chasing exotics, but at pretty much any Cars and Coffee event I’m bound to find something oddball that’ll capture my interests. I would (and have!) walk right by a row of McLarens to look at an old Turbo Dodge.
Downsides? You just gave away your ‘background’.
Not sure what you mean by that. I think that high cost of living, traffic, and potential for natural distasters affects everyone pretty equally.
Only the weak live where natural disasters are predicable and can be seen coming from hundreds of miles away.
How is SoCal like divorce? They’re both expensive because they’re worth it.
Growing up back east, I appreciate the fact that an earthquake or wildfire in a particular area means it’ll be a while until the next one. Beats the shit out of hurricanes, floods, and winter destruction that have the same probability of happening again and again in my lifetime. I moved to SoCal in 2013, and there’s no way I’d go back, unless it was as a retiree in a building with a doorman in Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia.
My wife and I would often have conversations about the variety of auto fauna in the Southland. In a single commute you could come across a dozen Saturns, the odd Sterling, a Lambo, and muscle cars built in the Lydon Johnsons admin.
Too much money and status. Not enough rust and holy grails.
What David needs to do is hop on a train. Take the Metrolink down through Orange County, or get on Amtrak headed up toward Santa Barbara or something. Tons of auto repair shops and self-storage yards abut the tracks, and that’s where you can get your fix for spotting incredible derelict heaps.
The one that sticks out in my mind was the Lancia Flaminia sitting in a self-storage lot in Anaheim, not too far from the Fullerton station if you were taking Metrolink north towards LA. That was over fifteen years ago, but there’s a solidly non-zero chance it’s still there.
Or Sun Valley. I by chance drove though that area and it was full of junk yards. It looked a lot like where Harvey “The Wolf” Keitel dropped off Jule’s blood-stained car in Pulp Fiction.
Or San Pedro. The whole town is a junkyard.
Yeah, SoCal contains multitudes. California is a nation unto itself.
They just need to bring back the rolling 25-year smog exemption.
That isn’t LA car culture, that’s LA culture. Even the window sticker on this is an attempt to ensure noone thinks it’s inexpensive. I still love LA. I just wouldn’t want to live there full time.
Correction: that’s American culture these days.
SoCal has long been the place for weird and wonderful rides. Yeah, the high-dollar stuff gets most of the attention, but for those of us who prize the unusual low-buck rides, there is still plenty to see.
I grew up in a middle-class burb, but still remember a Taunus 17M in the neighborhood, a Tatra 87 sinking into the parking lot of a local machine shop, and a neighbor who owned a DKW Sonderklasse and an Opel Rekord. That really hasn’t changed much, if you look carefully. Before I left, spotted a Hillman Minx convertible, as well as a Hillman Husky, Sunbeam Rapier, Volvo Duett and any number of vintage European cheapies (Borgwards, Lloyds, etc.) in addition to the collectible stuff like split-window Vee-Dubs, BMW 1500s and Bavarias and even the odd two-stroke Saab.
The Gallardos, Gullwings and Ferraris are on concours lawns. The real fun stuff still shows up here and there if you look.
Any weekend, with good weather, which means every weekend…whether it’s Mulholland, Angeles Crest, PCH, you’re going to see them in action. Everything survives in this dry environment.
I just wish I had more garage space so I didn’t have to deal with burnt paint. Still cheaper than rust repair which also means a paint job.
It actually wasn’t bad when I went to the office, they had a parking garage, and what I wasn’t driving was in my garage at home. But working from home for over six years means I’m going to need some paint work on the cars that spend time outside.
Always fun to spot an Opel stateside.
The local Buick dealer sold them for a while. I test-drove — but didn’t buy — a Rallye Kadett there.
Dad had a new ’68 Kadett sports coupe from the Buick dealer for a few years….
…it was sold before we moved back to Michigan in ’71.
Just have to duck through the clouds of clout chasing 911s, etc, to find the real gems!
Is that Sunbeam badge hand painted? Or is it a DIY refresh, like the Ecce Homo restoration, but a little more skillful?
I’ve said before that the biggest plus to Torch still living in LA would be that both his and David’s childcare problems would be a solved problem; the baby’s basic needs are covered and nothing keeps teens out of trouble like responsibility.
That and as it is I hope you at least get to fly by way of Burbank and not LAX.
Long Beach Airport is the real gem, at least if you don’t mind Southwest. 15 minute Lyft so I basically leave home a bit over an hour before a domestic flight. One-stop connection to almost anywhere in the US.
LAX is for international travel, or if you simply must have a direct flight to one of the major East Coast hubs. Only chumps fly out of LAX for a domestic connection.
Orange County works too, but is more expensive and less convenient for me. I couldn’t tell you a damn thing about Burbank or Ontario, but for folks further north, I’m sure they’re better bets for domestic travel like LGB and John Wayne.
I was thinking in terms of the geography of where he’d most frequently go; if there’s a physical Autopian office it’s somewhere on the Galpin property, and David lives somewhere in the Valley (I haven’t stalked him but going on a hunch) more than the airports in themselves.
I did a lot of work around Hollywood and BUR was a great airport until they remodeled it. The Avis lot that we rented from back then was a 1 minute walk from the Alaska conveyor belt my luggage emerged from. I also had customers along 405 up to Santa Monica and then flew into LAX.
I am so happy to be retired and not fly six times a month.
I’m not retired but I’m glad to not travel for work anymore. Four flights a week, about 46-48 weeks a year, for seven years. Those seven years took at least double that off my life, I think.
4x/week? I hope they were short ones.
Edit: Unless you were the pilot.
It was basically a one-stop each way every week. I have a PPL, but these were airline flights. They ranged from the northeast to the southeast or to the west coast. Honestly I preferred the transcontinental flights to the flights up and down the East Coast. Earning status through miles was much more pleasant than through segments. We called the latter “the hard way.”
When I had shorter trips – like PA to Richmond, VA, I took Amtrak.
There was also about a year I spent driving to eastern KY, which honestly was the most relaxing, due to it being mostly rural interstates. I was in a flying club and had access to a Grumman Tiger. I could reduce the six hour drive time from eastern PA to eastern KY to three hours westbound and two hours eastbound, but with weather a factor I couldn’t always keep to my Monday-Thursday schedule. I had a corporate apartment so it wasn’t a big deal, but most of the flying club wanted to use it on the weekend and I didn’t want to leave them in the lurch. Mostly it was just an excuse to get my employer to pay for me to fly and get some hours when the plane mostly wasn’t used anyway. And yes, they paid, because the engine hours I paid for it was MUCH cheaper than an absurd short haul one stop flight and really not much more than mileage reimbursement as the driving route wasn’t super direct.
But I am glad for it to be behind me – I was doing this from 2006-2012.
Most companies, mine included, would not allow me to fly my Cessna for work, apparently due to insurance.
For the size of the company, there was a real lack of legal/risk/compliance.
My late Grandfather was a Rootes group dealer in the UK in the 1960s, and after years of selling conventional RWD Hillmans, Sunbeams and the big expensive Humber cars, apparently he was not too impressed by the little Imp coming along, but he didn’t live long enough to see the Stiletto.
Rootes, including Sunbeam became Chrysler UK, becoming Peugeot and PSA and now Stellantis…. so already a dead Stellantis brand.
But could this make a revival???
If this is the car I think it is, it has a BMW motorbike engine with well over 100 bhp- it’s a well-proven swap back in the UK. You can get that sort of power from the Imp engine (pretty impressive for a 1 litre engine from the 60s), but it does take a lot of tuning.
These cry out for a Mazda rotary swap, to me. 70s Mazda RXs – and most RX-7s – are so pricey these days.
The Imp was water cooled and had a longitudinal engine. The transaxle would be the most difficult part, I’d think, but perhaps a plain old 13B tuned to make about 150 hp still doesn’t make that much torque, so maybe a rebuild stock unit with a different bellhousing would work?
Of course, rotary swaps always run into issues with the output shaft being in the center of the engine than the bottom, so the oil pan sits low in conversions. (This is why you don’t see too many rotary NA and NB Miatas – the NC is a different story since it was based on the RX-8 and they intended to replace the RX-8 with a new RX-7 based on the shortened NC.). You’d probably have to convert to a dry sump – these do exist but I am certain are not cheap.
I think the S2000 FC20 rotates normally (most previous Hondas rotated counterclockwise, unlike almost every other engine) but it might be too long for the chassis. But they are actually slant-4s and shouldn’t present too many height clearance problems.
Hmm… maybe a job for a BRZ/GT86 flat-4 with some tuning to remove the torque flat spot and make it really rev? It’s a shame there aren’t too many of these Imps because I think the possibilities are pretty wild to take advantage of a lot of low-torque engines in a very light car with a unique layout.
…all that said, I’d probably just get an Autobianchi A112 Abarth or a Peugeot 205 GTI and call it a day. I wouldn’t even need a Montana LLC for the latter; spend the money to swap and BAR it with a Honda B18C and call it a day.
While a lot of things in California are disappointing due to money and status, I think David is misassigning the nature of his discomfort. The problem, I think, is that Californians will often never turn up except for The Best stuff. It’s why collegiate and minor league sports are poorly attended. It’s why there will be lines for certain restaurants while other very good ones fold. Stars sell out stadiums and my friends in bands perpetually tour the Pacific Northwest to play for actual audiences and make some money. And there isn’t much enthusiasm for showing passion about mediocre cars in marginal conditions.
The sunbeam here, while not particularly expensive in the grand scheme of things, might be the best stiletto anywhere. So it fits. What won’t is a variety of run what you brung American iron with cobbled together fixes done with ingenuity and austerity. You can’t just be excited about cars out here… you have to be excited about the best examples.
There used to be the Malaise Daze car show at the Zimmerman every year which was a lot of fun. Last year they held it in Palm Springs – as a benefit for the LGBT Youth Center there.
There are Cars and Coffee events all over SoCal: Palos Verdes, Malibu, City of Industry, Eagle Rock, etc., etc., etc.
Then there’s Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank every Friday Night.
And variants thereof….
https://www.idrivesocal.com/
There’s tons of content out there just waiting to be photographed and written about – but you gotta get out of the garage to go do it.
right, CnCs at Porsche dealerships (ahem; sorry) and at the Petersen are only a slice of the SoCal offerings; much less money & prestige on show at all the smaller more localized gatherings you mentioned.
Thank you Urban Runabout for that response to Spopepro. You want another one? It’s a regular show, held for over 20 years at this point. Try the Best of France and Italy. Held every single first Sunday of November every year (except that first Covid year). You’ll see everything from Abarth to Zagato and everything in between on the Italian end, and a very similar showing on the French end. All of these cars are out there locally, being driven locally, and come together once a year for an exhibition of 400-450 cars.
Absolutely the best show. SoCal Vintage BMW is held in the same place, Woodley Park in Van Nuys, usually on the same weekend. I also went, years ago, to an all-GM meet at that park that was a lot of fun and which I think might still be going, or at least was not too long ago.
France and Italy is one of those shows that Leno always pops up at; he also came to that GM show (I think he had that jet-powered Toronado?), and to the comment about the mundane or the less-than-perfect being ignored, he attracts a lot of people following in his wake as he walks around shows, and he makes a point of checking out and appreciating all kinds of stuff from across the spectrum.
I went to the France and Italy event like 10 years ago. I don’t have a huge interest in these cars but I loved it. Got to hear a Cizeta V16 fire up!
*scurries off to YouTube to find this*
I think that’s not my point. Yeah, there’s a lot of shows out here. But what would be the response of DT showing up with the New MB? Or one of his other projects? I’ll bet the overwhelming response would be “ok, but why didn’t you finish the job?”
The quality and finish on display is tops at the shows/gatherings out here. DT’s enthusiasm doesn’t match up with what gets folks excited out here. I think he’s seeing strictly as a money thing, but my point was that the nature of it, while money is involved, is different at the root of things.
Oh you’re right – if you decide you are only going to go if you have a car to display. And there are definitely those who pull up with a “work in progress” or something completely mundane which gets largely ignored.
But the point – especially for someone who is in the media – is to show up, take pix and talk w/ people.
There are plenty of folks who show up just to see and park their mundane driver at the far end, on the street or around the corner.
Next Pomona swap meet/car show is June 28. Regular folks with their cars. Got to get away from the west side of LA
Good point. The access to the best of the best Beau has and shares with David is a net benefit to the site and him but he also needs to get out to places like that.
I am a former Malaise Daze Golden Smog Pump winner! That’s a fun show, nobody takes themselves too seriously.
My mom won the Fan Belt Toss at the Corvair show of that name in Palm Springs in 2003. If you want a crowd that nerds out over engineering and doesn’t give a hoot about status, a Corvair gathering is about as sure a bet as anything.
“The problem, I think, is that Californians will often never turn up except for The Best stuff.”
And why would they when one can see the less than best out on the streets every day? I imagine people who live in a jungle don’t have much of an itch to visit a zoo either.
Not unusual to see a classic being used as a daily driver. They’re all around.
The first weekend after moving into my place in West LA in 2013, I drove to the Whole Foods in Westwood and parked in the garage.
As I walked to the entrance, in rolled a big cream-white 1990’s Bentley Continental coupe with a dent in the front fender and an old man at the wheel.
Not all cool old cars in LA are garage queens.
This shit is why I live here. The most interesting cars I’ve seen out here are daily drivers that aren’t being driven at all in their home countries. Like this Sunbeam.
Welcome to the jungle, it gets worse here every day
I miss LA 🙁
This is more true for sports teams than anything else. California, especially So. Cal. is huge and tremendously varied. There are fans of everything here, from the mediocre to the overvalued. There is actually a pretty nice scene of fans of underappreciated rides like French cars, Malaise era cars, lemons, etc. Cars and Coffee Los Angeles is a monthly gathering that has a different variety every time. You’ll see a million dollar car parked next to a sub-$1,000 beater and the beater will probably have a bigger crowd around it.
When it comes to US sports, the NFL a Nurburgring lap ahead of anything else, and Los Angeles didn’t have a team for 25 years. That’s a quarter century of transplants who brought their loyalties with them and had no reason to change. That’s why Eagles games at SoFi are 2/3rds Philly fans – and it’s not like Iggles fans traveled all that well until recently. I bet if I went to a Steelers/Chargers game at SoFi, it’d be 3/4 black and gold, despite the Steelers being mediocre for longer than LA’s had a football team.
In a world of RAV4’s and Camrys (Camries?) to see one of these just sitting there would make my day.
Even a firstgen RAV4 is a rare sight around here. I know a regular customer with one and it’s in amazing shape, sadly it’s silver instead of a fun ’90s teal or purple.
If I was forced to buy a crossover, I’d buy a first-gen RAV4 2-door soft top in purple with tri-spoke wheels. Like this one, but purple: https://www.rav4world.com/attachments/wilcox_rav4_0003-jpg.161951/?auto=webp&fit=bounds&format=pjgp&height=1920&optimize=high&width=1920
Even better, those are basically Celica All-Trac underneath. Bring a 3S-GTE to give you the best 30 seconds of your life before it kills you.
There are a couple tooling around East Tennessee but they are in very poor shape as so many cars are here in this part of the country.
I love old cars with restrained and model-appropriate automotivia (?) stickers like this. If done right, like here, it adds to the appeal in my book. Where my parents live, there’s a guy with a sky blue Porsche 356 convertible that has a single Mobil pegasus decal on the drivers side fender. It’s just wonderful. And perhaps weirdly, the right bumper sticker can improve old domestic iron after it’s reached a certain age.
Like a Mondale/Ferraro sticker on a Volvo Wagon.
Nothing beats an “ass, grass, or gas; nobody rides for free,” sticker on an EV. I’d hitch a ride in that vehicle just to fart the driver to death.
“….David seems to be getting a bit disillusioned with (LA car culture), finding that too much of it is centered around money and status.”
Sorry there’s no Rusty Jeep Club for him.
Wouldn’t they hold their meetings out in the desert anyway?
On a horse with no name.
In normal guise I would probably take a second look because it would stand out as being different. In rally livery I would probably cause an accident stopping traffic.
Arizona car culture is/ was also cool, only most of the vintage iron is domestic, or at least it was 20 years ago when I used to go there more often.
So many cars and trucks from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s just driving around on the streets as daily drivers.
As someone from the Midwest who had zero experience with foreign cars, I loved visiting Arizona.
I remember my first few days in Arizona from Mass. “I had no idea Rancheos went that far back!” on seeing a 3rd gen. There are still some survivors, but not like it used to be, the biggest change it the lack of Bugs, in the 90s they were everywhere.
And now, Sunbeam makes housewares and heated blankets. Surely it’s not the same group?
Completely Different.
I would freaking LOVE to be on the west coast when it comes to cars. Seeing anything interesting up here in the salt zone is reserved to nice days in the summer, maybe. Seriously, I don’t even dream of importing something cool from another region as it would likely just get destroyed (and quickly). Hell, forget even delightful UK imports from the 60’s, I hardly see non-pickups from the 00’s around here anymore. And those pickups are threatening to fold in half any minute now.