Sunbeam Venezia

Vehicle Overview

The Sunbeam Venezia was the result of the collaboration between the Rootes group and Carrozzeria Touring, which already assembled the Sunbeam Alpine and the Hillman Super Minx in its Milan plants. The British industrial group was thinking of entering the Italian market with this car. The Sunbeam Venezia was presented on 12 September 1963 in Piazza San Marco in Venice, in the presence of the mayor of the city and the British ambassador. The car was in fact the first in history to be taken to Piazza San Marco. The bodywork was built according to the famous Superleggera Touring system: a frame in thin steel tubes that supports the body panels, made of aluminum. The Italian coachbuilder designed a sleek, comfortable four-seater coupe with large windows, a well-finished interior with leather-covered seats as standard, full touring instrumentation and ample space for luggage. The mechanics were rather traditional and came from the Humber Sceptre: a 4-cylinder engine of 1592 cm³ with 88 HP (enhanced compared to the Scepter, where it delivered 78.5 HP) combined with a four-speed manual gearbox with overdrive on the two upper ratios (optional from 150,000 lire). The front suspensions were independent, the rear ones with a rigid bridge; the braking system was mixed, front discs and rear drums with brake booster. The clutch was hydraulically operated. 145 official Sunbeam Venezia were built, the number can be seen from the number of Humber Sceptre chassis shipped from the parent company to the Touring body shop. However, according to the sequence of the chassis numbers, the Milanese body shop set up another fifty cars on Hillman Super Minx chassis, completely identical to the Sceptre. The high price (comparable to that of the Jaguars) and its performance not excellent meant that production ceased in 1964. The financial events of the Rootes group proved decisive for the Touring which found itself without orders with heavy investments to cover (including the construction of a new factory in Nova Milanese), bringing the Italian coachbuilder to the closure in 1966.