Alpine back from the brink

Continuing with his mission to document the most remarkable restorations of pre-1960 classics, in September’s issue of The Automobile, Michael Ware takes a look at the transformation of a 1953 Sunbeam-Talbot Alpine from a stripped, rust-ridden rolling shell to an immaculate sapphire stunner. 

Having spent years living outside, unpainted and with only a tarpaulin for protection, when the time arrived for the car to be restored, it was, unsurprisingly, covered in rust from nose to tail and presented a formidable project. Today, however, the Alpine appears every inch the sporting two-seater with rally capabilities that it was intended to be, and exists now as a credit to its restorers.

 

Every month in his Back on the Road pages, Michael Ware tracks down an extraordinary recent restoration. From the rarest, most unusual and most interesting pre-1960s cars, to more familiar vehicles that have been resurrected from the dead like a phoenix from the ashes, each restoration has its own story to tell.

 

 

This month the Alpine – sports car, rally car and film star (in Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief, 1955) – takes centre-stage, but it is just one car among an eclectic selection that grows with each passing month.

 

For the full story, the September issue of The Automobile is available to buy now.

 

  

Kommentar abgeben...

---