The Sunbeam 350HP is an aero-engined car built by the Sunbeam company in 1920, the first of several land speed record-breaking cars with aircraft engines.
Sunbeam 350HP at Pendine Sands in Wales on the 90th anniversary of Sir Malcolm Campbell's land speed record.
An aero-engined car is an automobile powered by an engine designed for aircraft use. Most such cars have been built for racing, and many have attempted to set world land speed records. While the practice of fitting cars with aircraft engines predates World War I by a few years, it was most popular in the interwar period between the world wars when military-surplus aircraft engines were readily available and used to power numerous high-performance racing cars. Initially powered by piston aircraft engines, a number of post-World War II aero-engined cars have been powered by aviation turbine and jet engines instead. Piston-engined, turbine-engined, and jet-engined cars have all set world land speed records. There have also been some non-racing automotive applications for aircraft engines, including production vehicles such as the Tucker 48 and prototypes such as the Chrysler Turbine Car, Fiat Turbina, and General Motors Firebirds. In the late 20th century and into the 21st century, there has also been a revival of interest in piston-powered aero-engined racing cars.
The Napier-Railton, built in 1933 and powered by a Napier Lion aircraft engine, at Brooklands Museum in 2008
Louis Zborowski with Chitty Bang Bang 1 at Brooklands, circa 1921
J. G. Parry-Thomas racing Babs at Pendine in 1926
The Sunbeam 1000 hp at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu in 2006