Antique Car Print - The Sunbeam Silver Bullett - Land Speed Record Race Car - Daytona

Antique Car Print - The Sunbeam Silver Bullett - Land Speed Record Race Car - Daytona

$40.00 Sale

Treasures from THE AUTOMOTIVE COLLECTION at Lost Highways Archive & Research Library. By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review.

Print size 24 x 18, and consciously formatted to work with a standard size store bought frame, or custom framed as you see fit.

THE SUNBEAM SILVER BULLET

Sunbeam. A British marque with a fascinating history. First making bicycles, I have long wanted a Sunbeam rod brake classic with the extra tall frame, but the two times in my life that I've found one for sale was a moment where it was vintage bike or be thrown into the streets. Flat again, and I don't mean my tires! In those rare moments when I've been more flush than flat, I have looked around for one, but they like to hide until I've paid every responsible bill, then they leap out and stick out their tongues.

There... that said, Sunbeam made cars and motorcycles and airplane engines and if there was a most expensive egg beater of the 1920s, it probably says 'Sunbeam' on the side. Always top notch. Still, when they built their land speed car to spotlight a pair of their Sunbeam supercharged twin V12s, (totaling 48000cc!!!) they managed to build one of the most breathtakingly beautiful cars of all time... that just would not break that record!

This photo shows the rear of the car, and is covered with prep marks for publication in the newspaper, as well as riddled with foxing and goo-bear. Yes, the latter is a term we made up in the studio, but you just wait and see if it doesn't make it into Merriam-Webster for 2022.

Sure, we could have cleaned this photo up and we're known for a solid work ethic, there is no doubt. Instead, we consciously chose to leave it just as it is which adds to the complete craziness of the image. It is exactly what it is, and it regularly stops people in their tracks as they try to comprehend just what that is, while grinning delightedly.

NOTE... the second photo is for reference only, and shows the tail section of the Sunbeam Silver Bullet from the side.

 

  • Handmade item
  • Materials: Art stock enhanced matte paper, archival ink
  • Made to order
  • Only ships within United States.

SHIPPING

All prints are shipped in a sturdy mailing tube for $8, which covers postage, tube and S & H.

BUYING MORE THAN ONE PRINT? Add a second print or any number thereafter of this or any other prints in our catalog and shipping is still just $8, total!!!

International shipping is available and reasonable. Please contact us for details.

A NOTE ON OUR PROCESS, OUR CHOICES AND THE QUALITY OF THE GRAPHIC CRAFTSMANSHIP THAT GOES INTO OUR PRINTS.

Every print we deem exciting enough to present to the public via our Etsy store or available here at our studio has gone through a number of steps. The first of those is always discovering and falling in love with an obscure image, always an original that we can hold in our hands. That image is speaking to us, sometime screaming “Don’t leave me here. See what I am, what I was, what I can be, what I SHOULD be!”

There is a real sense of excitement involved, and a great many smiles and knowing grins when we make that deal and bring that ancient print, that battered photo, that scrap of ephemera that contains some scrap of genius from an unknown commercial artist home with us, knowing already how we mean to approach its restoration.

There is the heady promise of a further hunt just as real as what drags a weekend fisherman out of bed at 3AM to work a favorite brook as we start our research, looking for that great backstory, and both ready and willing to tumble down as many rabbit holes as are revealed to us to get that story.

Then there is a meticulous digital restoration that is as often as much fun as riding a vintage Moto Guzzi on a winding coastal road. I don’t care if that sounds crazy, it really is like jumping in the saddle! So many choices, so many chances to take to subtly or spectacularly give new life to otherwise permanently obscure images.

This dedication and the ongoing rush of joy in the accomplishment of it, and the opportunity to share the results in our studio and here on Etsy, is the fire of passion that keeps these engines roaring. We make every effort to ensure our customers are not just satisfied but thrilled, and we happily stand 100% behind our work.