TALBOT SUNBEAM LOTUS
No feature on cult classic icons would be complete without reference to a hot hatch of some sort, but an icon from the UK, I mean who would have seen that coming? But then not everyone shares my vision.

This is why, over the following pages, you'll see how divided our opinions are when it comes to defining what actually makes a cult icon. In my mind though, no car is more befitting of the Ôcult hero' tag than the Lotus-engineered Sunbeam with its basic design, mercilessly focussed chassis, and 155bhp. It has the kudos of Lotus too.

But for me it is the fact that most people who have ever seen a Lotus Sunbeam view it as an old lady's whist chariot, than for what it really is. I mean, you could hand a child a crayon and ask them to draw a car and they'd more than likely sketch you the Talbot Sunbeam. And for this I sympathise, thinking the very same until I actually drove the very Moonstone blue Lotus Sunbeam pictured, back in 1999.

The Sunbeam was not the first, nor the last car to be treated to a snip of Suffolk tailoring, but it is the finest hatch back they have ever lent their engineering talents and name to, as far as I'm concerned. Initially, only available in Embassy black with broad silver side stripes and grey interior, it was an unlikely candidate Ð not only as a fierce hot hatch, but also for global rally domination. Yet, developed from the outset to compete in rallying Lotus managed to shoehorn its own 2174cc 16v slant-four engine under the bonnet of the Sunbeam, the result was an absolutely superb road and rally car, of which 2300 or so were produced.

Producing 155bhp (in road trim) the twin 45mm Dellorto carburetor-fuelled 4 cylinder hatch back would see closer to 240bhp when it competed in international rallying from 1979 to 1982.

In this time one Henri Toivonen would not only win the 1980 Lombard-RAC rally (in the same event a Sunbeam Lotus also placed 3rd and 4th. marking the last time a two-wheel drive car would ever win the RAC) but also take the World Championship for Talbot in 1981.

Back on the road the Sunbeam Lotus featured stiffer springing and damping, along with a 10 per cent larger anti-roll bar, stiffer suspension mounts and tougher gearbox casings (all of which were installed at the factory) before being shipped to Lotus at Hethel in Norfolk for the installation of the 2.2-litre twin-cam engine and 5-speed ZF dog-leg gearbox.

Early tests by automotive journos confirmed a 0-100kph time of 6.8 seconds, even though the manufacturer's claim was way more conservative at 7.4. Needless to say many later learned this time could be improved on even further, with modest modifications to the standard set-up. As many pointed out, this was the same engine that powered a Lotus Esprit, yet under the bonnet of a car weighing a mere 960kg. Says it all really.

Unlike its rivals though, refined the Lotus Sunbeam was not; barbarically loud and thirsty too Ð the very things that hampered forecourt sales in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but have since helped springboard the Sunbeam into cult status. It is very much an etch of the Eighties, though, with it's unapologetic garish seats, big grey stripes and boxy dimensions. And I guess, no matter how hard you focus on the Hethel connection, it still looks like a shopping car for the elderly with little more than a rorty exhaust note and sporty wheels, to most.

However, there are very few cars, for this price, that can incite the inner child like the Lotus Sunbeam can. I was fotunate to see the light in the fall of 1999 and have been yearning ever since for the day one of these cracking hatches finds a place amongst my fleet of cars. But it's hard to find a clean rot-free example though, for under $ 10,000. I'll keep trying though; as for those in the know, very little else will do the job better.