Silver Bullet

The Sunbeam Silver Bullet was the last attempt at the land speed record by Sunbeam of Wolverhampton. It was built in 1929 for Kaye Don. Powered by two supercharged engines of 24 litres each, it looked impressive but failed to achieve any records. Sunbeam's 1927 200 mph land speed record won with the Sunbeam 1000HP had been broken by 1929, and the company decided to build a car capable of reaching so as to recover it. Only aero engines offered enough power to do this, and such a car would also provide a test bed for developing a new generation of Sunbeam aero-engines. Sunbeam 2,000 hp engine Sunbeam decided to develop a new aero engine of , and the car would be powered by two of them. This new engine was a water-cooled V-12 with a 50° angle between the banks. Ideal balance usually favours an angle of 60°, but this choice made the engine narrower overall. Cylinder bore was and stroke was , for a capacity of 24.02 litres. This oversquare geometry was a first for Sunbeam, but encouraged a high-revving and thus more powerful engine.