One Thousand. 

It really is a big number. Granted, that does of course depend somewhat on the context. But on this day, we’re publishing our 1,000th article here on the English version of ViaRETRO, and frankly, I feel that’s an absolutely huge number!

ViaRETRO has been going for approximately 7 1/2 years now, but it’s only really in the past three years, since I stepped in and became part of the ViaRETRO family, that there’s been serious focus on our English articles. On the one side, I can’t believe it’s already been three years – how time flies when you’re having fun! But on the other side, in a moment of self glorification, I also can’t help but feel that we’ve done well to publish 1,000 articles in such relatively short time. Of course, we couldn’t possibly have done it without our hard-working and enthusiastic contributors, so a big thank you goes out to all of you: Tony, Dave, Zack, Michael and Andrew. But even more so, we couldn’t have done it without our loyal readership. Your support is the best motivation one could ever hope for, and it pleases us no end to see our ‘visitor numbers’ continue to rise month for month and year for year. This is the best approval you could ever give us, so a big thank you to all of you too…

So back to that number: 1,000…!! In the world of classic cars, where else is 1,000 a huge number. Well, the obvious answer to that will obviously be horsepower.

Nowadays – in fact, ever since Volkswagen Group relaunched the Bugatti brand with the ludicrous Veyron 16.4 in 2005 – it seems every single so-called hypercar that is launched, now needs to out-number the previous record holder with ever increasing horsepower outputs. In that entirely surreal world, 1,000hp is no longer particularly impressive. But of course, hypercars like that are just as entirely irrelevant on the pages of ViaRETRO as they are out on the ordinary roads of the real world.

What’s much more interesting is of course, history. So let’s travel back approximately eight decades before the Veyron to the mid 1920’s.

Sunbeam had been participating in land speed records up through the twenties with a variety of cars such as the Bluebird and the Tiger. They had quite some success with it too, but their last successful attempt in 1927 was something truly sensational!

Known as “The Slug”, the 8 foot long Sunbeam was powered by nothing less than two Sunbeam Matabele V12 aircraft engines each with a displacement of 22.4-litres. One was placed in front of the driver and the other behind him. When starting up the Sunbeam, the rear engine would be turned over first using compressed air. Then the front-mounted engine would be started using a mechanical friction clutch. Finally, once the two engines had been synchronised, they were locked together through a dog clutch. The combined 44.8-litres of engine would then transfer its power to the rear wheels through something as rudimentary as a pair of chain drives. But how much power was that then? Well, Sunbeam claimed all of 1,000hp making it the first automobile to reach that huge number. A bold claim made no less bold by proclaiming the 1,000hp across the streamlined bodywork.

However, reality was a little less impressive as the true figure was actually closer to 900hp. Regardless, with Major Henry Seagrave behind the wheel, “The Slug” was the first non-American car to attempt a land speed record at Daytona Beach. On the 29th of March 1927 the Sunbeam 1000hp blew the previous record away as it became the first car to breach 200mph and recorded a speed of 203.79 mph (equating to 327.97 km/h).

Today the vast Sunbeam 1000hp is on display at The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.

Admitted, the land speed record is of course hugely impressive. Just imagine – breaking 200mph in 1927 (yes, that’s almost 100 years ago) with that brutal twin V12-engined beast! But claiming 1000hp while only managing 900hp is less impressive. In stark contrast, ViaRETRO’s 1000 publications on our English site are indeed very real and fully documented. So make sure you visit our archives to reacquaint yourself with some of those stories.

In the meantime, here’s to the next 1,000 publications. I wonder how much horsepower a modern hypercar will be pushing out by the time ViaRETRO reaches 2,000?