We are the Sunbeam Lotus Owners’ Club, the only club that caters exclusively for the Chrysler/Talbot Sunbeam Lotus, the car that won the 1981 World Rally Championship. Talbot themselves marketed the car as a model in its own right, and we feel that the cars and their owners still deserve to be treated exclusively. We started life as the Lotus Sunbeam Register in 1983 (part of Club Lotus), gaining full independence in 1991; we have therefore been providing support to Sunbeam Lotus owners for a quarter of a century!

The Sunbeam Lotus Owners' Club (SLOC) had a helping hand in the Lotus Cars Stand at the Frankfurt Motor Show recently by arranging the loan of an Ex-Works, World Rally Championship-winning Talbot Sunbeam Lotus, to complement the launch of the new Lotus Exige R-GT rally car.

The Sunbeam, owned by SLOC historian Graeme Lawton, was on display for the two press days, 13th & 14th of September.

Having recently undergone some restoration work, the car is again resplendid in its 1981 Rallye Monte-Carlo livery, as driven by Guy Frequelin and Jean Todt to victory in Group 2 and 2nd place overall.

The Sunbeam Lotus is based on the Chrysler Sunbeam, introduced in 1977 with 930, 1300 and 1600 engines. Devised by competitions boss Des O'Dell, the Lotus variant existed purely as an aid to homologation for Des's rallying plans. Built between 1979 and 1981, the road version produced 150bhp from its aluminium 2.2 litre type 911 engine, giving rapid acceleration to match a Porsche or Ferrari. Rally versions went on to victory on the international stage, giving Talbot the manufacturers' world title in 1981. Now regarded as a classic in every sense, a Sunbeam Lotus can be great to enjoy as a fun car or for competition use, and has an enviable heritage of both racing and rallying.  Read More

Talbot's greatest single rallying achievement came on the Lombard RAC Rally in 1980. The event had been dominated by Ford for a number of years and the Group 2 Sunbeam Lotus was not really fancied to change this; the Talbot crews of Henri Toivonen/Paul White and Guy Frequelin/Jean Todt were fairly new (the Frenchman had never driven in the UK before!) but they astounded the rallying world by taking first and third positions overall, with privateer Russell Brookes coming home in fourth in an ex-works Sunbeam Lotus. The momentum continued into 1981, when the Talbot team won its class in every event entered, winning the World Rally Championship for Makes. Read More