WARTHILL rally driver Tim Simpson is hoping to shine in his late father’s 35-year-old Chrysler Sunbeam this season.

Simpson raced the car, which was made famous by his dad Brian during the early 1980s, to a ninth-in-class finish at Donington's Dukeries Rally.

Joined by fellow York Motor Club member Garry Green, as co-driver, the pair also came 29th overall after eight stages at the famous Leicestershire venue, with the Sunbeam responding well, aside from a couple of spins, to the new XE engine it was fitted with early this year by Stamford Bridge Motors' Paul Nicholson.

Brian and Tim's uncle, Bernard, were known affectionately as the Simpson Bros in rallying circles and, over a five-year period, the Sunbeam steered the family to many victories before it was sold in 1985 to help fund a new business premises.

It subsequently had three different owners before Tim became aware of its whereabouts again in 2001.

Having been knocked back when he initially asked if the car was for sale, Tim went on to race a Citroen AX before he was called with an offer too good to refuse later that year.

"I got a call at work, asking if I would still be interested in buying the Sunbeam," Simpson recalled. "To be honest, I didn’t really have a lot of spare money at the time because I had a mortgage and a young family but I decided it would be nice to have a look at it for old time’s sake.

"I asked my wife if she fancied a ride out to Scarborough one Sunday for fish and chips, so we loaded the car with kids but I didn't tell her about the little detour we would be making. We arrived at the end of a really long farm track and I could see the car in the distance sat on top of a haystack and it was at that point I realised it was coming home.

"It even still had my dad’s initials 'BJS' welded onto each pedal."

Son and father worked together on the rebuild with the former fitting a new front suspension and the latter manufacturing another front subframe.

Getting the car race ready, though, would take longer than a decade with Brian sadly passing away in 2008.

But Simpson is now determined to honour the memory of his father in the car that is causing a stir on its surprise return to competition.

"I've been overwhelmed by the number of people who remember the car from the 1980s," he admitted. "Lots of people have been to see me on rallies and said how good it is to see the car back in action.

"They have even been bringing me old photographs of it. I know for a fact my dad was chuffed to bits we were building the car again and I just wish he could have seen it running."

The car's maiden season back saw it take part in eight rallies with mixed results, having debuted encouragingly at Croft's Jack Frost Stages despite the inevitable nerves of the man behind the wheel.

"My left leg was shaking that much I couldn’t feel it," Simpson confessed. "But the car really did handle well and I was amazed how quickly I became confident in it.

"It ran faultlessly all day and we finished the rally with no issues at all on what was a really emotional day."

Simpson is now looking forward to the difference a new engine will make to performance, adding: "We had some pretty good results for our first year back and I really hope we have a good season this year.

"The best part though is that I get to drive a car I have known for 35 years."

Simpson would also like to hear from anybody who has Series One headlamps for sale.

He only has two with the lens cracked on one.

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