c.1927/33 "Pegs" Gwynne-Sunbeam Supercharged Special
No Reserve – Fascinating and highly accomplished one-off

Registration No: AMD 983
Chassis No: 001
MOT: Exempt

• Built during the early 1930s by two young engineers, using what is believed to be the only surviving Gwynne 14hp chassis
• Coachwork echoing the Invicta S-type, with some post-war alterations
• Fitted with a supercharged 2.2-litre Sunbeam 16.9hp engine mated to an Alvis four-speed gearbox
• Offered with a thick history file including period magazines showing the car just after completion
• Known ownership history, with only three owners since 1971

When Pegs first rolled out of the garage in which it was assembled in the autumn of 1933, The Motor and The Light Car & Cyclecar lauded it, the former calling it “an attractive, sporting job which has quite a professional look about it.” It was designed circa 1930 and put together over three years by two young enthusiasts working from a lock-up behind the Wall’s ice cream factory on Horn Lane, Acton. The Motor added: “It was built up of parts taken from 35 cars… The engine was originally a [14hp] Gwynne, but it was fitted with special high-compression pistons, and the cylinder head equipped with Talbot valve gear… The frame is of oak and ash covered with thin birch ply and grey fabric.”

According to such cursory examinations as have taken place, the chassis is understood to be a c.1927 Gwynne 14/40; if it is so, it is the only surviving Gwynne 14 chassis. We note the wheelbase and track dimensions are not an exact match, but that may reflect its creators' modifications. Bright chrome Zeiss lamps were fitted, in addition to shining bumpers, Ace-style wheel discs and a remarkable specification which apparently included a cigar lighter, radio and Jackall four-wheel jacks. The brakes were described as hydraulic at the front, rod-operated at the rear.

One of the builders was Leslie Venus, an apprentice motor engineer with Rolls-Royce, and the car would have been his namesake, had he not hit on the idea of christening it Pegs, after his fiancée. He made some further revisions during the 1930s, one of which was installing a supercharged 16.9hp Sunbeam six-cylinder engine for extra speed, and repainted it black circa 1938. It also received an Alvis four-speed gearbox. Venus sold it circa 1949 to a man near Hampton Court, and in 1950 it went to live briefly with Philip Jones of Edgbaston. It changed hands several times in short succession, moving from Worcestershire to Norfolk, and seemingly fell out of use after 1956. With John Richers of Fakenham, it was extensively renovated during 1969 and 1970, with an engine overhaul and the recovering of the interior and fabric panels, ahead of its entry into a Sotheby’s sale at Alexandra Palace in 1971. There, it was bought by collector Norman Ball, and it resurfaced in the 1980s when Ball exhibited his collection in the short-lived Cothey Bottom Heritage Centre on the Isle of Wight.

While it was on display, Nigel Venus, Leslie’s son, learnt of its survival and visited Ball, who got the car running for him after a quick service, and Nigel was allowed to drive it in a couple of carnivals on the island. The collection was dispersed by Sotheby’s in 1991 and Pegs was bought by an Oxfordshire enthusiast who entered it in the specials parade at that year’s Motoring Nostalgia Festival at Beaulieu, having received a personal invite from National Motor Museum curator Michael Ware. After this flurry of activity, Pegs’s life grew quieter again, and ownership transferred to our vendor in 1997. It then received a full engine overhaul by G. Scott-Coomber in 1998, with new piston rings, reground valve seats, a skimmed block and head, and an overhauled oil pump, but has spent the majority of the last 30 years in storage.

Pegs now awaits its turn to be recommissioned and enjoyed as it is, or—even better—restored to its extravagant 1930s glory with wheel discs, raked windscreen, and chrome et ceteras. It is sold with an excellent history file including a 1949 buff logbook, a green logbook, the previous V5 and current V5C, the copies of The Motor and The Light Car & Cyclecar in which it was photographed new, invoices from 1969-70, and much correspondence including several letters from Nigel Venus.

For more information, please contact:
Lucas Gomersall
lucas.gomersall@handh.co.uk
07484 082430