For Louis Coatalen, the well-known designer and developper of the Sunbeam racing cars and their engines, the 1919 Sweepstakes were planned to be hsi last event, before going into retirement. Here now, is an interview with his, in which he explains his views on the influence of racing and what he thinks of future European racing.
Text and jpegs by courtesy of hathitrust.org www.hathitrust.org, compiled by motorracinghistory.com
MOTOR AGE – Vol. XXV 35, No. 21, May 22, 1919
Sunbeam Designer Talks on Racing and Its Future Abroad
Louis Coatalen, on His Way to Indianapolis Speedway, Has Much to Say on the Future of Racing in Europe
He Is Known Internationally as the Designer of Twenty-Two Types of Aircraft Engine
By Ernest A. Stephens
LOUIS COATALEN, well known on this side of the Atlantic as the designer of the Sunbeam cars, is here on his first visit to the United States. He has come primarily to look after the interests of the Sunbeam team at Indianapolis, but he also looks upon his trip as marking the close of years of active work which has been intensified tenfold during the war. Coatalen is still on the sunny side of forty, but he has crowded the work of an average lifetime into the last four years. He feels he needs the rest due to the war-weary and he hopes to see his car win the 500-mile race at Indianapolis on May 31 before retiring from active service as managing director and chief engineer of the Sunbeam company. Incidentally he has watched the growth of that company from a concern employing 300 men to one which is operating with 6000 on day and night shifts.
Coatalen has very little to say regarding the two cars which he has entered for the big race. He admits that to outward appearance they are similar to earlier models with the solitary exception that wheelbases are shorter, but that the similarity ends there. We may learn later on what mechanical improvements and refinements have been incorporated, but not even a friendship extending over nearly twenty years proved sufficient to obtain any advance information.
Successful racing, says Coatalen, depends on correct basic design, plus expert final tuning up and extra attention to details up to the last moment. It is in order to give these personal touches that he has come. As he says, „I am not satisfied because Sunbeams have not hitherto done as well in America as they have in Europe.“ He believes that they should do better and he is starting for Indianapolis with the idea that he can attain his ideal.
In his quaint Anglo-French way (and despite his years of residence in England Coatalen is essentially a Frenchman) he says that although the Sunbeam cannot equal its performance in the French Grand Prix of 1912, where it took first, second and third places, it is only for the reason that he has but two cars entered for Indianapolis.
The Value of Racing to the Designer
„Racing is the school for progress – the car maker who ignores racing is like an ostrich with his head in the sand – If you don’t race you go to sleep and get left in the commercial race – the next best thing to winning is to get such a thorough beating that you sit down to think – “ These are a few of Coatalen’s epigrammatic remarks, constituting his confession of faith in racing.
Naturally he spoke from a European point of view but he gave additional force to his remarks by referring to the passenger car in war. He stated that the only staff cars of European manufacture which stood up under the extremes of services on the Western Front were built by men who had raced continuously prior to 1914.
Another tribute to the value of racing to the designer was paid by Coatalen. He points to the twenty-two individual types of aircraft engine which he personally designed, tested and put into quantity production. Every one of these, he said, were constructed on experience and knowledge gained in following the racing game. These engines were used in fighters, bombers, blimps and dirigibles. Sunbeams are used in the dirigibles with which England hopes to make the transatlantic passage.
The Future of Racing in Europe
According to Coatalen, racing in England and France will be resumed as soon as makers can produce cars. As a matter of fact the Royal Automobile Club of England has already issued one permit, but the race had to be called off as no cars could be made ready in time. It is, however, probable that this race, on lines similar to the Tourist Trophy series of former years, will be held in the Isle of Man during the summer. The course is almost around the island, at one point it crosses a 3000-ft. mountain and it has many dangerous corners. The terrors of the famous ‚Hairpin Corner“ on this course are known to many drivers.
Brooklands, the only English speedway, is in bad shape. Its surface has been cut to pieces and its foundations wrecked by the testing of military trucks during the past four years. Efforts are being made to restore it, but it is hardly likely that it will be ready for racing before 1920. Road racing is not permitted in England and in the past it has been usual to hold speed contests and tests on Scottish or Irish roads. The future, from this point of view, is uncertain.
France has made tentative arrangements for holding the Grand Prix in 1920. The location of the circuit has not been decided, but it is likely that a course will be selected in Alsace-Lorraine – the first French race to be held in the recovered territory. Details are unsettled, but it is probable that it will be what is known as a „three-liter“ race. This means that the capacity of the engines must not exceed three liters, equivalent to 183.06 in. Italy will, no doubt, re-enter the racing game as soon as may be possible. The industries of the various countries are in a very unsettled state, re- construction on normal lines will be slow and racing must wait developments.
Coatalen is no mere engineering theorist on the subject of racing. Thirty-three silver cups testify to his ability at the wheel, and he has held a twelve-hours world’s record. All these performances were abroad. He has also done much motorboat racing, principally at Monaco in the Mediterranean and is now engaged in developing a 70-mile boat with two 400 hp. airplane engines. He expresses the opinion that automobile racing will be resumed on a big scale in Europe just as soon as conditions warrant.
Unless there is promise of more racing in the United States, Coatalen plans to return to England immediately after Indianapolis, taking the two Sunbeams with him. Almost immediately he will start on the long vacation he has planned. He will still keep in touch with automotive matters as a designer, retaining his director-ship and acting in an advisory capacity to the Sunbeam company from his new home in Paris. He feels he has earned the right to a long rest, he would be termed a millionaire in America or a multi-millionaire in France and he is looking forward to spending his winters on his yacht in the Mediterranean – and he’s thirty-nine and a few months.