BWLR looks after a Bean 14 Model 6 Tourer 
This car was manufactured by Harper Bean Ltd. in 1923. A 14 H.P. Index – SV 9172. This car was exported in 1923 to Australia and then re-imported in 2001 by the Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway. It has been used on Bean Car Club Rallies both locally and in France. It was recently taken back to the site of the Bean Company factory in Tipton (Hurst Land Tipton DY4 9AB).
It has some unusual features that make it ground breaking , resilient and reliable. Two spark plugs per cylinder, one run from a magneto and one from a coil. This meant it rarely failed, even with a malfunction of one system, ideal for the Australian outback.
Harper and Sons joined with Bean Cars Ltd in 1919 to form Harper Bean Ltd. In 1924 the British-Australian explorer Francis Birtles chose a Bean 14 to undertake the first ever motorised crossing of continent, accompanied by Bean engineer Jimmy Simpson and journalist Malcolm Ellis. who wrote :
“The undertaking of this remarkable journey was not, in any way, intended to be a motoring “stunt”. It was the method employed to obtain first-hand information regarding the little known regions of the Australian continent, and the motor car was selected as the more up-to-date alternative to the camel usually employed as a means of locomotion in the Interior. The decision to make it an all-British venture and the necessity for unfailing reliability resulted in the final selection of a Bean “Fourteen “five-sealer tourer “
The epic journey from Sydney to Darwin and back in 1924 taking 11 weeks to travel 6278 miles. The result was a boom in Bean car sales in Australia.
In 1927 Birtles drove his special Bean 14 “Sundowner” from London to Sydney overland. 16,000 mile and nine months to complete. Another first and a boost for Bean cars in Australia.
In 1936 bean industries were commissioned racing driver George Eyston to build a car that could beat Malcolm Campbell’s world speed record of 301.13MPH. In 1937 Thunderbolt was shipped to the USA. Powered by 2 Rolls Royce aero engines he succeeded on November 19th 1937 with 312 MPH. He repeated the run several times to increase the margin over Campbell and managed 357.5MPH on September 16th 1938.
In 1939 John Cobb managed to take the record with his Railton.
Makes you wonder how most of us have never heard of a Bean Car!