Blue plaque honours for Bean Cars and record breaking Thunderbolt

ON Sunday 11th March Tipton Civic Society are unveiling two blue commemorative plaques in honour of Bean Cars and the Thunderbolt World Land Speed Record car built by Beans Engineering in 1937.

- By KEITH HODGKINS

Anyone is welcome to come along. We will be there at Malthouse Stables from 12 noon until 3pm, with at least four Bean cars on display. The plaques will be unveiled around 1pm.

The legacy of Bean cars is to be commemorated with the unveiling of two blue plaques on the site of the Beans Engineering works in Hurst Lane. The first plaque, sponsored by the Bean Car Club, will record the fact that the chassis of Bean cars and commercials were built here in Tipton from 1919 to 1931, and that in 1924 a Bean 14 achieved the remarkable feat of being the first motor vehicle to cross Australia.

The second plaque, sponsored by the West Bromwich Building Society, commemorates the Thunderbolt, also built at the Hurst Lane site, which broke the World Land Speed record in 1938. The Society is hosting the event at Malthouse Stables, opposite the Bean site, where several Bean cars will be on display, courtesy of the Bean Car Club.

The unveiling will take place around 1pm and light refreshments will be available together with a Society sales stall and exhibition.

Bean started exporting cars to Australia in 1923 where their strength and reliability were well suited to the tough terrain. In 1924 the British-Australian explorer Francis Birtles chose a Bean 14 to undertake the first ever motorised crossing of the continent, accompanied by Bean engineer Jimmy Simpson and journalist Malcolm Ellis, who wrote an account of the adventure in a booklet entitled 'Twice Across Australia'.