The 24 hours of Le Mans is on again this weekend and Armidale has a little-known connection to the world’s oldest sports car race.
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A 1961 Sunbeam Harrington Le Mans is one of four rare Sunbeams recently donated to the city’s Australian Transport Museum.
Museum secretary Eric North said the Le Mans was possibly the only one of its kind in the country.
“The Harrington Le Mans was actually run in the Le Mans [race],” he said.
“They’re not the sort of car that’s comparable with the GT40 Ford or with the Ferrari or Audi.
“But they are very good little cars.”
Maxwell Smart’s Sunbeam was also among the donations from Arthur John Rowe’s estate in Toowoomba.
The museum will add their new Sunbeams to an already impressive stable of rare and vintage cars.
James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 and The Saint’s P1800 Volvo, driven by Roger Moore, are already among the museum’s collection.
And plans are already underway to display the car in themed exhibits.
Project coordinator Andrew Murat has started drafting the initial design for a purpose-built museum in the new airport precinct on the New England Highway.
“I’ve got a concept design at the moment, I’m just wanting on some issues to be sorted out with Council with regards to parking,” he said.
“But we could do a theme from the 1920s and 30s, we’ve got cars from all those eras.
“We’ve also go some expensive model car collections that we wish to display as well.”
Armidale Regional Council granted the museum a dollar-a-day lease on a 5,000 square metre block in May, marking the museum’s most significant progress since Lyndon and Des Hardman hatched the idea 35 years ago.
The project now waits on the completion of the $3 million New England Highway roundabout and the sale of a block of land on North Hill later this month.
“The block on North Hill goes to auction at the end of June,” Mr Murat said.
“There have been some inquiries and we're hoping to get a reasonable price for that.”
The museum will then try to attract some tourism funding from the state and federal government to help complete the project.
Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall said it was great to see the project moving forward.
”The Australian Transport Museum is a fantastic addition to the Armidale airport precinct and will be a major tourism draw-card for the region,” he said.
