John Marston set up the Sunbeam Cycle factory in Wolverhampton in 1877, and marketed his first Sunbeam-badged car in 1901. The Sunbeam Motor Company was formed as a separate company in 1905 and car production really began. From France and also from the British Hillman company Louis Coatalen joined Sunbeam as their chief designer and saw to it that Sunbeam built its own components rather than buying outside. Under Coatelen Sunbeam went racing and even broke the Land Speed Record, but in 1920 they merged with Automobiles Darracq who already owned Sunbeam Motor Car Co and STD ('Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq') was formed. The STD group did well with the Talbot brand but as a whole the group fell into bankruptcy in 1935. The Rootes brothers purchased Sunbeam and Talbot whilst the Darracq outfit in France went to Anthony Lago who called his cars 'Talbot-Lago'. The Rootes brothers rebranded Sunbeam Cars as 'Sunbeam-Talbot' from 1938, but finally reverted to just 'Sunbeam' from 1955. Subsequent Sunbeams were re-badged Hillmans with tuned engines and sporting bodywork until 1976 when the final Sunbeam badge was used up. But in 1977 'Sunbeam' became a model instead of a brand and appeared on the Chrysler Sunbeam hatchback, which was then rebranded 'Talbot Sunbeam' 1979-81.