The
Sunbeam Tiger was a
muscle carMuscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high performance automobiles. At its most widely accepted the term refers to American 2-door rear wheel drive mid-size cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s equipped with large, powerful V8s and sold at an affordable price for street use and drag...
version of the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
Rootes Group's
Sunbeam AlpineThe Sunbeam Alpine is a sporty two seat open car or coupé from Rootes Group's Sunbeam car marque.The original was launched in 1953 as the first vehicle to bear the Sunbeam name alone since the 1920 merger of Sunbeam, Talbot, and Darracq....
roadsterA roadster, also known as a spyder or spider, is a two-seat car, traditionally without either a roof, side or rear windows.Most modern day two-seaters have windows and feature retractable roofs...
.
Development
The West Coast Sales Manager of
Rootes American Motors Inc., Ian Garrad, realized that the Alpine's image was that of a
touring carA touring car was a popular car body style in the early 20th century, being a larger alternative to the runabout and the roadster. They were open cars, often fitted with convertible tops. Most early touring cars had a tonneau at the rear giving seating for four or more. Engines on early models were...
rather than a
sports carThe term sports car has been defined as "an open, low-built, fast motor car." The term describes a class of automobile with two seats, two doors, precise handling, brisk acceleration, and sharp braking — trading practical considerations such as passenger space, comfort, and cargo capacity...
, and he set about changing its image, using the recent success of the Shelby Cobra as a guide. He and Rootes' Western Service Manager Walter McKenzie measured up several
V8 engineA V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....
s and determined that
FordThe Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars of Sweden, and a small stake...
's new
Windsor V8 engine would fit nicely between the frame rails.
Sunbeam asked
Carroll ShelbyCarroll Hall Shelby, is an American racing and automotive designer and former racing driver.-Automotive Executive of the Year Award - 2008 Honoree:...
to produce one functional prototype on a budget of
USThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
$10,000. Shelby's prototype was fabricated by Shelby employee George Boskoff, and the result was judged to be good enough to send to England for production evaluation.
Seeking reassurance everything would fit, a second Series 2 Alpine was handed to
Ken MilesKen Miles was a sports car racing engineer and driver best known for his career in the USA and with American teams on the international scene.-Background:Miles raced motorcycles before he served as a tank sergeant in the British Army in World War II.-Career:After...
. Ken Miles (a talented racer and fabricator in his own right) had just been employed by Shelby American. Using his own shop facilities, he managed to install a 260 cu.in. V8 and two-speed automatic into the Alpine in less than a week, at a total cost of US$600. Having served its feasibility study purpose, Ken Miles' prototype was kept by Rootes Motors Inc.
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
for some time then eventually sold to a private buyer.
Production
After doing extensive engineering studies Rootes Group subcontracted development and pre-production testing to
JensenJensen Motors, Ltd was a British manufacturer of sports cars and commercial vehicles, based in West Bromwich .-Foundation:...
, located in
West BromwichWest Bromwich is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands, England. It is north west of Birmingham lying on the A41 London-to-Birkenhead road. West Bromwich is part of the Black Country...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Jensen went on to manufacture the Sunbeam Tiger. Production reached 7,085 cars over three distinct series (the factory only ever designated two, the Mark 1 and Mark 2; however, since the official Mark 1 production spanned the changeover in body style from the Series IV Alpine panels to the Series V panels, the later cars are generally designated Mark 1A by current Sunbeam Tiger enthusiasts). Mark 2 production totaled just 536 cars, and these Tigers, with the engine, are rare today. Amazingly, both the Miles and the Shelby prototypes survive today, along with a number of other historically significant Tigers. In the first three seasons of
Get SmartGet Smart is an American television comedy series that satirized the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, Barbara Feldon as Agent 99, and Edward Platt as Thaddeus, the chief of CONTROL, a secret American government...
(1965-1968), Maxwell Smart appears in a red one under the opening credits and theme.
Demise
Production of the Tiger only lasted from 1964 until
ChryslerChrysler Group, LLC is an American automobile manufacturer headquartered in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925. From 1998 to 2007, Chrysler and its subsidiaries were part of the German based DaimlerChrysler AG...
purchased Rootes in June 1967. Chrysler could not be realistically expected to sell a car with a Ford engine, but had no suitable engine of its own with which to replace it: Chrysler's small-block V8 engines had the
distributorA distributor is a device in the ignition system of an internal combustion engine that routes high voltage from the ignition coil to the spark plugs in the correct firing order. The first reliable battery operated ignition was developed by Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co. and introduced in the...
positioned at the rear of the engine, unlike the front-mounted distributor of the Ford V8. Their big-block V8 had a front mounted distributor, but was significantly larger. These made it impossible to fit either Chrysler engine into the Sunbeam engine bay without major, and expensive, revisions. Thus the Tiger was canceled.
The "Tiger" name
The Tiger name was also used by pre-Rootes Sunbeam on a completely different model in 1925. The 1925
Sunbeam TigerThe Sunbeam Tiger was a racing car of the 1920s, built by Sunbeam of Wolverhampton. It was the last car to be competitive both as a land speed record holder, and as a circuit-racing car. - Design and engine :...
was a V12 four-litre racing car. Initially this vehicle was named
Ladybird, but the name was subsequently changed to Tiger. Driven by Sir
Henry SegraveSir Henry O'Neil de Hane Segrave was famous for setting three land speed records and the water speed record. He was the first person to hold both the land and water speed records simultaneously. He was the first person to travel at over 200 mph in a land vehicle...
it became the first car to exceed and was the smallest-engined car ever to hold the World Land Speed Record. A sister car to Tiger was built and named
Tigress.
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