Sunbeam Alpine...the pre-Cobra, Cobra

[madgrinder]

My Sunbeam is British Racing Green with Panasports and a Weber IDF-sprouted Shelby Racing intake on a warmed-up 289. The five-speed tranny makes longer trips very enjoyable (and economical with the overdrive 5th). Top speed so far has been 148mph registered on a VDO speedo and confirmed by a roadside trooper radar trailer (you know, the one that is supposed to make you slow down).

No Cobra yet, but plans are for a replica soon...with a 289 and a five speed, of course.

[speedraser]

You built a Tiger -- nice.

[750hp]

There's a nice looking Tiger on Ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2441781398

Once you throw the UGLY rollbars away, you'd have a very tidy looking car...

[BMK]

Hi all,



Recently had a Sunbeam Club magazine and in it was a nice red car owned by Carroll Shelby and he was standing next to it and talking up the car.

Another Sunbeam owner.

Cheers



Bernie

Bernie Knight
Mt.Gambier South Australia

[wilf leek]

Once went to buy a Tiger back in the 80's. Got beaten by 10 minutes as some guy arrived before me with wads of cash.

Never found another one at the same time as having the money to indulge. Shame, they were fun cars.

Wilf

[BMK]

Hi all

I'm amazed just how fast these little cars are and how good they look.

Cheers

Bernie

Bernie Knight
Mt. Gambier South Australia.

[madgrinder]

All that car needs is someone ot undo everything the current owner has done.

The wheels and rollbars are AWFUL, what a disgrace to put some cobbled-up bars and cheap wheels (seen those often on Camaros with Confederate flags in the windows...no accounting for taste in either case) on such a beautiful car.

Yes I'm from the South, and NO I'm not a redneck...

[Bumpster]

Madgrinder - Please clear something up for me. Did you (or someone else) install the 289 in a Sunbeam Alpine to make a Tiger clone, or is your car an original Tiger? By the way, where in Florida are you? Just wondering.

Bumpster

[madgrinder]

I drove a real Tiger and I was not impressed with the handling or the fit-and-finish of all the Ford add-ons.

I bought an Alpine from a local salvage yard, not running, with no interior and no glass.

I used a Mustang II front crossmember with tubular arms and adjustable coil-overs from Fat Man Fabrications. I measured my stock crossmember and subframe and called in the specs. The set-up was very well made and easy to weld in. They even drilled the brake rotors for my bolt pattern.

I welded the engine mounts for the 289 to the Mustang crossmember, relocated four inches toward the bulkhead. I chose the manual rack-and-pinion setup since the car is light and I don't think I would have room for a pump.

The steering is good. I'm still using the Alpine differential for the moment, but a winter project is to replace it with an 8.8" Ford from Currie. They will build the housing and drill the proper bolt pattern and hub center on the axles.

It's not original, but I think it's MUCH more fun to drive than a real one.

BTW...the ONLY work I had someone else do was the interior upholstery. I did the engine, trans, wiring, body, paint, subframe, one-off 1 3/4" tube headers with 3" collectors, and the Webers.

My ONLY passion in life is cars, and it shows. If you ask, I'll tell you about my 60's era Corvair rally car

[luke-44]

The actual "father" of the Tiger was a Mr. Ian Garrad - the Rootes West coast manager at the time, not Carroll Shelby.

A little known fact is Garrard actually contracted with Ken Miles (not Shelby) to do the first prototype from an Alpine. A crude quick swap was done by Miles in his own shop (while Miles was working for Shelby), but the Miles prototype needed changes that were obvious, but were not possible with the first prototype budget. With the motor far too far forward, it's handling was probably best described as dangerous...

It did prove the concept, however, and Shelby was then hired by Gerrad to do a more engineered swap - the motor was moved back, the firewall was changed, steering rack swapped out, etc. This is the car that was sent to the UK, and further refinements were made by Rootes before production began. This was pretty much Shelby's involvement in the Tiger

There were approx 7000 Tigers made in total - quite a limited run in automotive terms, but obviously significantly more than a Cobra. There were actually 3 series - the Mk1, 1A, and Mk II. The Mk II is considered the most desireable as it had the 289 instead of the Mk 1/IA's more anemic 164 HP 260. As well, there were only 571 Mk II's made, before the Chrysler Corp took over Rootes, and it had to retire the marque. I personally prefer the lines and look of the 1/1A, though.

Yes, Chrysler dealers did sell Ford replacement engine parts for the Tiger, and no, there was never a Tiger made with a Chrysler engine, although they did make a few prototype sketches, which in my opinion probably ended becoming something more resembling the original Plymouth Barracuda.

Tigers today probably represent a great value - the "poor mans Cobra" so to speak. A perfect or near perfect one can probably be had for mid '$30's.

There are a lot of junk Tigers out there, and more than a few "fakes" - a serial number badge of a Tiger from a wrecking yard and a clean Alpine shell can make a close clone - not that there is anything wrong with an Alpine with a V8 transfusion - just don't represent it as an original Tiger.

I would be very wary about the one on ebay earlier in this thread - it is essentially a unibody and the rust showing on the eBay car is much deeper than first appears. The roll bars and other stuff seriously detract from it as well.

my 2 or 3 cents worth....Regards, luke-44

[wilf leek]

Spotted one at the UK Classic Car show this weekend. Sorry for the poor pic - I had to snap a quick shot whilst folks were not in the way!

[Tinker51]

Luke44 is correct that Ken Miles built up the first Alpine with a 260. A fellow club member found this car and restored it. It is known in the marque as the Miles Prototype and it is a very intersting car. Just a couple of things that I recall about the car. One was the exhaust ran forward then down and around the front crossmember before traveling aft. For those of you who know how tight the Tiger engine compartment is, think about that. The second was a fan that hung down so if the motor was running you would worry about standing in front of the car with your feet under the bumper. At a recent Tiger event I met George Boskoff, he was the one who was charged with stuffing the 260 into an Alpine at SAI. At the same event I met his counterpart for the Cobra. Ted was charged with cramming the 427 into a 289 car. Gentlemen both and great fun to swap car stories with.

[REDSC400]

The February 2001 British Magazine _Classic & Sports Car_ did a real nice set of two articles on Shelby's V8 Legends. The cars in the article were the AC Cobra Mk III, Mustang GT350 and the Sunbeam Tiger.

The second article in the same mag was a 2000 interview with Carroll Shelby. In the article he debunked the often quoted "got the name of the Cobra in a dream" attribution.

If you can get your hands on this issue, it is nice reading. The Cobra featured was an AC built Mk III, with the 289 engine and 4 Webbers. This car was built for an Engishman, with right hand drive. The body is that of a 427 with the two air scoops and oil cooler up front.

Cheers.

[larryar]

My roommate had a Tiger in the late 60's. It was a real handfull, especially in the wet! I remember there was a little access panel under the steering wheel to let you remove the back sparkplug on the driver's side.
Larry