A Tiger Roars

            What happens when an American sports car designer gets his hands on a British touring car? A tiger with muscle.

            The Sunbeam Alpine was first marketed in 1959 as a proper road car. A sporty two seater with a four cylinder engine that could top out at 99 miles per hour, the car did surprisingly well at road rallies. Throughout the sixties the car’s engine grew and with it came more speed.

            But while the Mark IV and Mark V versions of the Alpine sported more power it still wasn’t enough for Ian Garrard, the west coast sales manager for Sunbeam parent Rootes Group. Garrard was use to the growing power of American muscle cars and felt that a version of the Alpine could compete favorably.

            In order to get that muscle he turned to iconic sports car legend Carrol Shelby whose team, managing on a shoestring budget, provided a prototype of a new, improved car based on the Alpine frame but with and guts of a Ford V 8 small block engine. In fact, it was a 260 cubic inch, 164 horse power Ford Windsor that fit perfectly inside the Alpine’s frame rails.

            Excitedly Garrard shipped the prototype off to England to be evaluated by the powers that be who quickly decided that this was exactly what they needed to compete in the U.S. market.

            The Sunbeam Tiger began rolling off the lines in 1964 and did a brisk business. Through one update which stepped up to a 289 cubic inch 200 horse power engine, over 7000 Tigers were built. Production ended in 1967 when Chrysler purchased the Rootes Group and determined that they couldn’t possibly sell a car with a Ford power plant. Unfortunately for the Tiger, neither the Chrysler small block V 8 nor its big block version would fit inside the allotted space and so the car was pulled from any future plans.

In the short time the Tiger did roar it made quite a name for itself both on the track (though never as successful as Shelby’s more famous AC Cobra) as well as showing up as the car driven by television’s Maxwell Smart in the series Get Smart.

What was left was a short run of a commercially successful sports car that, if you are lucky enough to see one at a show, is worth checking out. It is a unique blend of British sports car design and feel with American muscle power.