The Sunbeam Tiger was a muscle car version of the British Rootes Group's Sunbeam Alpine roadster.
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Development
The West Coast Sales Manager of Rootes American Motors Inc., Ian Garrad, realised that the Alpine's image was that of a touring car rather than a sports car, 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 V-8 engines and determined that Ford's new 164 hp 260 cu.in. Windsor V8 engine would fit nicely between the frame rails. Sunbeam asked Carroll Shelby to produce one functional prototype on a budget of US$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 Miles. 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 Angeles 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 Jensen, located in Wolverhampton, England. 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 totalled just 536 cars, and these Tigers, with the 200 hp 289 cu.in. engine, are rare today. Amazingly, both the Miles and the Shelby prototypes survive today, along with a number of other historically significant Tigers.
Demise
Production of the Tiger lasted from just 1964 until Chrysler 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 the Ford — Chrysler V8 engines all had the distributor positioned at the rear of the engine, unlike the front-mounted distributor of the Ford V8, making it impossible to fit the Chrysler engine into the Sunbeam engine bay without major, and expensive, revisions. Thus the Tiger was cancelled.
The Tiger today
The Tiger enjoys significant popularity today as a classic sports car, with significant potential as a competition car in historic racing series.
Popular culture
The Tiger is remembered as the car driven to work at "CONTROL headquarters" by agent 86, Maxwell Smart, during the opening credits of Get Smart. Appeared as #82 on Jeremy Clarkson's list of Top 100 Cars.
The "Tiger" name
The Tiger name was also used by pre-Rootes Sunbeam on a completely different model in 1925. The 1925 Sunbeam Tiger 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 Segrave it became the first car to exceed 150mph and was the smallest-engined car ever to hold the World Land Speed Record. A sister car to Tiger was built and named Tigress.
