Background
The Sunbeam Tiger was a two-seater, high-performance version of Rootes’ Alpine roadster.
The American sports car legend Carroll Shelby had a hand in designing the ‘Cobra Killer’ and the plucky British sports car was powered by America iron in the form of a 260cu in, 4.3L V8 for the Mk I, and a larger capacity 289cu in, 4.7L V8 for the Mk II.
Rootes had wanted to expand as a company and realised that they needed to be playing on the world markets with their products. They began to toy with the idea of creating something that could more than hold its own (on road and track) with the best of the competition.
F1 star Jack Brabham proposed to competition manager Ian Garrad that they use a Ford V8 in the car in emulation of the success that British company AC had enjoyed with the Cobra.
Garrad commissioned the man responsible for the AC Cobra, Carroll Shelby, to build a more powerful Alpine. Shelby quoted him $10,000 and said it would take him eight weeks.
For the Tiger, Shelby decided on a short block Ford 260 cubic inch (4.3-litre) V8.
Lord Rootes had a policy of personally approving all projects before they were launched, so he was less than impressed when he discovered work had gone into the Tiger without his knowledge.
Nevertheless, he agreed to have the Shelby prototype shipped from America in July 1963 for him and his team to assess.
Rootes was so impressed after his first test drive in the Tiger that he directly contacted Henry Ford II and immediately ordered 3000 Ford V8 engines – at the time the biggest single order ever received by Ford from a car manufacturer.
Lord Rootes decided to launch the Tiger himself at the 1964 New York Motor Show, only 8 months after he test-drove the prototype.
Outwardly the Tiger looked very little different from the Alpine Series IV (which remained in production), but under the bonnet there was no mistaking the Tiger’s Ford V8 engine.
The car was marketed as producing twice the power of the Alpine and reaching 0-60 mph in just 9 seconds.
So, the Sunbeam Tiger started production in June 1964 with manufacturing handed over to Jensen Motors. The bodyshells were supplied already painted by Pressed Steel of Oxfordshire, and Ford of America supplied the engines and gearboxes.
Fitting the Ford V8 into the Alpine’s body required some lateral thinking, a few additional welds – and a lot of brute force.
Workers would use a sledgehammer to bash in part of the already painted bulkhead so that the engine could slide in snuggly. Jensen was able to build up to 300 Tigers a month, all of which initially went to North America.
Production of the Mk I Tiger ran from June 1964 until December 1966, during which time approximately 3800 cars were built.
The Mk IA and 289 cubic inch Mk II followed, the latter in far smaller numbers.
In 1967 Chrysler acquired the controlling interest in Rootes. On principle, Chrysler flatly rejected the idea of building cars powered by Ford engines and, as there was no suitable Chrysler V8 waiting in the wings, production of the Tiger was wound up in 1967.
In 1964, its first year of production, all but 56 of the 1649 Mk I Tigers assembled were shipped to North America.
A RHD Mk I Tiger built for the British marketplace is a rarity.
One that drives, stops, handles and goes as well as the example we have here might just be as rare as teeth on a particularly endangered breed of hen.
