If the AC Cobra of 1962 was the first attempt to mate American V8 power with a British sports car chassis, the Sunbeam Tiger of 1964 was the first to tackle the same feat in quantity production. It was the same entrepreneur, Texan Carroll Shelby, whose engineers built the first of both versions, but in the case of the Tiger, final development was a joint effort between the British Rootes Group, and its sub-contractors, Jensen.
Introduced in 1959, the Sunbeam Alpine was a stylish British sports car, which combined a short-wheelbase version of the Rapier’s platform and running gear, with a very smart new two-seater sports car style. Compared with its rivals – the MGA and the Triumph TR3A – it was under-powered, so a proposal to fit a 4.2-litre Ford-USA V8 (and give the car a new title) looked like a great opportunity.
Rootes arranged for Pressed Steel to supply complete body shells to Jensen, who modified them as appropriate, and then assembled the whole cars. Announced early in 1964, the newly-named Tiger had the body style of the Alpine IV (in which the rear fins had been cut down, and the interior improved), and was available in soft-top or detachable hard-top form. In the first year, 1964–65, all supplies went to the USA, but the Tiger was put on sale in the UK from 1965. |
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With 164 bhp instead of the contemporary 1.6-litre Alpine’s 82 bhp, the Tiger was a much fiercer proposition, which gave, as the Americans said, ‘more bangs per buck’, and soon began to build a following. It was the sort of car which seemed eager to spin its rear wheels – and many owners did just that. Unhappily, compared with the Alpine, there were only minor styling changes, and no opportunity was available to beef up the chassis, so Tiger customers soon found that the original type was not yet a completely balanced package.
Even so, a short-lived motor racing programme (two Tigers competed at Le Mans in 1964), and an altogether more successful ‘works’ rally programme began to promote the message that here was a car with performance and durability. All would have been well if Rootes, in the meantime, had not sold out to the Chrysler Corporation, who took an instant dislike to a car which was powered by the engine of one of its deadliest rivals.
Second thoughts are often better than the first, but although Rootes introduced the Tiger II in 1967, complete with a 200 bhp/4.7-litre engine and four-wheel disc brakes, Chrysler soon insisted that it be killed off and these rare, but fully-formed machines, became both the best, and least-known Tigers of all.
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