Initial conversion by Mac 10
Skins by Mac 10, FatCat 123 and Sengue

The Sunbeam Tiger owes its existence to the foresight of two men, Ian Garrad and Carroll Shelby. Ian Garrad (the son of the then Rootes Competitions Manager) had long felt that there was an excellent market for a high performance Sunbeam sports car to supplement the capable Alpine.

Sir Jack Brabham was in on the ‘ground floor’ of the Alpine to Tiger concept. While that genesis remains wreathed in myths, according to Ian Garrad ….” Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Ken Miles and others had just driven Alpines in the Endurance 3 Hours invitation race at the ‘Times Grand Prix’ Riverside meeting of October 1962, which also saw the debut of the 260 Cobra. Later that day Jack and I were ‘bench-racing’ when the possibility of stuffing a V8 into an Alpine was broached by Brabham”. Whatever the absolute truth is Sir Jack Brabham’s views moved forward the eventual development of the Sunbeam Tiger.

Although the Rootes Group Sunbeam Tiger is of course a British classic car, the idea of the Tiger was formed in the USA by Rootes American Motors Ltd who asked the now legendary Carroll Shelby of AC Cobra fame to build a prototype V8 sports car based on the Sunbeam Alpine. Shelby obliged by shoehorning a Ford 4261 cc V8 into the engine bay. It was no coincidence that it was the same V8 that was used in the Cobra, albeit in a milder state of tune. The result, which emerged in May 1963, was a fully engineered package. Much of Shelby's experience gained from the Cobra was applied to this project. The Alpine's firewall was modified, and the 260-cid Ford was mounted far rearward of where the old four cylinder lump sat to achieve near 50/50 weight distribution. The recirculating-ball steering was replaced with a rack-and-pinion unit. A Borg-Warner T-10 four speed was used, just like the Cobra, and funneled power to a modified Dana 44 rear axle.

The leaders of the Rootes Group had also hired Ken Miles to build a prototype V8 Alpine, just to be on the safe side. Miles, even though he was a recent Shelby American hire, was a talented fabricator and builder of many 'specials' such as his 'Flying Shingle' MG TC, and was still building cars at his own shop. Miles' solution to the V8 installation was far simpeler: he fitted the 260-cid Ford V8, backed by an automatic transmission in the Sunbeam with limited alterations. It is reported that this took him less than a week, and Rootes was billed under $800,- for his efforts.

Both prototypes were tested and evaluated in California, and the Shelby modified was shipped home to England for further testing. Shelby hoped to be offered the contract to produce the Tiger at his facility in America. However Rootes decided instead to contract the assembly work to Jensen at West Bromwich in England, and pay Shelby a royalty on every car produced.

Rather unfortunately, the Tiger was dubbed as the poor man’s Cobra by the less impressed motoring buffs of the time. Initially the Tiger was only available in the USA and Britain had to wait until the summer of 1965 before anyone could actually take delivery of one. Minor changes followed later in 1965 which included improved hood storage and featured the body styling of the series V Alpine. Sunbeam aficionado‘s refer to models after these changes as the MK IA.

The Mk II version was introduced in December 1966. This car had a larger 4737cc V8 engine producing 200bhp. This new version was also fitted with an oil cooler and wider ratio gearbox and benefitted from improvements to the suspension. Externally a new “egg box” style front grille was the most notable change.

Shelby had further involvement by developing a factory catalog of high-performance parts, available through Sunbeam dealers and even Shelby. These were called LAT options, for “Los Angeles Tiger." Everything from traction bars to optional Cobra kits were available. With the right combination of LAT options the Tiger could indeed be made into an impressive performance car, and many owners did just that.

Sadly though, the life of the MK II was to be very short. Chrysler who had already invested in the Rootes Group took over the company in 1967 and production ended after only 536 MK II cars had been produced, of which only a few were for the British market.