The V8 tiger: How Sunbeam earned its stripes

Always fancied a Shelby Cobra but never fancied the cost of purchasing one? If so, this competition-spec Sunbeam Tiger could offer a more affordable (and, dare we say) more imaginative alternative.

For those who don’t know the story, the Tiger was born out of the far tamer Sunbeam Alpine from which Rootes Group bosses – encouraged by Jack Brabham – contrived to create their own Cobra-style roadster by substituting the Alpine’s regular 1725cc, four-cylinder engine with an American small-block V8.

Two prototypes were commissioned in 1963, one from Ken Miles who cobbled together a working car in a week using a Ford V8 and a two-speed automatic gearbox, the other from Carroll Shelby who spent a month building a more polished effort which was dubbed ‘Thunderbolt’.

The Shelby car was shipped to the UK for Lord Rootes himself to evaluate, and he was so impressed with what he saw that he immediately ordered 3000 V8 engines from Ford and declared that the sporty new roadster would be launched to the world at the New York Auto Show in April 1964, just eight months later.

Renamed ‘Tiger’ shortly before the show opened, the car’s 4.3-litre V8 promised truly impressive performance, being twice as powerful as the Alpine’s four-pot while increasing weight by only around 20%.

The job of building the cars went to Jensen (with Shelby getting a royalty for each one sold) and, although the Tiger remained in production only until 1967, it was developed across three series and more than 7000 were built, with tweaked versions achieving some decent racing successes – including fourth place in the 1965 Monte Carlo Rally and first, second and third in the previous year’s Geneva Rally.

Being from 1965, the Autostorico Tiger is a Mark 1 version that began life as a pure road car but was converted to competition specification during the mid-1990s and issued with FIA papers in 2009. The work included a bare metal repaint, a full-scale mechanical overhaul and the fitting of kit to make it into a competitive car for events on both road and track.

The modifications include a boot-mounted aluminium fuel cell, rollbar, bucket seats, competition exhaust system and trip meter, while the 260 cubic inch/4.3-litre V8 has been tuned to produce a claimed 250bhp at 5000rpm – almost 90bhp more than standard and in line with the output achieved by dealer-modified Tigers in period.

The car has been regularly campaigned, and in recent years has been maintained by Newcastle-based Don Law Racing (famed for its knowledge of the Jaguar XJ220) and according to Autostorico founder William Cullen, it’s up, running and ready to race. Or simply to use as a fast and fun road car.

It will be sold with a bulging history file – and you get a glorious exhaust note thrown in for free.

1965 Sunbeam Tiger

On sale with Autostorico, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, £29,950. autostorico.co.uk

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Shadow racer takes the limelight

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