Sunbeam Tiger’s Shelby roots still shape this rally-ready Jensen-built V8

Mention Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles and thoughts invariably turn to Ford GT40s and Shelby Cobras – but not many remember the pair’s involvement with the less-celebrated Sunbeam Tiger.

Shelby’s success at shoehorning a Ford V8 into the British-built AC Ace made him the obvious man to consult after Australian race legend Jack Brabham saw the potential for upgrading the Rootes Group’s anaemic, 1725cc Sunbeam Alpine in a similar way.

As it happened, Ian Garrad, the Rootes sales boss on America’s West Coast, lived near Shelby’s workshops and asked him to create a prototype in March 1963, for which the Texan estimated a £4000 build cost and six-week timeframe.

While Shelby’s team got underway, Garrad, eager to see if the project was feasible, approached Brit racing driver Miles to produce a more basic, working mule – a task he completed in around a week on a £285 budget, proving the idea had legs.

Shelby’s more refined effort hit the road at the end of April with a 260ci Ford V8 and a four-speed manual gearbox, a combination that turned the benign Alpine into a fire-breathing animal with performance to match Jaguar’s XK sports cars.

It’s said that the irascible Lord Rootes was peeved to learn that the project had got off the ground without his knowledge, but after he drove the Shelby prototype he sanctioned production of the car and put his name down for 3000 small-block V8s – Ford’s largest ever order of its type.

Shelby’s hopes of being employed to build the new Tiger in the US failed to come to fruition when the contract was handed to the Jensen Motors factory in West Bromwich, where production began in earnest in June 1964.

While Tigers have never been deemed as glamorous or as valuable as AC Cobras, they were quick enough to set quarter-mile records with the United States Hot Rod Association and to hold their own in European rallies.

This example on offer with Anthony Godin is an original, right-hand-drive Mark I (in production from 1964-67) which left the Jensen production line in January 1965 although it wasn’t registered for a further two years.

Since then its original 260ci/4.3-litre engine has been upgraded with the 289ci/4.7-litre unit used in the rarer Mark II model, only 633 of which were built before Tiger production ceased.

Converted to rally specification some time after 2008, the car now features a sump guard, rollcage, limited-slip differential, long-range fuel tank and dash-mounted timing gear – modifications which helped it to a respectable finish in one edition of the Classic Marathon and a second in class at the Rally of the Tests.

With just 40,000 (unconfirmed) miles on the clock and said to be in good running order, it will be sold with a substantial history file containing bills to the tune of £40,000, hard and soft tops and a small selection of spares.

And all for just a fraction of the price of a Shelby Cobra 289.

1967 Sunbeam Tiger
On sale with Godin Sporting Cars & Motorcycles, Kent. Asking: £35,995. anthonygodin.co.uk