The Sunbeam Alpine was a sports car developed by the British manufacturer Rootes Group from 1953 to 1955 and then again from 1959 to 1968.
They successfully used three different four-cylinder engines, with 1.5-, 1.6- and 1.7-liter models, but if the Alpine was to compete on the world stage, it needed an engine with more power. The Rootes Group didn’t have such an engine, though, or the resources to develop one.
The company approached Ferrari to design an inline-four-cylinder engine, thinking “powered by Ferrari” would add prestige and status to their models, but the negotiations ultimately failed.
A Formula 1 champion driver, Jack Brabham, suggested to Rootes thay they use a Ford V8 engine like Carroll Shelby, the famous American race car driver and designer, did with the AC Cobra. So the Sunbeam Tiger became a high-performance V8 version of the Alpine roadster designed in part by Shelby.
Their challenge was to fit a bigger V8 engine in a car designed for a much smaller four-cylinder engine. As just mentioned, Shelby had done this sort of conversion with the AC Cobra and offered to do a similar one for the Rootes Group in the U.S. market.
Shelby completed a prototype in April 1963 known as the Thunderbolt and used a Ford 360-cubic-inch V8 engine with a Ford four-speed manual transmission. The engine was just 3.5 inches longer than the Alpine’s four-cylinder engine, and the width was so tight they jokingly said they needed a shoehorn to fit it in.
Corporations have politics too, and all new products had to be approved by Lord Rootes, who was reportedly “very grumpy” when he learned about the Tiger product for the first time. He wanted the Thunderbolt shipped to England and wanted to test-drive it himself.
He was so impressed that he contacted Henry Ford II directly and placed an order for 3,000 V8 engines. Normally a product change of this magnitude takes three to four years from idea to manufacture, but Lord Rootes wanted to launch this new car in about eight months.
I would guess because of the geographic distances, Rootes wisely decided to have the work conversion work done closer to home by Jensen in England, but Shelby still got a royalty payment on each one produced.
This issue’s featured car is a 1967 Sunbeam Tiger owned by Danville resident Jeff Howe. His acquisition of it was somewhat unusual. He was sitting on an airplane waiting to take off and looking online when this car popped up with a lot of pictures. He looked at some of the pictures and wasn’t impressed.
“A couple of days later,” Howe said, “I went back to look at it to see how bad it is. The problem was I didn’t look at all the pictures, just the first 10 or 15.”
He got a hold of the seller, but the car had been sold. He asked the seller to contact him if he found a similar vehicle. About 18 months later, the new buyer wanted to sell it, and finally Howe bought the car with 33,000 miles on it for $135,000. It was pretty much in the perfect condition then that it’s in today.
One of just 534 built, this Tiger was the top of Sunbeam’s line with almost all possible options, including a Ford 289 V8 engine, the same engine the Shelby Cobra used. Howe has owned this car for about two years and drives it approximately 1,000 miles a year.
He says he loves this car, has no desire to sell it and even turned down a recent offer of $150,000 for it.
Have an interesting vehicle? Email Dave at [email protected]. To read more of his columns or see more photos of this and other issues’ vehicles, visit mercurynews.com/author/david-krumboltz.