GTC60 Sunbeam Tiger MkII

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 shoehornin