05/02/2026
Popped up on another site today:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1AfRVgafCH/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Why the Sunbeam Tiger Was Killed off - The British Car With an American V8 Heart
The Sunbeam Tiger looked like a mistake someone made on purpose. A tiny British sports car, a massive American V8 shoved together by a man who thought the original engine was, and I'm quoting here, pathetically underpowered. He wasn't wrong. The original Sunbeam Alpine made about 97 horsepower. The tiger made nearly three times that. Same body, same frame mostly. The story of how this happened and why it disappeared after just 3 years involves a California hot rodder, a desperate British car company, and one of the messiest corporate acquisitions in automotive history.
Let's go back to the early 1960s. The British sports car market was thriving. MG, Triumph, Austin, Healey. These were the cars Americans bought when they wanted something fun, something different, something that wasn't another Chevrolet. The Roots Group, a British conglomerate that owned brands like Hillman, Humber, Singer, and Sunbeam, wanted a piece of this action. They had the Alpine. Introduced in 1959, the Alpine was a pretty little roadster. Flowing lines, nice interior, good handling. One problem. The engine was borrowed from a Hillman sedan, 1.5 L, four cylinders, 97 horsepower on a good day with a tailwind.
For perspective, the Austin Healey 3000 made around 132 horsepower. The Chevrolet Corvette of the same era was pushing 270. The Alpine was fun to look at and pleasant to drive, but it wasn't fast. It wasn't even quick. 0 to 60 took about 14 seconds. That's refrigerator territory by sports car standards. The Roots group knew they had a chassis that handled well and looked good. They also knew they needed more power, a lot more power. But developing a new engine costs money, serious money.
and Roots was already stretched thin, running multiple brands, multiple factories, competing against larger manufacturers with deeper pockets. Enter Carol Shelby. Now, if that name sounds familiar, it should. Shelby was a Texas chicken farmer turned race car driver turned automotive legend. By 1962, he was already famous for driving, for winning Lemon in 1959, for being one of the most successful American racing drivers of his era. He was also building the Cobra, the AC Cobra, a lightweight British sports car body with a Ford V8 stuffed inside.
Same concept, different ex*****on. Here's where the story gets interesting. The Roots group approached Shelby about doing something similar with the Alpine. Take their pretty British roadster, fit a V8, create an instant muscle car. Shelby was interested, but he was busy. The Cobra was his priority. Ford was his partner. He couldn't give roots his full attention, but Shelby knew someone who could help, a man named Ken Miles. Ken Miles was a British-born engineer and racing driver working in California.
He was meticulous, obsessive about details, brilliant at making things work that shouldn't work. Later, he would become famous for his role in Ford's Lama program. In 1963, he was running a small shop in Los Angeles, preparing race cars and doing engineering consulting. Miles took one look at the Alpine and saw the problem immediately. The engine bay was tiny. The Alpine was designed around a small four cylinder. There was no room for anything bigger. No room for a six-cylinder.
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