1965 Sunbeam Tiger

[Sunbeam65]

Recently, Diecasm presented a fitting homage to my father by using photos of his Sunbeam Tiger to represent their current Sunbeam Tiger Homage Edition. I think it is very cool that Diecasm selected photos of my dad's Tiger for their site. It all started with a Hemmings competition to help Automodello select their next diecast car to go into production...and the rest is history.

[Annihilator1111]

the 1964-1967 Sunbean Tiger was assembled in

West Bromwich, England

[Projoiner1]

Thanks for the memories.

I spent my early childhood crammed in behind the seats in one of these (long before anyone cared about such things).

[alwayssshere]

you couldve walked around that car for another 10 minutes with that camera lol...damn nice ride.....

[405fooman]

those things are cool!

[ninjadudevideos]

im kinda in he sam problem my dad has one that hasnt been started in like 37 years haha

[coozy100]

i was thinking of getting a non original. fiberglass body. then dropping maybe a motorcycle engine in it like those smart car projects, since its so small i think it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to drop a busa engine in it. even tho it would be a hellashious ride. the only problem i think ill run into is torque.oh and backing up. thanks for pointing out a perfect car. peace

[pdutube]

Beautiful car! Congrats!

[Veee8]

It's alive - IT'S ALIVE...smoothed out nicely after a minute - what a great car!!!....all you need is the shoe phone. Ha..:)

[ps66mi]

the tiger had a ford 260/289 in them. when chrysler bought sunbeam they ended production because there small block wouldn't fit. they wouldn't sell a car with a ford engine in it.

[KC0TCH]

I thiought about tryin to drop a ford plant on my alpine but i think i will just keep the enigine it has now

[ape08shit]

I had a 65 witha 388 small block chevy and a big Olds rear with 456 gears. Ran 570s in the 1/8 mile.Fuel was methenol with a Barry Grant 750 carb.

[derrotkreig]

I love these old British/American hybrid cars - A.C Cobra, Jensen, Bristol, Gordon; there are many. Brilliant idea - take out an engine designed to pull an American whale of a car and stuff it into a car designed to be pulled by a 1700c.c.! No maths necessary - it will go fast! - - The only decent available British engine was a v8 Rover 3500, and anyway, even that was a 215 alloy Buick engine deliberately suppressed by the U.S. steel industry so they could carry on building heavy tanks!! Cheers

[unicornlxi]

If this was a '65, it was still from ford/rootes, not chrysler. my '66 wasn't a chrysler either. can almost hear the difference between the 260 from 65-66 and the chryslers ford 289 from a year or two later. god, i wish i had let mine sit all these years instead of racing it into the ground! youth IS wasted on the young.

[specterprime1957]

this was an import for chrysler, its a shame the dodge v8s couldnt fit in the engine compartment, they had to go to using a ford engine block

[74Grandville]

@specterprime1957

Trouble was Chrysler small block had the distributor in the rear of engine. It would have been under the cowl. Ford distributor was in the front and accessible.

[Specter1957]

yup, the distributer and i think it was also the oilsump that didnt fit .

It would have been a costly retrofit to put the Chysler engine in( however I think it would have been a better option, just my opinion!

[KC0TCH]

@74Grandville but with a forward opening hood it would still be tricky to get to in he front

[pete123pr]

Back in the sixties I had an opportunity to buy a sunbeam but didn,t have the money.

[SMOOTHJAKED]

Wow. I bought one of these new in the spring of 1965. It was one of the first Tigers with the walnut dash in the USA. I traded it in 1967 for a new '67 Shelby GT500. I wish I still had either one !

[Fundive1]

I just think these are the coolest cars. Sure

'd like to find one decent priced....Good luck...

[427CobraSC]

Very nice!

[bottlecap11111]

Subway is giving away a 65 Tiger to promote the new "Get Smart" movie

[skyline0101]

my friend has a tiger it has a 4.7 v8 289 same as a cobra 0-60 5.7 top speed 147mph

[skyline0101]

my friend has a tiger it has a 4.7 v8 289 same as a cobra 0-60 5.7 top speed 147mph

[Longboardsinglefin]

My Dad took one of these for a burn around the Rootes factory yard in the 60's then ran back inside before the security men could identify him. that engine looks a tight squeeze in there! Maintenance nightmare?

[Sunbeam65]

Not too bad. The factory tried to make up for the tight space. For example, the factory created a hole in the firewall to get to the passenger side rear spark plug. Otherwise you would have to do alot of work to get to it...The factory also rerouted the oil line to place the oil filter in an position for easy replacement. "Some" thought was taken before the Rootes guys broke out a torch and shoe horn in order to jam a Ford V8 where a tiny straight-four Rootes engine used to sit.

[TheREALroadtripguy]

You mean driver's side rear plug.

[bushtyranny]

The Tigers are easier to change plugs on than a 79 formula firebird with a 400 V8. Who cares about changing a plug from inside the car! Now taking heads off, thats another story. And the top mounted oil filter, 10 minutes less on the cold concrete! And unlike new fords, doesn't drip all over the damn crossmember trying to weasle it out!

[oldfan517]

Actually the initial engineering to shoehorn the smallblock Ford V-8 into the Tiger was done by the guys at Shelby American under a contract from Rootes. Yes Carroll Shelby and company were involved in developing the Tiger, they even got a small royalty payment for each one sold.

[DJM442]

after sitting for 36 years that car looks great!

[Sunbeam65]

My father and I have been restoring the car on and off for the last ten years. It hadn't turned a wheel for nearly 4 decades until just after this video was taken...enjoy nad thanks for the posting

[giberish9]

Why was something as beautiful as that sitting for 36 years?

[Sunbeam65]

My Uncle pulled the engine around 1970 in order to rebuild it. Shortly after he passed away unexpectantly. The car sat in my grandmother garage for years after...I discovered that my family even had the vehicle around 1979. My father and I finally got around to the rebuild just recently.

[Sunbeam65]

My father and I have been restoring this car on and off since 1997. He purchased the car new in 1965. The car is currently set up with a 289, but we also have a restored 260 in the garage. The exhaust is from Sunbeam Specialtes in California. Thanks for the interest in the car. I hope your father gets his back on the road. Stay tuned for more videos...

[tubamaxima]

Rootes group made the Sunbeam Tiger (affectionaltely called the "Poor man's Coba").It was an awesome car. I had one and put a 302" in it. People could not believe that it could easily beat a Pontiac GTO. By the way, it got good gas milage, too.

[Sunbeam65]

Thank you for the comments. Please rate the video if you have a moment.

[tubamaxima]

Great video. I see your Tiger has the same filled aluminum valve covers and the same Carter AFB as I had on Tiger.