FRESH 289, CORRECT INTAKE
4-SPEED-FULL BRAKING
NICE BLACK PAINT AND BODY
FRAME ON NEW RESTORATION
FRESH MECHANICALS/EXCELLENT SUSPENSION
$31,950
1965 Sunbeam Tiger MK1a finished in very nice Raven Black, great presentation, extremely solid car and chassis, extensive frame on restoration, lots of photos of the original car as the ‘barn find’ a few years ago, restoration continued until Spring 2010 as great effort was accomplished to make this ‘Tiger’ a top driven show car with excellent frame having top mechanicals and suspension, originally born as a 260cid and now features a fresh, newly built 289cid, 2v with proper intake and factory air cleaner, the strong engine is very desired by true ‘Tiger’ guys, excellent compression, correct air induction system, the proper 2v carberator was rebuilt again for Spring 2010, the updated radiator has just been gone through for excellent cooling, all fresh plugs and wires for top performance, proper 4 speed transmission, excellent gauges, top braking, two sets of 13” wheels including the hub caps, nice bucket seated interior, wood trim on dash, chrome ‘Talbot’ dual, mirrors original hard top, the finish on this paint is really nice, famous sports car with nice lines and great performance with substantial owners like Cary Grant (SEE LINK) among this 1965 Sunbeam Tiger has been registered with the ‘Tiger’ Club with many of the members giving advice with the final proper restoration
this is one of a total production of 2706 units made in England, extensive work has been accomplished to make this a really fun and good looking car to drive, this car has history of the original car with photos to document this very solid Sunbeam Tiger MK1a when found, then with work by two shops who just did not understand how to do this rare car, then the finish is done by Fraser Dante in Atlanta for Spring 2010, initially this very solid Tiger was found in a storage area, appears to have all original floors and quarters that are cleaned and photographed, hard to find so solid,
Some history of this make shows that “Tigers United tells us The Roots Group dates back to 1859 when a young British man, Alderman John Marston, just 23, founded what would later be known as Sunbeam. In the beginning, Marston's effort was more about tin-plating than manufacturing. He was a dedicated cyclist, which made it logical for him to break into the manufacture of bicycles. He called his operation the Sunbeamland Cycle Factory, founded in 1877.
As you might imagine, Sunbeam bicycles were upscale pieces-expensive and high quality. Marston started building automobiles in 1899, but not as mass production pieces. He built cars for the fortunate few who could afford them. Maxwell Maberly-Smith designed those first Sunbeam automobiles, according to Tigers United. Ironically, Sunbeam misspelled Maberly-Smith's name when it named the Sunbeam-Mabley automobile.
As with most automobile coachbuilders at the time, there were a lot of changes in the years to follow. By 1911, Sunbeam was producing approximately 630 units a year. By 1925, Sunbeam was an active participant at Le Mans. In decades to follow, Sunbeam would build airships and airplanes as well as automobiles. Sunbeam introduced the four-cylinder, two-seat Alpine in 1959. The Alpine was a fun-to-drive, open-air roadster with a 1.5L OHV four-cylinder engine. It offered outstanding handling and stability. What the Alpine lacked was power-much like the Cobra-derived AC Ace. It needed V-8 power. The Roots Group, parent company of Sunbeam at the time, had a progressive thinker in Ian Garrad, West Coast manager in Los Angeles. Garrad couldn't help but notice all the attention Carroll Shelby's Cobra was getting. He arranged a meeting with Shelby, who ultimately built the first Tiger prototype. Once Roots engineers spent time with the Tiger in England, the car was an easy sell to management. The decision was made to build the Tiger. What made the Tiger a different animal than its British counterparts was V-8 power-making it competitive with the Corvette, Cobra, and Jaguar, and leaving other four-cylinder British sports cars in the dust. What's more, the darned thing was affordable at well under $3,500 suggested retail. It was a smoking deal for anyone who wanted an affordable answer to the 289 Cobra”.
Initially this Tiger was taken apart in the start of the restoration; the restoration work started with the body was taken off the frame, then they quit, at this point the VIN was lost by the first shop, then the car was sent to a shop in North Carolina where the paint was done, then the car was checked for doors working, proper hinges and other areas in the full reassemble, all the fenders and rear quarters are believed original, the floors are very solid, note that the photos taken for Summer 2009 with the seats and new carpet out show the original floors both before their painting and after the painting by Fraser Dante, hard to find in this good condition, Fraser Dante took the original title from North Carolina along with the proper forms from the State of Georgia and a letter confirming the VIN# from the President of the Sunbeam Club, this information was passed to Matthew Taylor[MTaylor@ea.com] in a letter with information about the rear end and the JAL # for him to research the VIN, he knows all about the car, then with the Georgia authorities had the T22 form attesting to the proper VIN # (SEE LINK), a legal VIN #B382000134/LRFE plate from the factory number from original and proper North Carolina title was made by Georgia then attached, (LINK), then proper Georgia title issued in the name of Fraser Dante Ltd, photos that are part of the file show the original VIN attached car before restoration, (SEE PHOTO), note that in May 2009, also has the original factory production patent plate still on car, (SEE LINK), one of the local members of the Sunbeam Tiger club came by to see this 1965 Sunbeam Tiger MK1a, he brought his red 1966 driven show car that he had owned for 35 years, to compare to this black 1965 and he ascertained that this was very correct, important areas like the factory shock tower weld supports were in place, these are essential areas in proving a Tiger, see photo
(LINK), he too had changed his 260cid engine to a better 289/4v unit, then this factory VIN # has now been registered as one of the 2706 produced with the proper sequence production number with the clean Georgia title (SEE LINK)
Engine: there are photos of the original 260cid engine in the file (SEE
LINK), at this point the 289cid/2v engine then was built to high standards with top compression and installed, the readings of 172 psi to 180 psi across (SEE LINK) this 289cid engine is installed and has excellent performance, then this was sent to Atlanta, a new wiring harness was installed with great effort to make the electrics work from the new, great effort is made in the workshop of Fraser Dante to check all the wiring to make the wiring far better than from the previous people, this took two technicians a lot of time with their great knowledge to accomplish this task, a more modern high output alternator is just installed, the brackets were made to work by Fraser Dante, the correct Autolite 2100 2v carberator was then restored by a top builder and installed (SEE LINK), the intake is a C4 OE-9425, date 4F30 as can be read, stock air filter, new oil pressure and ammeter gauges are installed under the dash since this has a new wiring system, the radiator is a special unit designed for this tight engine bay, in January 2010, a top shop went through the radiator and wrote the comments about its excellent cooling abilities, flushed with 190 lbs at idle, (RADIATOR), the driving is enhanced with an extra cooling fan, the water pump is just changed and fresh, the timing chain cover was replaced with notes that this ‘C4” Ford number was clearly stamped on the inside, (SEE PHOTO), showing how correct the 289 engine is, photos show this new full installation, 93o octane gas is used, this engine is really strong along with dual exhaust system, has top mechanicals with full tune just checked,
the dual original fuel tanks were taken to a top restoration tank and radiator shop, they were flushed and fresh fuel added since this car had sat so long from being the estate car, these are very valuable and took great work, one can see how original this car was, the suspension under the car when received in Atlanta was very original, shows how the car was truly a solid ‘barn find’, under the car, the body shows virtually no signs of any outside rust as photos document when this was found and the work started, the floors are protected by a light coat of undercoating to protect their solid condition, (UNDERCHASSIS, the inside shots show how solid they really are, these are cleaned for driven show, (LINK), hard to find a solid Tiger MK 1A original floors and quarters as this appears to have, the brakes have also undergone a full check to make sure they work well after their initial build, test driven for Spring 2010, this has both newer mag wheels that that make the car handle better with the new Kumho Power Star 165/80/13s radial blackwall tires, (LINK), a lot of these driven show cars have such wheels and tires to yield excellent driving, along with the package comes, now installed, comes the freshly restored four original wheels are painted correctly and the hard to get proper hub caps with the outer rings are part of the package, (SEE LINK), with the stock and very original uprated suspension, now just completed are four new correct shock absorbers, with new fully detailed upper and lower control arm bushings, detailed front coil springs, upper ball joints, lower ball joints, all the joints and suspension are then lubed, (SUSPENSION), then the alignment of the car is completed with specs (ALIGNMENT) with a road test to make sure it drives straight, fresh chrome around the car is very nice with proper ‘Tiger’ badges, note the new dual Talbot mirrors that are shown with the historical photos as to placement, the black bucket seated interior is nicely redone, has safety belts, all the door panels are nice, the carpet is new, the instrument cluster is redone, the wood trim around dash pod is very nice, has an uprated steering wheel and the unrestored steering wheel comes as part of the package, the 4-speed transmission has the proper chrome shifter, hard to find like this, has a new horn button under the dash since the steering wheel was changed, the gauges were checked on the car with even the speedometer and odometer just restored by an expert, the temperature and other gauges work, the parts could not be found for the original tachometer as they simply do not exist, the stock tach is left in the dash and the new modern AutoMeter tach with red set needle is installed to the right of the shifter with full wiring so the interior lights even work, (SEE CLOSE UP), if one does not want this, could easily be taken out,
note the trunk area, this is most solid with no signs of replacement quarters, nice floors, full carpet, very valuable ‘screw’ type jack as per factory still with the car, this 1965 Sunbeam Tiger has great effort made for the tune and road check for top performance for Spring 2010, all statements regarding this vehicle are made to the best information available with careful examination but originality or genuineness of said parts nor other statements can not be authenticated due to age,
the body on the Tiger is most solid the final buffing of the nice paint is done by a top professional to present this black Sunbeam Tiger MK1a with very nice luster, the quality of the paint is driven show, the trim pieces appear very nice, again, great effort on the whole cooling system, it is approximated that a total of about $54,000 went into this car and its final restoration and mechanical accomplishments, this is a very well finished for a driven show car with great looks and top, fun performance, $31,950