Tigers United Guest Speaker Mike Jones

at the beach

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Mike Jones

The Tiger community is fortunate this year to have Mike Jones as guest speaker at Tigers United 38. Mike played a significant role in the design and development of the production Tiger. His contributions helped to take a prototype, which was developed in the U.S., to the production Tiger produced in the U.K.

After earning a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Mike Jones began his career working as an engineer for Rootes Group. In 1964, Mike left Rootes for a job at Jensen Motors as Chassis Project Engineer.

For the first 18 months in this position, Mike worked closely with Jensen Chief Engineer Kevin Beattie, concentrating mostly on Sunbeam Tiger chassis design and initial development. Having worked at Rootes previously, they both understood their development process which aided the collaboration with Rootes engineers Alec Caine and Don Tarbun.

While Mike was employed by Jensen, the company was responsible for the designs of unique Tiger components, builds of prototypes, and basic road testing of each prototype. As background, Tiger sheet metal modifications were made to painted and trimmed bodies as shipped from Pressed Steel Company. Those sheet metal modifications were carried out by Jensen on a separate production line from the final assembly line. The Tiger’s final assembly line was separate from Austin Healey and Jensen production builds and used a separate production labor force.
Developing the Tiger presented significant challenges -- having to convert a Shelby one-off prototype into a viable production design within a tight budget and short time schedule. Mike was instrumental in numerous aspects of the Tiger production design, such as improving steering geometry and handling, minimizing rear axle tramp and brake fade, improving engine cooling, as well as analyzing and mitigating engine failures.

Mike Jones was eventually promoted to Chief Engineer at Jensen. In 1975, he left Jensen and and went on to work for Ford, British Leyland, Lotus, GM and Chrysler. Mike retired in 2008 after leaving a significant mark on the automotive industry. He is currently working as a volunteer in the Historical Section of the Society of Automotive Engineers, is a Fellow with the UK Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and a Member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, USA.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear history from the man who helped make our Tigers.
--
Tom Hall
ModTiger Engineering LLC
5712 San Luis Court
Pleasanton, CA 94566
modtiger@comcast.net
(925)462-3876
www.tigerengineering.net
 

at the beach

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The latest I've heard is that Mike Jones will be speaking at TU on Saturday evening.

Also, Martha Christensen of ProPrep Interiors will do a demonstration Friday afternoon showing how to recover an Alpine or Tiger seat.

bt
at the beach
 
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