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Due to Warren's request I'll post some info about my cars here... it's my first time so forgive any excess blathering and hopefully I'm smart enough to figure out how to post pictures because I don't have a 10 year old to help me.
A brief background, I came from a family of car nuts, my grandfather was a Packard and DeSoto enthusiast, and my Dad was a Cadillac aficionado. I had several cars before I turned 16, and drove myself to the DMV to get my license on my 16th birthday in a 64 1/2 D-code Mustang I'd freshly renovated. I'd put all the 289 Shelby parts on the Mustang motor (this was in the late 70's when it wasn't that hard to find original Shelby mechanical parts off of wrecked Shelbys, and before any repro parts had ever been made) and thought I had a REALLY HOT car.
Then one Sunday I was at a barbeque at my Godparent's house, and they said - "hey, you need to meet our neighbor, Lou. He's a race car driver and has won the SCCA national championship in his class several times. Lou, why don't you give Bob a ride around the block in your Tiger?" That was, of course, how I met Lou Anderson, and after one ride in his Tiger that afternoon, I HAD to get myself a Tiger. The Mustang all of a sudden was "not that fast".
So, of course, being 16, I talked myself blue in the face to anyone who would listen and most who'd probably rather not about my desire to get a Sunbeam Tiger. Within a few weeks a friend of my father's called to say he knew a neighbor in Escondido that had a Tiger in his garage he'd probably sell. I went to visit the friend, he was the original owner, according to him he bought it "at Shelby's dealership in Long Beach", and it had the 260 Cobra engine parts, balanced, solid lifter cam, 4 barrel, and about every performance option that was available for a Tiger, limited slip differential, 3.54 rear end gears, headers, traction bars. Must have been a dealership joyride/demo car or something. He'd bought the car for his daughter to use when she was in college, she never really liked the car, and once she'd graduated and gotten married, the car had mostly sat in the garage. Had 32,000 miles on it - this was in 1980. He said he wanted $3,500 for the car, and since Lou had told me to expect to pay 6 to 8 grand for a nice one at the time, I snapped it up.
From what I can recall and the tidbits I've been able to glean from Norm, I believe this Tiger was B9470715. (if you own this car send me a PM and I can probably clear up a lot of mysteries) I drove the Tiger as a daily driver for a number of years. About 1985 I had Jack Tietjen build a 5 bolt 289 out of a wrecked 289 Cobra, which wound up with 398 HP at the flywheel on the dyno - I know that sounds commonplace these days, but it was quite an acheivement in 1985. Of course, it had 12.5:1 compression and you could still get, and I had to use, 100 octane gas at Union 76. With that engine the Tiger would run low 14's in the quarter mile at Carlsbad with closed exhaust and street tires, and once broke into the high 13's with Lou Anderson driving. Again, doesn't sound very impressive now, but it was SMOKIN' in the 80's.
Then one day I stupidly let a friend drive it, he speed shifted from 2nd to 3rd at about 80 MPH, the back end broke loose and he wasn't used to such a short car, and wound up driving it through a telephone pole and a parked Toyota pickup. To show how tough a Tiger is, the Tiger didn't have any damage rear of the windshield (other than the place where I put my hand through the dash board), and it broke the Toyota pickup completely in half, as well as snapping off the telephone pole!
So, I found an Alpine that was wrecked in the back, cut it in half and took the front to Andy Heaton's shop, and a few months and several thousand dollars later Andy had it looking like nothing had ever happened to it. Andy and I spent a week putting the mechanicals and interior back together, and then the next day I got in it and drove it to Nashville, TN, where I was attending college at the time. I don't remember being crazy but I must have been.
My last year in college I completely ran out of money, and since the Tiger was the only valuable asset I possesed at the time, I had to sell it to complete college. I started kicking myself in the ass the next day and haven't stopped yet.
Bob Knight
B9471705
B9471929
A brief background, I came from a family of car nuts, my grandfather was a Packard and DeSoto enthusiast, and my Dad was a Cadillac aficionado. I had several cars before I turned 16, and drove myself to the DMV to get my license on my 16th birthday in a 64 1/2 D-code Mustang I'd freshly renovated. I'd put all the 289 Shelby parts on the Mustang motor (this was in the late 70's when it wasn't that hard to find original Shelby mechanical parts off of wrecked Shelbys, and before any repro parts had ever been made) and thought I had a REALLY HOT car.
Then one Sunday I was at a barbeque at my Godparent's house, and they said - "hey, you need to meet our neighbor, Lou. He's a race car driver and has won the SCCA national championship in his class several times. Lou, why don't you give Bob a ride around the block in your Tiger?" That was, of course, how I met Lou Anderson, and after one ride in his Tiger that afternoon, I HAD to get myself a Tiger. The Mustang all of a sudden was "not that fast".
So, of course, being 16, I talked myself blue in the face to anyone who would listen and most who'd probably rather not about my desire to get a Sunbeam Tiger. Within a few weeks a friend of my father's called to say he knew a neighbor in Escondido that had a Tiger in his garage he'd probably sell. I went to visit the friend, he was the original owner, according to him he bought it "at Shelby's dealership in Long Beach", and it had the 260 Cobra engine parts, balanced, solid lifter cam, 4 barrel, and about every performance option that was available for a Tiger, limited slip differential, 3.54 rear end gears, headers, traction bars. Must have been a dealership joyride/demo car or something. He'd bought the car for his daughter to use when she was in college, she never really liked the car, and once she'd graduated and gotten married, the car had mostly sat in the garage. Had 32,000 miles on it - this was in 1980. He said he wanted $3,500 for the car, and since Lou had told me to expect to pay 6 to 8 grand for a nice one at the time, I snapped it up.
From what I can recall and the tidbits I've been able to glean from Norm, I believe this Tiger was B9470715. (if you own this car send me a PM and I can probably clear up a lot of mysteries) I drove the Tiger as a daily driver for a number of years. About 1985 I had Jack Tietjen build a 5 bolt 289 out of a wrecked 289 Cobra, which wound up with 398 HP at the flywheel on the dyno - I know that sounds commonplace these days, but it was quite an acheivement in 1985. Of course, it had 12.5:1 compression and you could still get, and I had to use, 100 octane gas at Union 76. With that engine the Tiger would run low 14's in the quarter mile at Carlsbad with closed exhaust and street tires, and once broke into the high 13's with Lou Anderson driving. Again, doesn't sound very impressive now, but it was SMOKIN' in the 80's.
Then one day I stupidly let a friend drive it, he speed shifted from 2nd to 3rd at about 80 MPH, the back end broke loose and he wasn't used to such a short car, and wound up driving it through a telephone pole and a parked Toyota pickup. To show how tough a Tiger is, the Tiger didn't have any damage rear of the windshield (other than the place where I put my hand through the dash board), and it broke the Toyota pickup completely in half, as well as snapping off the telephone pole!
So, I found an Alpine that was wrecked in the back, cut it in half and took the front to Andy Heaton's shop, and a few months and several thousand dollars later Andy had it looking like nothing had ever happened to it. Andy and I spent a week putting the mechanicals and interior back together, and then the next day I got in it and drove it to Nashville, TN, where I was attending college at the time. I don't remember being crazy but I must have been.
My last year in college I completely ran out of money, and since the Tiger was the only valuable asset I possesed at the time, I had to sell it to complete college. I started kicking myself in the ass the next day and haven't stopped yet.
Bob Knight
B9471705
B9471929
