Factory-Original Sunbeam Alpine & Tiger

The SunbeamAlpine was the Rootes Group’s contender for sports car sales, especially in theUSA where comparable models from other British makers were selling to whatappeared an inexhaustible market. Rootes introduced their car in 1959, andchose to distinguish it from the competition by making it more refined, withsuch things as winding windows and a permanently-attached soft top. Prettystyling, quite different from rival models, also helped the Alpine to secure agratifyingly strong position in the market.

Nevertheless,the Alpine was being made at a time when American buyers were hungry for powerand performance, and to cater for that end of the sports car market Rootesdeveloped a high-performance derivative that they called the Tiger. This soldalongside the Alpine from 1964, and central to it was an American Ford V8engine that offered more than twice the brake horsepower of the four-cylinderin the contemporary Alpine.

Over the nineyears of its production, the Alpine was produced in five major variants, andwith a variety of different specifications, as Rootes gradually improved it tomeet customer expectations. The Tiger, which of course arrived later, wasproduced in two major versions, the second one using an even larger and morepowerful version of the Ford V8.

Both cars wentthrough a multitude of specification changes, and this fact makes it hard forthe average owner today to determine what the original specification of anyindividual car would have been. The purpose of this book is to identify theminutiae of the changes that were made on the assembly lines. Some remaincontroversial, but Simon Clay’s excellent photographs help to provide thevisual clarity that today’s enthusiasts need to achieve an accurate andsatisfying restoration.

JamesTaylor has been writing aboutmotoring history since the 1970s; he has written well over 100 books and spentten years as the editor of Land Rover Enthusiast magazine. He has written verywidely for both magazines and books on motoring subjects but has specialized inthe history of Rover cars and Land Rovers. He has owned four Range Rovers aswell as a variety of other cars and continues to write for the motoring pressboth at home and abroad. His previous books include Rover V8 - The Story of theEngine, Factory-Original Ford Capri Mk1, Factory-Original Mercedes SL,Factory-Original Aston Martin DB4/5/6 and Factory-Original Mini Mk1 & Mk2.James lives in rural Oxfordshire with his wife and the younger two of his fourchildren, surrounded by books about cars, and usually with something old andinteresting in his garage.

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