The Rootes Group was not your typical car maker. It wasn’t founded to make bicycles or motorcycles – it was a distributor, like a large dealership. And its first brush with manufacturing was making and repairing aircraft engines. Rootes didn’t create a car of its own for decades, instead purchasing its way into the business by buying Hillman, then Humber. It bought several more companies during the Depression, including Sunbeam in 1934. By the 1950s, after establishing a niche selling small, sensible sedans, Rootes produced a drophead coupe for rallying, called the Sunbeam Alpine. Based on the Sunbeam-Talbot saloon, the Alpine racked up impressive wins for drivers such as Stirling Moss and Shelia van Damm. While its competitive success was gratifying, Rootes was in desperate need of a win for its bank account. The right product would be a sales hit in America, and that meant only one thing: a sports car. Many of Rootes’ designers hailed from Ford, and one of them – Kenneth Howes – penned a sporty roadster with more than a passing resemblance to the Thunderbird. This was the new Sunbeam Alpine, introduced in 1959. Produced in five iterations through 1968, it sold 70,000 copies – a solid result but not enough to prevent Rootes Group from folding into Chrysler by 1967. Here on facebook Marketplace is a 1965 Sunbeam Alpine Series IV project. The seller is asking $3699 and the car is located in Erie, Pennsylvania. We have Chuck Foster to thank for this tip – thanks, Chuck!
Many an Alpine has donated its body to a Tiger transformation – hopefully represented by an honest constructor – but this one retains its original 1592 cc four-cylinder engine paired with a single Solex carburetor making about 85 hp. Two gearboxes were available – a four-speed manual with optional overdrive and an automatic, the latter proving profoundly unpopular. Fortunately, this car is a manual. Sunbeam sold its Alpine as a “sporty performer with touring luxury” – a marketing man’s way of saying zero to sixty in over sixteen seconds, and a top speed of barely 100 mph. Though the seller doesn’t tell us about the car’s running condition, it’s a safe bet that you’ll need a trailer.
The listing’s assortment of photos focuses on niches where normally we’d find rust, and there’s very little. The undersides of the panels are clean, the wheel arches are clean, the sills are clean. The trunk? Clean. On the other hand, there are no undercarriage or interior photos, so further investigation is warranted.
The front end is as straight as a pin. The panel fit is excellent all around the car. Could that paint be resurrected? Hard to tell from the photos, but if it could be coaxed to a shine, that’s a bonus. Of course, this car sits on the wrong side of the 1965 model year, because just months after the IVs closed out production, the 1965 Series V arrived bearing a much more powerful engine. Collectors also show a preference for earlier, finned cars. Mid-teens is probably the right price for a nice Series IV, leaving scant headroom to pay for improvements. But there might be enough positives here to justify making a call – what do you think?
“The old ‘make it look like Maxwell Smart’s car’ trick, eh?” A HS friend had the Tiger version in red and was teased mercilessly by classmates to borrow his right shoe to make a phone call..
More interior room than a Midget, faster than a Cushman, these are a fun Sunday car with the little engine. That said, the “Baby Cobra” was even more fun in the right hands.
When my friend passed on a few years back his kids put his Tiger up for sale on Craigslist. A bidding war started and it’s last known address was somewhere east of us-across the Pacific.
East of us across the pacific??????
East to the Pacific????
Teased for owning a Tiger? He certainly had the last laugh on that one.
Did he go to Beverly Hills High School? Poor dear, his friends had XKEs.
Well, James Bond drove one in two movies, so that makes the car super cool.
My mentor, Andy Rooney drove one too.
HoA- Must have been a tight fit for Andy :)
Believe it or not when I was in high school as a parts runner for an old curmudgeon mechanic, a hilarious old school no nonsense kinda guy, I drove his Sunbeam Tiger to chase parts. He had also had a super cool maroon ’64 2 door Ford Galaxie 500 (?) with bucket seats and floor mounted slushbox shifter. What a character!
When the customer had paid for a job , he’d pat the rubber fish mounted on the wall and it’s tongue would shoot out…… and he’s say “Thank you, sucker fish.”
How does he ever expect to sell it with pictures like those?
In the actual ad there are a few more pictures, obviously it would have been better to pull or drag the car outside, but the pics do show key areas which normally have rot. Car looks pretty solid.
Sunbeam were well known for bicycles and motorcycles – and high quality stove enamelling – long before the Rootes Group was a glimmer in anyone’s eye…
Wolverhampton, I think.
People will never cease to disappoint when it comes to photographing or describing a car for sale. Most likely a good person, But completely CLUELESS about selling a car, never mind a Sunbeam S4. Does the engine turn? Is there rust underneath? when was it parked and why?
Is it Whitworth or metric?
IIRC the engine, being German, was metric & the car itself SAE fine.
Where does the idea come from that the engine was German? It was based on the Hillman Minx ohv series of engines designed by the Chief Engineer, Rootes Engine Division, the amazing Eric Coy, at the Humber Works at Aldermoor Coventry. They went from 1100cc through to 1725cc and the Hillman Minx (and in New Zealand and South Africa – the Humber 80), along with the Commer Cob and 1500cwt/2500cwt vans as well as the Sunbeam Alpine engines all grew in capacity as these engines were developed. Eric also lead the design of the amazing Rootes blown two stroke opposed piston TS3 engine, which despite what people think and regular report, had nothing to do with Tilling Stevens. It was only manufactured there. Nothing German about it!
Whitworth, British Standard and sae fine thread
To my knowledge, the only Whitworth are the bolts holding the seats down. And that is only because I heard that. I don’t know for sure.
1/4 Whit on the battery terminal. Every car I worked on, up until the late’80s, if they had bolt on terminals they used whitworth. After about’88 13mm (8mm thread)
It will be UNF with perhaps a couple of UNC, but definitely no metric.
Neither.
I dont think anyone teally knows…
No metric in these things. Heading toward 50 years since I worked on them, two Commer 1500/2500 cwt vans (for carting band gear) and a Hillman Super Minx with practically the same motor, but from memory, it was all AF apart from some exhaust system bolts which were Whitworth… but it was a long time ago! Still got the Whitworth spanners and sockets I needed to work on these! :-)
Be ok father & son project car by removing the anemic 4cyl & dropping in an upgraded V8, I’d go for the 302/351 w/LS head swap yes its true LS heads fit the Ford small block.
Car really isn’t a collector by any means & values won’t rise as there’s no demand for the 4cyl Sunbeam.
Might as well have fun…
There is no such thing as “dropping in” a V8 in an Alpine. That would only be a father/son project for a very skilled team. Many Alpines are hopelessly butchered every year by people who think it must be easy if the factory did it. It is not and even the factory needed outside help. There are other 4 and 6 cylinder engines that can be dropped in by amateurs that will give Tiger-like or Tiger-beating performance, but any V8 requires serious skill, and likely a donor Tiger for the firewall.
I’ve said everytime one of these comes up, it’s a shame the Alpine always lived in the shadow of the Tiger. It should have been t’other way ’round. Most will admit, the V8 was too much. Sunbeam was a well respected make in England. Produced some really fancy cars. The Alpine was about as popular as the “Fairlady”, and could have been much bigger had it not been for its tire-smoking, poor handling, hotter than heck, wild riding cousin, the Tiger. Most, me included, wondered why a Shelby inspired, Chrysler owned British product, would have a Ford V8. I read, the 273 was considered, but was too tall for the compartment.
No change in the price, tells me no interest, even as a Tiger clone. When the Tiger came out, and we saw a couple, a rare Alpine sighting was quickly squelched upon seeing the Alpine and not Tiger. I suppose not much has changed.
Read Mike Taylor’s book on the Tiger. He puts to rest a lot of the disinformation about Tigers; poor handling, overheating, overpowered, Shelby’s involvement, etc.
I bought mine in 1970 from the original owner, who was marrying and needed a ‘practical’ car. I still drive it regularly, and it’s just as much fun as it was when I bought it.
Two sides of this. I have an Alpine and Tiger. My Tiger is mostly stock, and a gem. I agree with Pete on disinformation – as well as Tigers that have been overpowered with easy to get Ford go-fast parts. On the other hand, my Alpine has a modified Holbay engine with 125 hp. Had the Alpine come with that, or the Alfa option they were looking at, the Tiger never would have existed and it would be a totally different story.
I believe that the Tiger was done before Chrysler bought the Rootes Group.
I once heard that Shelby worked with Dean Moon on it at Moon’s shop. Don’t know the truth of that
Correct that Chrysler bought it. Chrysler was already a partial owner before Tiger came out. Correct that Shelby worked on putting a Ford V8 in it. Jack Brabham proposed it before Shelby worked on it. Rootes (Ian Gerrard) asked Shelby to build one. Shelby was taking too long. One of the guys in his shop, named Ken Miles, went home and built the first one that weekend. Shelby then got theirs done. The story goes that when they brought the Shelby one to England for Lord Rootes to try it out, he loved it – and then they found out he never took the parking brake off during his test drive!!
1/4 Whit on the battery terminal. Every car I worked on, up until the late’80s, if they had bolt on terminals they used whitworth. After about’88 13mm (8mm thread)
It is false that the car was designed by Howes to look like the Ford Thunderbird. Find the original design by Howes. It is not remotely Tbird. The Rootes family sadly adjusted it and brought in that resemblance. The original design was a round front, with a smaller grille, rounded headlight rims (not peaked forward), a more raked back windshield and a flow to the rear like a tear drop.
Key word in your response above is Partial Owner…… Chrysler took over FULL control in 1967 and almost immediately cancelled the Tiger
Agreed.
BUT….. Chrysler put out a brochere on the Tiger for 1967 and put that little Penestar down below on the right front fender……….
NOW we are talking. Looks solid enough in the photos, but I’d want to go over it with a paint thickness meter to make sure that’s metal under that paint and not well done bondo. If she proved to be original steel, this might be worth doing.
Not with a V8 in my case, but rather any number of the much hotter inline fours available these days. If you could find the 2.0 and six speed out of an S2000 and drop them in, you’d have quite the fun little driver and you’d probably lighten the front end in the process. Even a Miata motor would be a massive upgrade over what’s in it now.
A good friend of mine put an S2000 engine in his SV and it is a screamer. But, it certainly wasn’t a “drop in” and he is a professional mechanic who specializes in engine transplants. It still took him a while and he has been tweaking it for several years. He also put a Pinto motor into a SII and that has been modified and tuned to be very quick. There are some Japanese 4 bangers that seem to go in pretty easily but the closest thing to a higher performance drop in is the Ford 2.8 V6 and there is a kit available for that.
There you go. A small V6 would work too.
Coincidentally, I saw a Miata powered Alpine just yesterday on the internet. It was gorgeous.
Are the spark plugs missing? Or what goes on the right side of the engine?
Yup. Plug wires are missing anyway.
Looks like plugs are indeed missing. Sitting without the plugs suggests a locked up engine at this point
It does look like the spark plugs are missing. Regarding fasteners – I completed my Alpine restoration about 4 years ago. When I say I turned every fastener on that car, I mean it literally. The seat pivot mechanism has one Whitworth thread, slot head screw and one long coarse thread SAE. Other than a few miscellaneous sheet metal screw, everything else is SAE fine thread.
The Rootes Group, the weakest British vehicle msker, was ailing by the 1960’s. The lsrge investment that the company made in the new Hillman Imp, along with a new factory in Scotland to build it, put the company on the ropes.
Chrysler Corp bought an interest in the firm in 1964, and then a controlling interest in 1967.
The company shared the problem of BMC, inadequate capital to redesign aging products.
The Tiger was dropped when it was ascertained that the Chrysler 273 engine would not fit the Alpine body.
After 1967, neither car could be sold in the USA because of safety and emissions laws.
For 1971, Chrysler attempted to import the Hillman Avenger to the USA as the “Plymouth Cricket” poor build quality scuttled this effort after 1973
By 1976, UK government subsidies couldn’t save what was left of Rootes.
It was a sad end for a proud marque.