When it came to taking small British sports cars, shoe-horning a growling V8 under the hood, and producing a car that was capable of scaring your average motorist silly, there is little doubt that Carol Shelby was a master at the art. The AC Cobra was a perfect example of his craft, and so was the Sunbeam Tiger. Although Shelby had hoped to be contracted to build the Tiger for Sunbeam, this task was undertaken by Jensen, and the result was a pretty special and potent little car. Today, the Tiger is experiencing ongoing popularity amongst classic car enthusiasts, and this has seen the car maintain a healthy market value. Bidding on this example has been quite solid, and while it has reached $28,650, it’s no real surprise that the reserve has not been met. Located in Stilwell, Kansas, you will find the Tiger listed for sale here on eBay.

The Carnival Red paint on the Tiger looks quite good, although the owner does describe it as driver quality. The car has undergone a repaint at some point in its life, and the passenger side quarter panel has also been replaced. The only obvious rust in the car is a few small spots right in the bottom of that same quarter panel. The underside of the car has a fairly consistent coating of surface corrosion, but there doesn’t appear to be any real rot there. Due to the intrinsic value of this car, I’d probably want to address that before it had a chance to deteriorate any further. The car comes with both a soft-top and a hardtop, and it’s quite nice to see that it still wears its original wheels, hubcaps, and wheel trims. Too often these are replaced with aftermarket allow wheels.

Opening the hood reveals what all of the fuss was about with the Tiger. The original 4-cylinder Sunbeam engine was relegated to the bin, as a 260ci Ford V8 engine and Ford 4-speed manual transmission were installed in their place. The V8 was only marginally longer than the engine it replaced but was considerably wider, and it really was a tight fit with no space to spare. Suddenly, the car went from boasting 82hp up to 164hp, while some additional parts could be sourced from Shelby which elevated it to 240hp. However, this wasn’t just an Alpine with a V8 under the hood, as a significant amount of engineering went into ensuring the car could cope, with items like the steering upgraded from recirculating ball to rack and pinion, suspension upgrades, and upgrades to the body and frame. This Tiger looks like it is completely original under the hood, and it has recently been treated to a full service, a new exhaust, new brakes, and new shocks.

The interior of the Tiger could certainly be used as it is, but if this were my car, there are a few items and issues that I would be addressing. The seats and door trims look to be in good order and probably don’t need to be touched. The carpet appears to be quite faded and may need to be replaced. The timber veneer or the finish on the dash looks like it is peeling, and that will take specialist work to address, while the dash pad is also cracked. It isn’t the end of the world though, because replacement components are actually quite readily available.

The Sunbeam Tiger is an attractive looking little British sports car, but the wow factor for one of these is to get behind the wheel and floor the loud pedal. Doing that unleashed the real Tiger, and allowed it to sprint from 0-60mph in around 8 seconds. It is also a car that is incredibly civilized and versatile when driven normally, and it was this Jekyll and Hyde personality that has made it a hot commodity with collectors. Good examples will sell for around the $45,000 mark, while pristine examples can fetch figures in excess of $70,000. I’ll be interested to see what the final sale price is on this one, and I’d love to see a Barn Finds reader make the winning bid.