The Sunbeam Tiger is one of those classic muscle cars that seems to hover between being a consistently pricey acquisition or being fairly cheap to buy when it’s found in project car form (at least relative to how much a restored example costs.) That’s why buying one that’s been wrecked could be appealing to a collector who doesn’t have the desire to pony up $40,000 or better for a restored car, but you’ll want to make sure you’re not going to quickly end up at the same price point once you get into the repairs. This Tiger is listed here on eBay in Connecticut where bidding is just over $8,000 with the reserve unmet.
The Tiger checks all of the boxes as it relates to being a desirable collector car. Limited production; good power and speed; a Carroll Shelby connection; and good looks, by most accounts. When it was new, the Tiger was quite quick by the performance standards of the day and proved quite popular with drivers who took their cars to the track. The Tiger bears a strong resemblance to its under-powered sibling, the Sunbeam Alpine, but the Tiger is a completely different animal. Provenance is huge with these cars, and the seller indicates it retains its original drivetrain.
The listing claims that it’s all there, from the 4-speed top loader transmission and 260 V8 to the Dana rear end and OEM ignition key. The damage to the nose looks fairly manageable to repair, but we can’t clearly see if the impact pushed into the fan shroud or rad support. There’s no mention of the engine still turning over by hand or the transmission going through the gears, but one can hope that its 30 years off the road has prevented the drivetrain from being abused in the same way a car that’s been used consistently since 1965 might have been. From this perspective, the engine bay does not appear to be heavily compromised.
The interior is also in decent shape, and I’m guessing wherever this Tiger ended up after its collision was indoors considering the top isn’t immediately visible but the cabin isn’t full of leaves and water. The listing notes that the next owner will have to repair or replace the fenders, rockers, and front valence, and make some rear quarter panel patches. Overall, that doesn’t seem too bad, but we don’t know if the floor panels are also trashed. What do you think – is it worth over $10,000 to buy a wrecked Tiger and attempt to bring it back to life?
Love these I passed a guy last week coming in to work in Greenville driving a black over white one. He was not shy about whipping that pony from stop light to stop light sweet ride
Tigers had a reputation for poor brakes, the front end looks like it…..
I have a 64mk1A Tiger. The best part of these cars is that like the Pantera, improvements to drivability doesn’t hurt the value of nicely done cars. Most people chuck the servo booster, improve the cooling systems and go crazy with the small block ford. Very cheap to keep on the road and fun to drive.
Another car that the speculators have sent to unobtainaville. If you are good with bodywork, this could be a decent buy.
With a 0-60 of 9 seconds and a top speed of 125 mph, a 260 Tiger with its 164 horsepower wasn’t really all that quick…even in its day. V-8 and Shelby connection or not, it was only evenly matched with a two litre Porsche 911 and slower than a Series I E Type Jaguar.
Putting in high performance parts to make the car quicker (I see a four barrel on this one, which should be a two), while irresistible to many, only makes for a dangerous car. A small sports car is NOT some big traditional fifties or sixties American land boat that can have all sorts of different engines “dropped” into it. As pointed out by Will above, the brakes were already poor to begin with, as those small Alpine wheels and the small Alpine wheelarch design didn’t leave much room for big brakes. The Alpine chassis could only be strengthened so much…and so on. Why do you think Carroll Shelby didn’t put in a higher output version of the 260 and later the 289?
I recently saw a 289 Tiger for sale with a 225 thousand dollar asking price. A BIT steep…even if only just over half a thousand were built. They look much like a Mk IV Alpine and while not ugly, are not the best looking sports cars of their era.
That is a 2 barrel carb.
Sounds like someone needs a 1960s TVR Griffith
I had a Griffith 200, number 36. I sm amazed more people don’t remember them.
Your negativity is wrong on several points. I owned a dead stock ’65 – except for KONIs. It handled plenty well enough, never had a stopping problem, and was a rip – every time I drove it, which was always fast. The small size and wheelbase amplified the feeling of speed. I had very few problems with it over about a 3 yr. period as my daily driver. Of the TR8, Renault R5 Turbo II and Pantera I had later, the Tiger is the one I would most like to have back.
I had a friend who bought one in the early ’80’s
in the Los Angeles area.I thought it was pretty cool
because it was fairly rough,& was Black.
I’ve never been in a car that went up & sideways
at the same time, when he punched it.
I was also not too impressed when I went to put on
my seat belt,& noticed that it wasn’t attached to the car!
The Alpine/Tiger is much roomier than my run of MGs and Triumphs. Was always impressed with the cars.
There was one poor dark blue Tiger parked at the side of a house. From 1972 to 1975 I watched it sink into the ground. In 1976 I got my drivers license and went up to the door. The fellow was an older man who bought it new and was going to restore it one day. He passed away some years later and the car went to the scrap yard. He seemed like a nice fellow and think his family would have liked to have seen his prize Tiger running around the neighborhood.
Not a muscle car by any stretch of the imagination. Not big enough by far to even be considered an intermediate sized car.
My buddy up the street has both a white Tiger and a mint green Alpine in his garage. Both fun cars. He always has a smile on his face.
To John Newell so u r saying only an intermediate car can be a muscle car? Hmm So the mustangs Camaros firebirds dusters cudas cobras are all not muscle cars? When I was in high school in the 70’s we sure thought they were!!!🤷🏻
To RMac: what I think John is saying is that an “intermediate”-sized car, by traditional American standards, is essentially a “pony car”. That would be a two door, medium-sized car with proper seats in the back, such as a Mustang, a Camaro, a Firebird and a Barracuda. A “muscle car” traditionally used to be one of these medium-sized, two door cars, but with a high performance engine (a “hot” small-block or a thundering big block). Sunbeam Alpine/Tigers, Shelby AC Cobras, E Type Jaguar roadsters/coupes, MGBs, TR-Triumphs, etc, were true sports cars and not referred to as “muscle cars”. Just a different classification.
$10,300 now with reserve still not met, 7 hours to go.
My Tiger with its hypo 289, willwood brakes, konis and Ansa exhaust has no problem opening the eyes of youngsters with their fast modern cars. I only have one gripe with the car and that is the design of the soft top. Its like erecting a micro circus tent with poles. My older 1960 Fiat cabriolet already had the simple two latch release and flip it back top design that worked the same way for all Italian cars for decades to come. Somehow Sunbeam had some overzealous engineers that decided to overcomplicate the design. But here in AZ i never have it up anyway.
i owned quite a few in my life both 260/289/and a 302 automatic(that was terrible and to quick for the brakes and never in the right gear),,i love these cars thats why i had so many. after i put in a Ron Davies radiator it cured the overheating problem of my 289 hi-po car and then it was a blast to drive on the English country roads, actually a little frightening when you gave it the full beans on the corners even though it had 6& 7 inch wheels and tyres and LSD,but great fun but alas the fun went out of it when the wrong people came aboard you know who i mean the investor,also i got old so went for a jensen interceptor convertible same fun just a little more relaxed and a better sounding lump of pig iron,
Sorry to say this will go the alpine re-shell route as this will cost a fortune to fix as it needs everything to be rebuilt,Body,trim,running gear and probably 2 years to get it back on the road,that’s why its been left in a garage,take it from someone who has been there the pain get horrendous when the bills start coming in and those little curved balls that you then have to lie to her indoors that it will be worth it in the end, you are probably better off buying a good tiger for 40000,the rule is always buy the best shell you can afford as these are not easy to fix as no factory body panels exist and that rust will be everywhere.GLWTS but please take off those rosy coloured specs!!!
As most know, you just can’t take a alpine and transfer the tiger drivetrain in.There where a lot of mods that had to be done ,to fit that ford motor in.
correct lots of mods needs to be done but a lot easier that trying to fix that mess and many a tiger has been made this way,sometimes to make money sometimes for economics after all jensen did the alpine to tiger conversion and when you inspect the welding oh my its shocking!!! and with new technology you can make 10x a better job,
With a 20,000 by it now, you know the reserve is19,500. Decrnt car but needeing 6000 worth of front end snd labor, of you csn find the parts. Plus another 20,000 to make it sellsble. You would have 45000 in a 40000 car if you are lucky
Having restored a number of these mongrel critters, I can say “For deep pockets only”! Better to find a sweet driver that’s ready to enjoy without all the surprise wallet bleeding. Just sayin’
Dont even bring up a Griffith , even a Cobra runs from them !!!!!!!!!!!!!
The final bid on this is just about what it’s worth. 12k. People who haven’t done an Alpine or Tiger restoration think their rusted, crashed and beaten old Sunbeam is worth alllllll the money. If it’s gonna sell, it’s not gonna be more than 15k in this shape. I like a challenge as much as the next guy, but I hate losing money on a project that bleeds my bank account and goes on for ever.
Ended $12,585 reserve not met.
that was all the money and he should have bit the bidders hand off, what was he expecting those days are gone for big money for wrecks,restoration cost have gone through the roof and like i say just getting this body and into paint would be 20-30000 rust is a killer on rebuilds so time consuming by a professional body man,
https://classiccars.com/listings/view/1509618/1966-sunbeam-tiger-for-sale-in-beverly-hills-california-90210 i was offered 2 tigers a while back both in the 30-40000
Unsafe at any speed! A friend had one, and changing lanes on the highway with just a little too much throttle we almost spun. A scary moment.
TVR Griffith 4.7 now there is a car and probably the best out the lot,i managed to have a go in quite a few,the v8 the v6 and the 2.5 triumph engine,the v8 was unbelievably quick neck snapping in fact,handles like a go cart and the breks were not too bad ,but after 40 minutes i was cooked down one side the heat inside was unbearable and i did see one with a fuel leak and poof it was burnt to the ground in less than 4 minutes!!and the prices have gone well north of 80000,fit and finish are not the best like all plastic kit cars but and an engine and box to die for