My "first" actually belongs to sombody else.

[cleandan]

I was introduced to this world in 1966 so I can not tell stories of my showroom new Sunbeam, but I new a guy…One of my dads very best friends purchased a 1966 Mk1A tiger, red of course, new from the dealer that year. As a kid I remember visiting them (they had kids about the same age as me and my sisters), not to mention the friendship between dad and the Tiger owner since they were kids. Well as time went by I saw the car ocasionally when dad and his buddy would get together and I always thought it was some sort of super exotic car because I NEVER saw another car like it, let alone one with a V8 in it. Life went on and I grew up, or at least grew older. I joined the Navy and played Submariner for five years. While on the Sub I read many articles and magazines and this is when I actually learned what the car was. When I got out of the Navy I started to work on my dads friend in an effort to purchase his Tiger. Here and there I would ask about the Tiger and I never received a hard “NO” as well as never receiveing a yes either, it was always some sort of “maybe”…so I kept working on him. 13 years later we were talking about the Tiger and he finally said that he would not sell the car. He said, “I’ve had it so long that it is like a part of the family now” A couple weeks later a Tiger became available in my local area. So I called my dads friend and we went to go look at it…and I have owned it for almost two years now. It is a MK1A Tiger that needs attention and refurbishing and it has also been modified from original with a HI-PO 289, Mini-Lite 15″ wheels, and a roll bar, otherwise it is factory equipped and looks 39 years old. I have collected quite an array of parts for the work that is needed and someday this Tiger may actually be very nice…but I really like the car just the same. This one will continue to get modified to suit my current wants (a mechanically hot rodded, but mostly stock appearing Tiger) with cosmetic mods that were available when the car was new, like my Moto-Lita steering wheel. I still bug the guy about his Tiger and hope that he will sell it to me some day. If I do get my hands on this particular Tiger I will refurbish it back to stock, as delivered, condition. With the exception of a 4bbl intake, aftermarket mags, and some rally timing equipment it is still in stock original condition…heck, the hard top has NEVER even been on the car since new and it is quite presentable 39 years later.