- This topic has 1 reply, 2 voices, and was last updated January 15, 2006 at 1:22 am by
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Hi,
I’ve looked at your website a few times and thought I might join the fold. A long time has passed since I’ve had any association with Rootes products. In 1961, I purchased my very first brand new car. A 1961 Sunbeam Alpine (Black with a red int.); it had the newer 1.5L engine and the k/o wire wheels. I ordered the car from Rootes Motors on Park Ave. in New York City in the late winter of 1960. I believe the car was delivered to me in around April of that year. I (easily) taught myself to drive a stick shift on that car! I had a lot of happy times with that sportscar. Where it is, or if it exists — I don’t know. The only momento I have left is an old black and white photo.
Then, I believe, I traded the car (with Rootes) and ordered a 1965 Sunbeam Tiger (delivered around March 1965). It was BRG with a black int., supposedly the first one to arrive in the U.S. with the walnut dash. I do remember a little bit more about that car. I had Rootes Motors Service dept. in Long Island City, NY, install traction masters and seat belts (they were quite novel back then). The next thing I added was the factory “mag” wheels, the type that had a “Tiger logo” on the center cap (that cap was cast on the wheel, and not removable from the wheel which caused lots of aggrevation due to all the flats I always seem to get) and tubes were required in the tires when mounted on the wheels. I installed a 4 barrel Holly carb (we had to notch the metal in the area near where the bonnet latch is, in order to make clearence). The last thing I had installed was the Spicer “posi” rear end. I think I still have the old wheel covers that the Tiger came with(?). I believe I sold the car in the summer of 1966 while waiting to order a 1967 Shelby GT500, also dark green car. And, from what I see on the Barrett-Jackson auctions, the prices of those cars make a grown man cry, lol.
Cheers, and glad to see Alpines and Tigers are still enjoyed and loved.
Rampante -
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