Lou:
Interesting that you brought up Doane Spencer. I was reading the March
2001 issue of Classic and Sportscar magazine and there was an article
about Mr. Spencers's hot rod. The interesting thing to me was a sidebar
written by Julian Balme who talked about building a replica of the
Hollywood Motors tiger. He mentioned that in the early '90's he met Mr.
Spencer and got together with him about 4 times before Spencer's death.
I had always thought that Doane Spencer was pretty closemouthed about
the modifications he made to his cars (he probably was, at the time!:-))
but according to the author, he found Mr. Spencer very willing to
discuss the modifications to the cars he had built.
It may be that those modifications are well known today (if so, to
everyone but me:-). I don't know if there would be crossover information
from the tiger that would be useful to us alpiners or whether they spoke
of the Hollywood alpine during their tiger discussions, but perhaps the
author of the article would be willing to share what information he
collected. Haven't tried contacting him yet and I don't recall anyone on
the list ever mentioning talking to Doane Spencer about his wizardry
with Sunbeams, but it's a thought.
Regards
David Sosna
Louis & Laila wrote:
>
> I am not trying to take away anything from someone who gets out there and
> puts his car wheel to wheel with other cars, in fact, I worship them! Most
> people sit around and talk about what they are going to do, or have done,
> but there are few who actually do it! But, Eric is right on this one. He did
> preface his original statement by saying that a Tiger that had a tube frame
> with fiberglass fenders etc could keep up with the current comptetion.
> Having seen the car in question, I remember studying it for any factory
> original production part. I think there are about 10?
> Someone else brought up Doane Spencer, one of my true idols. Before he built
> the Tiger, he built one of the fastest Alpines of all time. They had more
> sucess with it than they did the Tiger.Here is a breakdown of the two cars
> in SCCA national standing "In the day":
> Alpine
> 1960 National Champion, G Production
> 1961 3rd Place National, E Production
> 1962 2nd Place National, E Production
> 1963 Tied for National Champion F Production
> 1964 National Champion F Production
>
> Tiger
> ( )
> Obviously, there are more types of racing involved that are worthy of
> mention, such as Rallies and drag racing. The Rally record is probably about
> equal with a slight edge for the Alpine since more cars were entered, but as
> far as the drag racing thing goes, the Tiger seems to have edged out the
> Alpine for a clear vicory, which goes back to the original statement that
> "If you want to go fast in a straight line."
> I think the true test of a cars ability to kick ass on the competition is
> the amount of private entries that you wouls find "back in the day". This is
> where sportscar enthusiasts pick out a car that they recognize has a serious
> chance at winning in its class, prepare it, and race it. As we are
> discovering, there were a shitload of people privately racing Alpines, one
> visit to Steve Silverstiens site can show the veracity of that, but I don't
> know that there were all that many Tigers raced, and all that I know of had
> factory support.
> In the end, I have 2 tigers, but when deciding on a car to prepare for
> vintage racing, I chose an Alpine simply because there is tremnedous
> potential (This is what the racers "back in the day did"). At the same time,
> I love the Tigers, and would keep them over any Alpine that I have. So it is
> a matter of personal preference, and certainly not grounds for any flames or
> caca slinging. To quote the standing icon of moral leadership, "Can't we all
> just get along?"
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> > In a message dated 3/5/1 1:12:13 AM, TIGEROOTES writes:
> >
> > <<Tell that to Tom Patton... SCCA GT-2 National Champion, Sunbeam
> Tiger>>
> >
> > Actually, Tom is one of my heroes. He exemplifies what SCCA Club racing
> > should be about. He got royally screwed at tech at last years runoffs. He
> has
> > repesented a Marque that is dead with the highest levels of loyalty and
> > dedication. AND whooped the factory asses to boot. I ran Barry out of
> > T-Shirts when they were last available.
> >
> > The argument centered around whether the lowly Alpine was capable of
> whoopin'
> > ass on the track. It has digresssed to insults to it's heritage. ( Which
> is
> > odd seeing the Tiger came from the same place.) Let's remember when
> slinging
> > shit at the Alpines, that in their day, they did whoop ass against the
> other
> > LBCs.
> >
> > As always happens when people want to start an argument on the list,
> someone
> > takes a potshot and it escalates.
> >
> > My points stand as stated irregardless of potshots, facts are facts.
> >
> > ZAG
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