In Woodland Hills, Caifornia today, I was just ready to pull away from
the curb in my Tiger when a red (with a white stock hard top, in very
good condition) Series IV Alpine stopped to talk. The car needs a paint
job (coming soon) but the body and interior (dash is stock and in very
good shape, as is most of the interior except for the different shifter
from a 5 speed) are in excellent shape. The only exterior non stock bits
are LAT70 (Tiger mags) type spinners on the hubs of all four otherwise
stock Alpine/Tiger steel wheels, without their "beauty???" rings. The
surprise is under the hood. The owner, Tony T., has installed a Toyota
Celica 2.5 litre engine and 5 speed. He did the work himself and it is a
very clean installation that looks pretty much like that engine should
have been in there in the first place. He's upgraded the radiator so it
runs cool, among other changes. The next change will be a different
differential as, even with the 5 speed, he says it revs way too high on
the freeway (4,000+ RPM at 65). I forget what my now-ex Series V ran at
before the overdrive went in. The car originally had a stock 4 speed and
1600 engine before the motor blew up so he probably has 3:89s, or maybe
4:22s with those RPMs. I've arranged for a CAT membership packet to be
sent to him.
The car was his wife's every day driver for years, but sat in a garage
for the last 4 until Tony decided to drive it himself and decided it
needed more power. He said it feels very quick to him since the
transplant and is much faster than with the stock motor.
Bruce Davis, if you're reading this, send me an e-mail and I'll forward
his address so you can send an Alpine club sign up for him too.
Steve Sage
Tiger MK1A
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