Throughout the TAC thread, questions appear to have been raised concerning the
value of, and
the need to, TAC Tigers, especially in light of the fact that "no other marques
do this":
1) I'm fairly familiar with hybrid cars from the sixties and seventies, and I
can't
recall any other high-performance variants of "standard" cars which were
virtually indistinguishable
from the standard model. All of them also modified the bodies, etc., in
addition to the larger engines.
2) Cars for which the high-performance parts needed to replicate the variant
(e.g., Shelby mustangs) are
readily available have their own version of "TAC'ing" to ensure that high
quality reproductions are not sold
as the real thing.
What does this mean?
IMHO, it all comes down to truth in advertising. If you want a V-8 Alpine,
swell. However, if you want a Tiger,
and are paying the premium for a Tiger, you should be able to have assurance
that you're getting a Tiger.
I guess we can thank/blame Lord Rootes for mandating that the Tiger maintain so
much in common
with the Alpine: It ensures that we have a "plentiful" supply of spare parts
(ever try finding a door for
an Iso or a TVR Tuscan?), but makes TAC'ing a necessary evil.
Thanks for the bandwidth.
David Horton
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