When I first read Steve Laifman's "humorous" post on April Fool's day, I
didn't know if it was a joke or what. It did, however, get me to wondering
exactly which Le Mans Tiger is was that "Jack" inherited. After doing a little
research and a lot of pondering I still don't have the answer, but here are
some of the thoughts that occurred to me:
Right after the embarassment of the 1964 Le Mans race, Rootes quietly stashed
all three of the Le Mans Tigers for a while. ADU180B was loaned to Rootes
employee Bernard Unett who raced the car privately for a year, and his
impressive success during that time is well documented. ADU179B was sold off
and raced in England for a couple of seasons by both Alan Rhodes and Bill
Chapman before it was purchased by Austrailian driver Jim Abbott. And last
year at Tigers United, Ian Hall (Tiger rally driver and navigator, and
Assistant Director of the Rootes Competition Dept.) told me that before 7734KV
was sold off, he occasionally used the car for personal transportation, and
even raced it himself a few times in British club events.
Now it seems logical that if some farmhouse widow somehow ended up with one of
the Le Mans Tigers, she would have kept it in her barn. But "Jack" and "Bob"
probably would have seen it there, because that's where they slept. At least
Jack did. Yet history tells us that when Bernard Unett had ADU180B he kept the
car in his chicken shed, not his barn. And since Mr. Unett is still with us
today, the attractive lady could not have been his widow. Thus the car Jack
inherited probably was not ADU180B.
ADU179B was sold in 1965 for 1450 pounds Sterling (in those days the pound was
worth about $3.50), and was soon shipped to Austrailia. Here it spent many
years and had many owners, so unless Bob and Jack were going skiing somewhere
in the outback, it is unlikely that this whole scenario took place in
Austrailia. Besides, Austrailian women are reportedly very
gregarious--especially widows--and couldn't care less about what their
neighbors think. Conclusion: the car in question probably was not ADU179B.
This leaves 7743KV. One of it's early owners was Jack Alderslade, a well-
known British race driver in the 1960's, who painted the car Cobra blue with
white racing stripes and continued to race the car in England. Whether or not
Jack bought the car or inherited it from some widow is not known, but it is
very likely that he did have a good friend named Bob. I also have it on good
authority that 7734KV was, in fact, stored for nearly 3 years in a barn (in
Texas), but that was in the mid-70's, well after Jack's time. So maybe this
was Steve's "Jack", but What About Bob?
My name is not Bob, although people often think it is. Or they ask, "Oh, are
you related to Bob Barker of the 'Price Is Right?' In England, Barker is a
very common and very proper name. And as it happens, I do have some British
friends named Jack. However, I did not inherit 7734KV from anybody named Jack
or Bob, although when I acquired it from England 25 years ago the price was
right.
Actually, it was that rascal Tom Ballou down in Texas that convinced me to buy
the English pig-in-a-poke instead of a 260 Cobra I had my eye on (but that is
another story.) And a US importer name Harry helped get the car through
customs and all that. Thus, instead of 7734KV going to Jack or Bob or some
other bloke in England, it eventually went to some Tom, Dick or Harry in the
USA. So how could it be the car referred to in the joke?
Even though Steve's story was somewhat humorous, it's Tiger content was
flawed. There was just something about the ending that was totally at odds
with the record as it has been presented to us by David and Norman and other
Tiger historians. I, for one, was confused by the lack of archival
correctness, and can only wonder if the car that "Jack" allegedly inherited
could possibly have been the Harrington Tiger, or perhaps a Le Mans Alpine?
Unless Steve or someone else can straighten this out, perhaps we'll never
know. And that would not be funny!
Dick "No-Relation-to-Bob" Barker
|