Since I didn't know Ian Garrad until Dick Wheatly introduced us in
1971, I can only tell you what I know of the situation from discussions at
that time. By that time, I had been communicating with Dick for about a
year about LAT Options and SCCA Homologation. Mr Wheatly was the only
contact I could find that was familiar with Tiger Production and
distribution. We, STOA, were up to our ears in negotiations with the SF
Region of SCCA in support of Tiger Owner/Members that were autocrossing
locally at that time.
Dick was one of Ian's point men in the development of the whole series of
LAT options while he was an employee of International Automobiles (Ian's
West Coast Rootes Group Sunbeam Distributorship). I do know that Ian had
Sunbeam Factory Authorization to develop these options and they were
developed for two very good reasons. First they helped the cars go fast on
race day which helped sell cars big time in that era. Essentially anything
that Doane Spencer developed for racing application was given an LAT number
and some quantity of these items were produced and put into
"inventory". This "inventory" was primarily for SCCA Homologation
purposes, so the material in inventory might or might not have been the
same as Doane's functioning hardware, but it "looked" like it. If you knew
the right people (most likely Shelby, International Automobile, or
Hollywood Sports Car employees) you could have Special Ordered a Tiger and
had those parts installed by someone in that chain prior to having the car
delivered to the dealership. I'll be the first to admit that this was not
a common situation and the vast majority of the cars were sent to the
dealers as received from England, but that gets us to the second reason for
the LAT Option development.
The Tiger was not particularly profitable as it was produced in
basic form. The LAT Options list was another way for International
Automobiles and the retail dealers to share in the sale of options which
enhanced the profitability of their operations. This was of paramount
importance to Ian, the CEO of the West Coast Sunbeam Distributorship,
International Automobiles, who knew that his parent company was in a
desperate financial situation. You have to give them credit for at least
attempting to meet all of these potentially conflicting situations. By mid
1966 their efforts proved insufficient and Chrysler Corporation assumed
management control of the Rootes Group in an attempt to control the
continued corporate losses of their subsidiary . In the process, they
managed to flush the whole of International Automobiles personnel from the
remaining operation. In doing so, they also created a situation where most
of the "documentation" was "lost". All we have is a few random letters and
copies of "stuff". Some of us have special memories for those who tried to
make it happen.
Tom
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