Steve, Ray,
For those interested in this part of the Tiger's history, here's a brief
(well, maybe not so brief) summary of Friedman's book, Chapter 2, "The
Sunbeam Tiger". Friedman was the official Shelby American photographer from
1962 to 1967. He was also our banquet speaker at the 1998 Tigers United in
Big Bear (my plaque says TU XIII, but it was really TU XXIII). During Dave's
talk he raised more than a few eyebrows with his adamant assertion that
Shelby American was only involved with one Tiger, the #45 race car, and not
any "prototype".
In Chapter 2 Friedman writes: "Garrad wanted Shelby to build two prototypes,
one for the street and one for the track, but the time frame was too narrow
for Shelby to handle the construction of both cars. Although Ken Miles
worked for Shelby American at the time, he had a small workshop of his own
where he did some outside work. Miles was given the task of building the
first Sunbeam Tiger street car and Shelby built the first race car. After
much modification, the first race car made its debut at the SCCA divisional
race run at Tucson in early April 1964. The driver was the very capable Lew
Spencer, who had years of experience racing production sports cars. His
performance at Tucson proved that the Tiger had possibilities but that a lot
of work was needed to make the car a winner. The biggest problem with the
Tiger was that it tended to swap ends without warning at the most
inopportune times. This, of course, did little for the driver's confidence
in the car. The problem - never cured by the Shelby crew - was likely caused
by too much horsepower installed in a too-short chassis."
Mike Taylor in his book writes: "In March 1963 a Mk II Alpine was delivered
to the Miles workshop and work began." At the same time, Ian Garrad had
independently commissioned Shelby American to build a prototype for $10,000,
which he said would be ready in "about eight weeks' time". It was the eight
week schedule that prompted Ian to have Ken build a second prototype.
Apparently, during these same eight weeks, Mr. Friedman was out of the
Shelby American shop. Also, it's a long time from May 1963 to April 1964,
which coincides with both the Tucson SCCA race and the start of production
of the Jensen Tigers. Thus, Friedman must be presumed wrong on this point
and the #45 race car was really the second Tiger developed by Shelby
American. According to Mike Taylor, "In March, 1964, the prototype vehicle
AF3 was flown over from Coventry to Shelby's workshop in California where a
tuned 260 cu in (4.2 litre) engine was installed." And, "Later, in the
Pacific Coast Divisional Championships at Willow Springs, Lew Spencer made
history by being the first man to win a race in a Sunbeam Tiger, finishing
12 seconds in front of his nearest rival who was driving an E-type Jaguar.
In September of the same year, Lew drove the Tiger in the 200 mile National
Sports Car Race at Elkhart Lake, where he finished second overall and first
in class. Lew Spencer recalls, 'Apart from the cooling problems, the Tiger
was always a little frightening to drive on a race track because of its
short wheelbase.'" (Hey, Lew! Driven any Porches lately?)
According to Friedman, at the SCCA B Production race at Laguna Seca in May
1964, Lew Spencer lost control of #45 on the high speed approach to turn 2
and came to rest on the dirt hill below the spectator area. Friedman says
this was just one in a series of off-track shunts that convinced Lew to give
up on the Tiger. The #45 car was later sold to Sports Car Forum's Don
Sesslar in Ohio and rebodied as #74. It is interesting that the picture of
Lew and the shunted #45 car shows no serious damage to the right front
wheel and sheet metal, whereas the picture in Norm's book shows extensive
damage in this area, so this obviously wasn't the last race for #45. If Lew
last raced #45 at Elkhart in September 1964, that doesn't leave much time
for the wreck that Norm's picture documents (at Kent, Washington race?) or
the sale and rebodied by SCF and its first race, according to Friedman, in
September. Again, it appears that Friedman must have his facts wrong.
Friedman says that Ken Miles first drove the #74 nee #45 Tiger at the Badger
300 at Road America in September of 1964, where he won the B Production
class and finished second overall to Dan Gerber's Cobra (not bad for "too
much horsepower installed in a too-short chassis").
In any case, after the generally disappointing showing for the 1964 season,
Ian decided to turn the Tiger race effort over to Doane Spencer at Hollywood
Sports Cars and the rest, as they say, is history. BTW, Doane's 260 with a
two-barrel carburetor put out 349 bhp!
Bob
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