Well said.
Fact is, there are a bunch of things Ian and Rootes would have done with
the Tiger, if the budget allowed, to make it a better driver. Unfortunately,
the intended development of the Tiger never happened, as Rootes was
gaining speed on their economic downslide coincident with the Tiger's short
production run.
Stock Tigers are nice to look at, but if you have any interest in actually
driving the car, they are extremely flawed and frustrating. But, that isn't
to say that I can't appreciate a concours correct Tiger...I just wouldn't
have any interest in driving the car...and I'm a driver :-)
Mike
In a message dated 1/29/2012 9:35:22 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
modtiger@comcast.net writes:
You know, its a real shame that Ian Garrad didnt live longer and allow
more current owners to meet and understand his personal perspective. Ian
created this car in order to make Sunbeams more competitive on the race
track so that he could bring knowledge of the cars to a wider audience
and sell more Sunbeams. This son of the Rootes Competition Director knew
this was his mission. He also wanted to sell more LAT options, which
were developed to make the Tiger more competitive and change them from
the as manufactured basis. They were produced to be modified from the
factory specifications with a wide range of these LAT options sold
through the retail dealers.
He embraced these changes and modifications and others. At our early
Tiger meets, he thoroughly enjoyed seeing what the owners had done to
their Tigers with their own creativity. He also really liked the Jaguar
XJ6 sedan I built in the late 70's with a 351 Winsor, C6. We even
discussed taking it back to England to the Jaguar people to show them
what level of performance was possible with the Ford engine and
transmission transplanted. It never happened, but he saw the potential
performance opportunity 10 years after hed been pushed out of the
automotive industry.
Those of you that never had the chance to meet and know Ian, dont
really fully understand this Marques history of embracing change.
--
Tom Hall
ModTiger Engineering LLC
www.tigerengineering.net
_______________________________________________
tigers@autox.team.net
Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
Forums: http://www.team.net/forums
Unsubscribe:
http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/tigers/mwood24020@aol.com
_______________________________________________
tigers@autox.team.net
Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
Forums: http://www.team.net/forums
|