Most liked posts in thread: My ride for the day..

Old stuff fills my garage up nicely..

 

Almost to the end of my list..
This is a 1966 Sunbeam Tiger.

The owner only had this car a year or so, but I got to drive it a good amount. There were some electrical and other issues during the sorting out time. This is the car everyone admires. This particular car had a replacement Mustang engine and was very fast and powerful.
It is loafing along at highway speeds with it's replacement 5-speed transmission. The V8 rumble at idle sounded like a cross between a race car and an old pickup truck. At cruising speeds it had a more ordinary sound which was a bit disappointing for me.

This car always ran on the hot side (Tigers were notorious for poor cooling) and would overhead/start spewing coolant on hotter days or sitting idle for too long. there was also a lot of heat that transferred to the passenger compartment. Steering was also much heavier and less communicative than on the Alpine. The extra engine weight made it a more front heavy car affecting the overall balance and handling.

All in all, a super fun car, especially when accelerating.. It always gets lots of admiration, but with the extra heat, steering and balance issues, I personally like the Alpine much better for local around town driving.




Here is a link to a short acceleration run

Sunbeam Tiger by Ernesto Vumbles, on Flickr

and a link to the Tiger at idle

Sunbeam Tiger V8 rumble by Ernesto Vumbles, on Flickr

 

My 1963 Sunbeam Alpine is back on the road after almost 3 months of dealing with clutch related issues.

Not sure on the order of what caused what, but the throw-out bearing was worn down to metal, the pressure plate was chewed up and the clutch was still ok, but very close to the end of it's serviceable life. Clutch master and slave cylinders were also not in great shape.

It took me a while to diagnose what was wrong and then schedule a time to get the car to a friend who does side work on British cars from his home, and then get the car transported the 50 miles to his place. Ordered up a new clutch, pressure plate and throwout bearing.

We had a bunch of difficulty because parts that were on the car had been converted to a different size clutch, so I also needed to procure a used flywheel to match the original size new components and get it machined/cleaned up (no longer available new). A new clutch slave got the car drivable, but after about 20 minutes when things got warm it would not go into gear when the engine was running. A new clutch master is not currently available new, and my attempt at rebuilding did not go well.
We are able to adapt a slightly different sized Triumph TR6 master and new line piping to finally get everything working.

Nice to get the car back.. I put the Hardtop on for the first time in 4 years.. I like the look, but enjoy having an open top more, so it wont stay on long.