For all of you that think a National Sunbeam Club is a great new idea, a
little history might be in order:
In the early 70's STOA routinely published it's newsletter with stories and
articles from several area's of the USA and beyond. The predominant input
came from the Ohio area and most regional groups were very active in
autocross activities. STOA was attempting to create a national newsletter
for distribution through affiliation of the various geographic groups
whereby each geographic group would receive the national edition in bulk,
add a page or so of local interest and mail to their local membership.
STOA invited active Tiger owners to attend our meetings and events from all
area's whenever they were in our vicinity. One of the early organizers on
the East Coast attended an STOA meeting in March 1976 and went home all
fired up and ready to get his local area going and affiliated . By August
STOA had developed and announced a formal program of "affiliation" we began
to sign up various geographical groups. TE/AE became the first group to
decide that affiliation was not in their best interest. Financial support
and interest in the affiliation program generally diminished from that point.
In 1978 the clubs tried again and met at Tigers United V in Redding,
CA. Representatives from the four major clubs signed an agreement to form
the Sunbeam Tiger Alpine Council (STAC). This effort also had a short
history and was soon forgotten. No one I know of, has tried to tie the
various groups and clubs together on a formal basis since that time save
STOA's efforts to write the Tigers United Guidelines.
The primary difference between the Sunbeam groups and the Shelby
organization is that SAAC is a for profit corporation with lots and lots of
members of means. It may or may not have started out on that path way back
in Oakland, CA, but that's what it is today. They've also enjoyed an
early head start in the value of their cars and the visibility of a world
racing championship. Should the LeMans Tigers have been more successful,
It might have been a different story, and maybe Ian Garrad would get the
recognition he so justly deserves. I fully support the concept of a
national group, but I have no idea how to make it happen. It's a good
thing that subscription to this list is free, otherwise it wouldn't have
much content.
Tom
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