In a message dated 5/20/99 7:52:42 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
laifman@flash.net writes:
> I do believe that Bo has resurrected a treasure for us all to enjoy. As
> far as wheels are concerned, I am not certain how Ken originally
> presented the car, but most of us know that the production model did not
> offer the wire wheel option of the Alpine. The V-8 would rip the spokes
> from the rim, and strip the tiny spline in short order. Ken was a first
> class mechanic, car designer, and race driver. It is very possible for
> him to have made that decision, but not having seen pictures of the
> original, I don't know.
Back in Sept 1998, when there was a discussion on this list of the American
Racing "Silverstone" wheels as used on the Miles prototype, I posted a story
from Ian Garrard to the list (see Mark Olson's archives for the complete
thread). Published in the September 1977 issue of the STOA newsletter, Ian's
letter specifically stated that the car originally had wire wheels. Since
memories are obviously pretty short, here is the letter again:
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"This was the very first Tiger to hit the streets, i.e., the one prepared by
Ken Miles. My love for strong colors resulted in the candy apple red paint
job. Depending on the amount of sunlight, it seemed to change color several
times a day.
As you can see, we went to a lot of trouble to retain the Alpine
identification, even to a single tail pipe. Internally, the only give away
was a special Sun Tachometer, and the automatic transmission selector.
I put five thousand miles on this car in a little over two weeks, including
two days going up and down the hills in San Francisco, plus several blasts up
and down the coast between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The car started out with wire wheels, but we had to change to mags right
away, as the power ripped out the spokes on the stock Alpine wires.
Some of my fondest memories are the moments I wiped the smiles off the faces
of various Jag, Corvette and Healy 3000 owners--particularly as they could
see that I wasn't shifting gears because of the automatic. A great "Fun Car"
and a real traffic stopper in appearance."
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Dick Barker
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