tigers
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: LAT Options and this horse isn't dead yet?

To: "Tom Hall" <modtiger@attbi.com>
Subject: Re: LAT Options and this horse isn't dead yet?
From: "Tim Jordan" <tjordan@wagnerprocess.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2002 16:51:49 -0800
Tom, Tigers,

1) So, let me see if I have this right.  Wheatly might not have been
English, as detailed on Laifman's, self-proclaimed Rosetta creation:

>R. G. Wheatley was the head of the Sunbeam Tiger Division of Rootes, in
>England, and was promoting glorious goodies, through the American I.A.I.
>importer, for the discriminating, and performance oriented Tiger owner to
>achieve "explosive acceleration", at speeds "well above the average "big
car".

2) Ian wasn't above telling a fib here and there,

>"'looked' like functioning hardware..." .

3) No one has yet tendered a window sticker exhibit to support the claim
for "factory" installed LAT options.

4) All the real supporting documentation has been "lost".


I was away from a computer since last Thursday and was surprised that the
discussion on LAT Options-CONCLUDED had actually concluded
Seems to me that this "horse" could stand some more blows before she's dead
and history is rewriten!

On a side note, I guess we will never know the Thermal Efficiency Index
Formula?

Tim
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Hall" <modtiger@attbi.com>
To: "Tiger News Group" <tigers@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 5:24 PM
Subject: LAT Options


>          Since I didn't know Ian Garrad until Dick Wheatly introduced us
in
> 1971, I can only tell you what I know of the situation from discussions at
> that time.  By that time, I had been communicating with Dick for about a
> year about LAT Options and SCCA Homologation.  Mr Wheatly was the only
> contact I could find that was familiar with Tiger Production and
> distribution.  We, STOA, were up to our ears in negotiations with the SF
> Region of SCCA in support of Tiger Owner/Members that were autocrossing
> locally at that time.
>
>   Dick was one of Ian's point men in the development of the whole series
of
> LAT options while he was an employee of International Automobiles (Ian's
> West Coast Rootes Group Sunbeam Distributorship).  I do know that Ian had
> Sunbeam Factory Authorization to develop these options and they were
> developed for two very good reasons.  First they helped the cars go fast
on
> race day which helped sell cars big time in that era.  Essentially
anything
> that Doane Spencer developed for racing application was given an LAT
number
> and some quantity of these items were produced and put into
> "inventory".   This "inventory" was primarily for SCCA Homologation
> purposes, so the material in inventory might or might not have been the
> same as Doane's functioning hardware, but it "looked" like it.  If you
knew
> the right people (most likely Shelby, International Automobile, or
> Hollywood Sports Car employees) you could have Special Ordered a Tiger and
> had those parts installed by someone in that chain prior to having the car
> delivered to the dealership.  I'll be the first to admit that this was not
> a common situation and the vast majority of the cars were sent to the
> dealers as received from England, but that gets us to the second reason
for
> the LAT Option  development.
>
>          The Tiger was not particularly profitable as it was produced in
> basic form.  The LAT Options list was another way for International
> Automobiles and the retail dealers to share in the sale of options which
> enhanced the profitability of their operations.  This was of paramount
> importance to Ian, the CEO of the West Coast Sunbeam Distributorship,
> International Automobiles, who knew that his parent company was in a
> desperate financial situation.  You have to give them credit for at least
> attempting to meet all of these potentially conflicting situations.  By
mid
> 1966 their efforts proved insufficient and Chrysler Corporation assumed
> management control of the Rootes Group in an attempt to control the
> continued corporate losses of their subsidiary .  In the process, they
> managed to flush the whole of International Automobiles personnel from the
> remaining operation.  In doing so, they also created a situation where
most
> of the "documentation" was "lost".  All we have is a few random letters
and
> copies of "stuff". Some of us have special memories for those who tried to
> make it happen.
>
> Tom

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>