[Tigers] Urban legend

Sun Mar 8 14:25:14 MDT 2020

Thank you. Best and most thorough explanation that I've seen.Mark L
In a message dated 3/8/2020 2:30:27 PM Eastern Standard Time, tigers at autox.team.net writes:

The best and most authoritative answers to the why the Tiger was discontinued that I’ve found are in the collection of Papworth papers housed in the Culture Coventry Archive at the Herbert Museum in Coventry.

Mr Papworth was a very high level “planner” for Rootes. He reported to a very select group, comprised mainly of family members who were the heart of the Rootes board. After his retirement he donated thousands(?) of pages of notes and memos. I’ve spent several days reading them and want to go back.

Mr. Papworth lays out a very comprehensive Tiger story. The Tiger represented only 2% of Rootes’ sales and was consequentially just a blip on management’s attention. Tigers were barely mentioned in board meetings as the high production Imps and Hillmans dominated the discussions. The Mk1s & 1As sold well. The Mk2 that was built was not the Mk2 that the engineers had designed and tested (with upgraded 5-bolt 14” wheels to fit 4-wheel discs, the same 3-puck calipers used on Aston Martins and street Cobras) and the resulting lack of initial sales seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. But Papworth also outlines other contributing issues.

Rootes engineers determined that Chrysler V8s would not fit in a Tiger. They explored alternatives including one that would have been built a new “Tiger” with fiberglass body in the USA. Obviously none of those alternatives worked out.

After Lord Rootes passed away his brother, Reggie, assumed control. Reggie wanted to replace the Alpine/Tiger with a smaller sportscar that was similar to a Spitfire. That car, “Apex”, had been designed and was very close to production when a sub-contractor tripled the initial cost estimate for its fiberglass body. That ended Rootes’ attempt at a replacement sportscar.

The US government had long imposed standards for the cars it purchased for government use – the GSA standards. These existing GSA standards were eventually adopted for all cars sold in the US. The Alpine/Tiger platform would have needed upgrades to comply. Tooling for these would have been costly on a per unit basis due to low production volume.

The space used at Pressed Steel to build the Alpines and Tigers was needed by another Rootes vehicle which was high production and therefore a higher priority. Assuming Rootes would accept the cost of upgrades to comply with GSA standards, where could the Alpine/Tiger be built? Rootes looked at alternatives including moving the entire Alpine/Tiger production from Pressed Steel to Jensen. At one point Rootes even offered to purchase Jensen. Jensen refused. The move never happened. Rootes never found an alternate contractor to build the cars.

Papworth cites all of these factors in the decision to end Tiger production.

Buck Trippel

From: Tigers <tigers-bounces at autox.team.net> On Behalf Of Ross Hulse via Tigers
Sent: Sunday, March 8, 2020 1:57 AM
To: Curt Bowland <cbowland at msn.com>
Cc: tigers <tigers at autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: [Tigers] Urban legend

The demise of the Sunbeam Tiger was that they did not sell very well.  The USA import regs for cars would require expensive modifications to the car.  So in February 1967 the decision was made to finish the cars that were in the line and send them to Canada.  Everything about not fitting a Chrysler engine is just a rumor.

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