[Tigers] LAT 15 Tiger Flags

Wed Mar 11 17:15:13 MDT 2020

Finally got around to framing and hanging my LAT flags in the garage. Thought I would share a picture of them with the group.  I was lucky to get these years ago when Yahoo had auctions.  They are used and not perfect. Wonder how many others survived.Jim DSent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Ken via Tigers <tigers at autox.team.net> Date: 3/8/20  4:39 PM  (GMT-05:00) To: tigers at autox.team.net Subject: Re: [Tigers] Urban legend 
    Thank you Buck for settling this matter. Wish that I could spend
      time going through the archives!
    Ken Tisdale
    
    On 3/8/2020 12:30 PM, Buck Trippel via
      Tigers wrote:
    
    
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        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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    -- 
Ken Tisdale
303-807-5488
  
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