From hermes.intel.com!optilink.dsccc.com!marrone Fri Jan 20 14:00:58 1995
From: marrone(at)optilink.dsccc.com
>From: optilink.dsccc.com!marrone (Frank_Marrone)
Message-Id: <9501201038.ZM1385(at)montreal>
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 10:38:28 -0800
In-Reply-To: winbladg(at)apps5.credence.com (Gary Winblad)
"Re: New Sunbeam owner" (Jan 19, 5:11pm)
References: <9501200111.AA04676(at)apps5.ca.credence.com>
X-Mailer: Z-Mail (3.0.1 23feb94)
To: Gary Winblad <winbladg(at)apps5.credence.com>, patg(at)sequent.com
Subject: Re: New Sunbeam owner
Cc: alpines(at)autox.team.net
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>Well as far as value, alpines really aren't worth much unless they are
>real nice and stock, depends on the buyer but I probably only paid what
>he had in parts alone, with its nice new paint job, its probably worth
>less than it would be as a stock alpine... but Tigers are so much more
>fun to drive (opinion)... Is your Alpine nice?
Well, I guess Alpines are not worth much but it doesn't take that nice of a
pine to be worth $3 to $6 kbucks.
On the otherhand, from what I have seen a nice Alpine conversion can be worth
quite a bit ($6 to $10+ Kbucks). I know the situation is different in Europe
but here in the states I would say that if you convert your Alpine will be
worth more. I'm not saying that it pays to convert, by the time you scrounge
all the parts and invest all the time you might find it to be a loss.
As far as which if funner to drive, I probably would have agreed with Gary
before I bought my pine but I'm not so sure anymore. An Alpine weighs a lot
less than a Tiger and handles pretty well. With some motor tweaks (or a swap,
like a 2300CC pinto motor) you could have a car as fast or faster than a stock
tiger for a lot less money.
--
Frank Marrone at marrone(at)optilink.dsccc.com
1965 Sunbeam Tiger B9471116
1960 Sunbeam Alpine Series I B9009330
1966 Ford LTD 4-door family barge.
I wanted to chip in my agreement with Frank on the "which is more fun
to drive" issue. Though my experience with Tigers is rather limited, I
know I prefer the light, smooth Alpine trans and the sound of the
Rootes 4-banger. The feeling from
clicking on OD is great too. On the other hand, accelleration
can be fun, and maybe I'd appreciate it more if I had my own
Tiger to play around with.
On the conversion idea, I'd think very hard before doing it. It
seems to me that to have any real value (i.e., even approaching
the cost of the conversion), you would need to use stock Tiger
parts that have become very difficult and expensive to obtain.
Without that, you're not really making a fake Tiger, but simply a
botched Alpine. By East Coast prices, I have never seen a
conversion listed (much less sold) for over 8K. Nice Alpines
regularly list for 5-8K. Plus, as a Brit car lover, I'd hate to
see a nice "end of the run" Alpine hacked up. If you really want
to do it, though, I'd look around for totally beat Tiger so at
least you'll have the right parts. I've seen these advertised
for 5K or so.
Steve Semeraro
Series V Alpine
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