Rootes Motors built only 7,128 Sunbeam Tigers between three distinct variants, squeezing Ford V8s into a lightweight British roadster that went on to hold the AHRA quarter-mile record for two years. Most of the Tiger’s production crossed the Atlantic to North America, though six went to London’s Metropolitan Police for highway patrol duty. The car’s ending is as strange as its badge: Chrysler bought Rootes in 1964 but had no engine that would fit the Tiger, and production simply stopped once the Ford engine supply ran out. Read on for the full story of Detroit muscle in a British body.
