Sunday, September 13, 2009

Tiger, Tiger, Grrrr.... 6 degrees .......

Sunbeam Tigers had small Ford V8 engines, Sunbeam was sold under the Rootes Motor Corp,
Chrysler bought Rootes and but didn't have a small enough V8 to fit into the Tiger. As a Ford engine would not do in a Chrysler owned model the Tiger was discontinued after 1968.
This is were I came along , a Chrysler dealership in New Westminster , Columbia Dodge had a Rootes Sunbeam Tiger ,left over from the previous owner of this dealership, I made an offer on the new Tiger, they said no then a few weeks latter they called back and wanted me to buy it.
So I sold my first Tiger(a 1965) to my friend Victor and bought the new one a 1966 model year sold and titled as a 1967. BRGreen with black seats and trim, white wall tires and a 3.15 rear axle vs the stock one of 2.73. Better off the line but higher rpm on the highway.
Very interesting "6 degree ish" happenings..... Years later living on Lambeth Drive as the family up the street ,we made very good & strong friendship with the Don Butt jr. family. So cool.... Don Butt senior was the owner of the Columbia Dodge where I bought my 1967 Tiger.
It was more than ten years latter before I met Don jr. and family up on Lambeth Drive.
.....still would have this Tiger..........if I didn't go muscle car..... Corvette...where are you now?

Bottom photo.....Guess who's in the driver's seat now..?... yes Dear....OK..

Also notice that my MG TD can be seen in the carport, this was our family home, we moved there when I was six and a half years old in 1950. Long gone now, replaced by a small
development of nine homes, we had moved to an area of smaller farms with two barns, chicken coups a second small house , a dog run and two large fenced fields for the horses that we had to look after. We had this very neat riding gas powered lawn mower that I would use to cut the front and back lawn. My first drive of anything powered other than with my feet or legs. The front lawn had a bit of a slope to it and this is were I did my first "power slide" , spinning the rear wheels with full power going up the slope at a slight angle so that the rear wheels would spin wildly. After I discovered that , the summer lawn mowing was way more "fun". many years later when my mom decided to sell the family home, I wanted to buy it but since we had not long before moved to our new Lambeth Drive home it seemed to be too much to ask of my family to
move again so soon, besides we loved our Lambeth home too much give it up.
Hey,.....if we had bought the old homestead , I would have had a six car garage plus the barn.......
and power sliding my way around the front lawn................
..kind of miss both those wonderful homes.....lots of fond memories..............

2 comments:

Coco Cake Land said...

DAD!!! the comedy writing is genius!!!! great stories... keep it up!! love lynds

VIN said...

LOVE the vintage snaps (and cars)! keep up the great blog work mr. sung! kevin