Quote:
Originally Posted by Fnarf
Stupidity.
I dunno, I saw it and coveted it. To be honest, it was the chrome "Minx" in a sexy sixties script on the flank that did it. It was in nearly perfect working order, a San Francisco car with hardly any miles on it. It was a Series III with the rare Easidrive automatic transmission, which improbably worked by applying an electrical charge to iron filings to clump them around the chosen gear, a system which, well, let's just say it didn't catch on. But mine still worked. None of the Rootes nerds in my local club had ever seen one before.
Shortly after I bought the car virtually every rubber component crumbled into dust, as did most of the braking system and the starter. Not being mechanically inclined, I paid a guy a ton of money to replace it all, but it never really worked right after that, and then the entire wiring system, by Lucas (the "Prince of Darkness", they call him in car and motorcycle circles), so I sold it. It was hilariously fun for the few months I was able to drive it.
This experience is apparently quite typical for owners of 60s and 70s British cars.
I did learn a lot about the Rootes Group, once one of Britain's biggest motoring concerns, but which in the end was sold to Chrysler for a dollar. Their most famous output was the Sunbeam Tiger, which was created by Carroll Shelby by dropping a huge modified Ford V8 into a normally more sedate Sunbeam Alpine, and is still coveted by sporty-car aficionados.
To bring this story back around to Los Angeles, there was in the mid-60s a "Los Angeles Tiger" branch of the company that performed the necessary upgrades, located at 9830 West Pico Boulevard near Beverly Hills. The building most recently was a Chase branch but appears to be empty now. I don't know if it was just Tigers, or if it was a dealer for other Rootes models -- Hillman, Humber, and Sunbeam were all sold in the US, and presumably L.A., though I don't believe Commer or Talbot, while Singer might have been, but not by the 60s.
There's no "Hillman" or "Rootes" car dealer in the one reverse directory I looked at for 1961, but it's much more likely that they were sold in a dealer devoted to a variety of imports, or even in a small corner of a larger American-model dealer with an import sideline. I might have to find an actual newspaper ad for that info. There's a California Association of Tiger Owners in Irvine that might possibly know more.
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This is hitting pretty close to home for me. My first car was a 1962 Sunbeam Alpine bought for $900 when I was a high school junior. I drove it for about a year always wanting a Tiger. I didn't have to wait too long and got a chance to get one the following year. I bought it from the original owner who lived a few blocks away. It came with some of the "LAT" options mentioned including the four-barrel setup shown in the ad.
It was a lot of fun and very fast. I learned a lesson when I almost flipped it while racing around the now fenced off streets of the Surfridge area west of LAX. I easily could have killed myself and my friend riding with me. I was much more careful after that.
One issue was the large engine in a small engine compartment easily overheated, especially when stuck in traffic. This happened to me many times driving to Dodger Stadium or the Coliseum. It wasn't the most practical car but I used it as my everyday driver for over ten years and retired it then. It needed a lot of attention so it was for the best.
Getting married and having kids meant it sat in various garages as we moved several times.
I was tempted to get rid of it several times but never really came close and I am happy to say I still have it. Not too long ago, it had moved way up the list of priorities and I awakened it from its long nap and got it running again. That was just the first step and I am currently just starting a full restoration. Moving slowly but I will get there.
I have a faint recollection that the original owner told me it was bought new at Larry Reed Sports Cars in Torrance. One of my quests is to find one of their original license plate frames for it. They are out there but hard to find.
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