Project Sunbeam: Are they ever really finished?

Our Tiger has a few remaining issues we've been needing to sort out.

http://classicmotorsports.net/project-cars/1965-sunbeam-tiger/are-projects-ever-really-finished/

Hey! Its sorting out the issues that makes this hobby so much fun, and so rewarding, at least when the fix works. A car without issues is a boring daily driver.

Stu Sorting out my Tiger since... umm... lets say several decades.

I had a beater Tiger in the early 80's along with my two Porsche 356's. The Tiger was in worse shape but definately a heck of a lot faster than my Ghia's, err, Porsches!

At around the same time my buddy did a full bolt by bolt restoration on a Tiger. He started with a rusted out Canuk car and found a rust free desert find Alpine in California as a doner shell. It was absolutely immaculate when when finished but is nowadays is not considered as a "real" Tiger by many of the Tiger in crowd due to the Alpine cross over, but back in the day the Tiger guys weren't so anal.

But don't get me started on the 356 owners.:-)

Got any left over parts ?

I'm surprised you guys put that many miles on it with the imbalanced engine. I thought it would have been undrivable.

Are you going to be rebuilding the bottom end of the engine? How many miles did you clock with it out of balance on rebuild ? Our 302 takes a 50 ounce wieght vs your #28 ounce . We where guessing you thought it was a driveshaft or bent wheel or tire ? Didn't you dyno the engine it should have showed up then .

Has anyone come up with an idea to get better handling? I drove a real Tiger when they were new...a friend bought one...and it was a real handful. What was done to make them, and all the Alpine "conversions", so popular?

In reply to Lotus14:

You can come up with better handling on a Tiger with shocks, sway bars, tires/wheels but there is no such thing as a good handling Tiger. The car was just not designed for a V8. My TR8's can easily run circles around my old Tiger.

Back in the 80s, vintage raced an Alpine. Upon arriving the evening before a race and finding the track unattended, a friend and I swapped his Tiger for my Alpine for a few laps. Was shocked at the difference, with the Tiger feeling unresponsive in the corners relative to my Alpine. No comparing the speed differential but his Tiger was a handful.

The wheel size was also a limiting factor as the brakes needed upgrading on the Tiger given the higher speeds on the track, but there was only so much brake you could fit into the small 13" wheels.