I knew I was going to buy the car before I looked at it. It was the second Sunbeam I ever saw in person, the first one knowing what model it was.
It was last April, my buddy/mentor Rich had been over that morning in his MGB and my Dad mentioned his old friend we go on fishing trips with has this old Sunbeam Tiger in his garage he’s had since 1970 waitin for someone to restore it. Little did he know how much I wanted a 4banger powered European sports car! He didn’t think twice after mentioning the car but I spent the next week thinking about it and reading online. I was dissapointed I read it had a V8 cause I wanted to try the 4 cylinder thing (I drive a modified turbocharged 5 cyl Volvo) but then my Dad told me it was an Alpine. OK it was settled, I found the owner’s number and called him about it before I even told my Dad how much I wanted the car. I set up a day for me to go look a the car and arranged to buy it. Hadn’t been driven since 1980 and garage kept since ~1970 when he bought the car and it has 20-30k miles (I don’t remember how much). I am just about done with the motor (2 twin choke dellortos, custom header, aluminum flat tops, shaved vizard head w/ porting, manley valves, kb cam, etc) , tires (sticky yokos) and wheels (9 pound panasports) and suspension (series III springs, spax shocks, delrin bushings) and brakes(ventilated rotors, semimetallic pads) are already back on the car. I hope to have it near driving in 3 weeks