**
| ||||||||||
My Cars |
Anyone who would like to contribute to this effort should contact us at Editor E-Mail. Thank you. | |||||||||
Volunteers wishing to join our team are welcome. Take a look at our Contributing Editors This site has been designed to pool the collective resources of the many great regional and national Sunbeam Tiger clubs. Membership to the these clubs is strongly recommended. Use our Clubs and Organizations Directory to find the organization nearest you and get involved.** | ||||||||||
In it's last days with us, after 7 years of faithful service, the 356 is still looking good in it's new silver paint job.
Here is it's successor, imported from Germany with the European hounds-tooth wool seat that is so much better than vinyl centers, is the new ‘66 911S. This is a formidable machine, with 5 speed all synchro gearbox, two triple choke Weber carburetors, stock fog lights, Blaupunkt AM/FM/SW, and auxiliary gas heater. Absolutely useless in Southern California. 
After 6 years in the Midwest, achieving a career goal of becoming the President of a multi-million dollar firm before the age of 39 and being elected to membership in the Young President's Organization (Y.P.O), we headed back to California for personal reasons. While sorry to leave the friends we had made, it was good to come home to family and sun. A change of cars was in order, and this time I wanted something uniquely mine. While tearing into this project, I still needed daily transportation until it was finished. To this end, I found a ’67 Sunbeam Alpine S-5 that wasn't running. Linda was now driving a ‘71 Ford LTD 400 CID, which was the largest car I had ever owned. Can't be equaled, today, in sheer people/baggage capacity. Yet with 6 feet of rear seat, do you think two little kids good keep on their own side across country? 
Oh yes, We added a ‘66 Mustang GT convertible to our stable, just for fun. Jay learned a great deal that summer. First we yanked the engine out of the Sunbeam and rebuilt it, and fixed all the items necessary. The car was not remarkable to me, at the time. Aside from a propensity to blow cylinder head gaskets, and a resultant white cloud behind, it was very reliable transportation and fun to drive.
I found a custom body style that really spoke to me, with it's cross between a Ferrari, and a Lotus, with a great deal of Battlestar Galactica thrown in. The donor car(s) were VW and Porsche. The project car was a Sebring, and was constructed as a unibody, including the monocoque floor, interior, and exterior. If it weren't for Jay, getting into small spaces and cutting/grinding fiberglass with the particles falling on his hair and body, this job would have been impossible. His experience with rebuilding the Sunbeam, and this would give him all the confidence and knowledge he needed for his restoration of the Alpine, many years later.
The top rose up on electric screw jacks for access through the door-top. It's light weight, and a Turbocharged VW engine, made this car perform with it's looks. Some 25 years later, it is still remarkably current, and draws stares wherever it goes. The kids go wild when the top opens. Later in life a Pontiac Fiero V-6 resides in the rear, giving even more push to the light weight aerodynamic car. 
The Sunbeam can be seen in the background. The rear view of the Sebring, with CA Plates “Red Toi”, shows the recessed rear window, and Ferrari/Lotus shaped rear. To give you a real concept of proportion, the top of the car would be about level with the top of a Corvette door top! When parked, a group of kids all gather around. When the top lifts up and forward for egress, you can hear the exclamations. Get lots of “Thumbs-up” on the road, much like I now get with the Tiger, from those who recognize what it is. Not leaving the Sunbeam off the personalized plate rage, Jay selected “N’Lovin’It!” exclamation of Don Adams, when the car became his.
