Sunbeam Tiger

In 1963, as if to fill the void left by the end of the Volvo contract, Jensen became involved in the building of a new sports car for the Rootes Group. Jensen’s Deputy Chief Engineer Kevin Beattie and his assistant Mike Jones had both worked at Rootes before coming to Jensen and knew the companies inside out, making liaison easier. Jensen’s job was to modify the Sunbeam Alpine body shells and fit out the semi-finished cars with their Ford motors, gearboxes, axles, suspension and interiors before sending them off to Rootes for final pre-delivery preparation. The Sunbeam Tiger was unveiled at the New York Motor Show in April 1964. Production focused initially on LHD cars for North America and Europe with RHDs for the Home Market not becoming available until 1965. Jensen modified and assembled both the 260ci Mk.I version and then the 289ci Mk.II version of the Tiger until production was wound up in 1967. A little over 7,000 Tigers were made, the Mk.IIs being decidedly rare, especially in RHD.