AS CLOSE TO SHELBY AS YOU'LL GET

This completely original Sunbeam Tiger has just emerged from obscurity - and it provides a direct link back to its fabled origins

- Julian Balme

A 60-YEAR-OLD car with just over 20,000 miles on the clock, no matter what the marque, is a rare beast.

That it had remained in the same ownership all its life is unusual, and that it should survive unmolested is even more so. Finding a Sunbeam Tiger in 'as it left the factory condition' seldom, if ever, happens, not least because since the Tiger's demise in 1967 owners haven't been able to resist tinkering. If ever there were a car looking for a title of most modified, the Tiger would be a contender.

It starts with the wheels and tyres: the standard 4½ x 13in steels, considered by many inadequate for its V8 power unit, are usually jettisoned first. Of the 102 cars attending the Sunbeam Tiger Club's 60th anniversary celebrations, only one was wearing its original wheels with chrome trim rings and hubcaps.

Then, of course, there is that smallblock Ford motor at the heart of the matter. These engines are so tuneable and parts so readily available that just substituting the two-barrel carburettor and associated cast-iron manifold with a four-barrel and alloy inlet is a beginner's rite of passage. The original 260ci engine takes up exactly the same space as the larger 289ci and 302ci motors that powered the likes of the GT40 and Mustang. Consequently, finding a Tiger still propelled by the smaller engine is not a given, either.

In the UK, by the early '70s Tigers were still considered quick and, on the secondhand market, extremely cheap. As a result they became popular among the burgeoning hot-rod scene, leading to a number being further modified, not just engines but bodywork, too. It was, after all, the era of custom paintwork and Weller slot-mag wheels. One example I pulled out of a barn in 1985 had been painted metalflake orange, another wore a glassfibre chin spoiler. Neither had its original motor and yet they weren't even 20 years old.