Family History

When my dad graduated from college in  1967, he needed a car.  It is a relationship  that started simple enough: Recent college  graduate seeks first car to get him to work.

 

But against the backdrop of  the turmoil of the 1960’s with  the Vietnam War, CivilRights  Movement and Counterculture  movement was the emergence  of Pony Cars (sub-class of the  American Muscle Cars) and the  desire to get from Point A to  Point B as stylishly, affordably  and quickly as possible.

 

My dad went out looking for a car  that met his needs (and the needs  of many American males of the  time) and found the “poor man’s  Cobra” - The Sunbeam Tiger.

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I was born in 1976 - the first child  and only girlto my father and  mother.  Coincidentally, 1976 was  also the last year that the Tiger’s  license plate was registered.  Maybe  it was because the Tiger was not an  ideal car for a baby’s carseat(not  that those were popular in the  1970’s yet)or maybe it was because  needed Tiger’s repairswere no  longer affordable with the start of  family financial obligations.

 

Regardless, the Tiger sat in my  family’s garage for 40 years  collecting dust, rust, boxes and  garage “debris” before I got the hair- brained notion to get it restored.