Fred Rice had a Tiger at Dover. Maybe he’ll share memories with us.
Ok….you asked for it. I had just finished fitting it with a hipo 289,Belanger headers, Konis, etc. and was out for a drive to Bloombergs supermarket in Lk Carmel to get some hamburger buns. Clem LaChance sees me pulling out on RT.311 and flags me down. He wants to see all the ” upgrades” on the car. I pull into his drive way and he goes around the car and asks me what a Sunbeam is. He cracks ” does it mix drinks”?
So I invite him to hop in. I back out of the driveway onto 311 and head toward Rt 52 wide open. When I banged 2nd gear his seatback broke and he cracked his head on the car body. Almost knocked his butt out. He was impressed with the car.
It had 3:73 gears (Dana 44, same as Bronco front end) with open headers it ran best of 12.90 at Dover. Only made two passes as the remote oil filter blew out a gasket. Traded that car for the ’66 GT-350 out of Pawling.
Fred,
You know those little Sunbeams were available with 4.56 gears in that Dana 44.
And a dealer installed 780 Holley.
One killer ‘street machine’
I remember Clem ‘The Mad Frenchman’. He used to bring that Ford 6-cylinder head
to my fathers shop all the time, to do a little fine-tuning on the ports.
Didn’t know he was a ‘co-test driver’ too 😆
Paul
Fred,
You know those little Sunbeams were available with 4.56 gears in that Dana 44.
And a dealer installed 780 Holley.
One killer ‘street machine’
I remember Clem ‘The Mad Frenchman’. He used to bring that Ford 6-cylinder head
to my fathers shop all the time, to do a little fine-tuning on the ports.
Didn’t know he was a ‘co-test driver’ too 😆
Paul
You are correct…..at the time when I was a kid the closest “dealer” was Long Island City Imports. I used to go over to LIC and look at them in the showrooom. DROOLING and DREAMING of the day I could own one. I haven’t seen Clem in quite some time….but hear about his escapades from Joe Huestis.
Fred
You left out the part about removing the steel shim head gaskets Fred. I still cringe thinking about that.
Yeah that was one crazy evening at Brady-Stannard. If that Sheriffs Dept car hadn’t pulled up to the door at 2am I would have bled to death. 🙄 That shim gasket sliced my hand good. Just like a sharp knife. When you are a dumb kid in a rush,you just don’t THINK.
Through that and few other close calls (like flipping my straight axle 61 Falcon) I am still here….thank the LORD.
fredrice.