Development
The West Coast Sales Manager of Rootes American Motors Inc., Ian Garrad, realized that the Alpine's image was that of a grand tourer (GT) rather than a sports car, and he, along with Richard R. Hovis set about changing its image, using the recent success of the Shelby Cobra as a guide. He and Rootes' Western Service Manager Walter McKenzie measured up several V8 engines and determined that Ford's new 164 hp (122 kW) 260 cu in (4.3 L) Windsor V8 engine would fit nicely between the frame rails.
Sunbeam asked Carroll Shelby to produce one functional prototype on a budget of $10,000. Shelby's prototype was designed by Richard R. Hovis, and fabricated by Shelby employee George Boskoff, and the result was judged to be good enough to send to England for production evaluation.
Seeking reassurance everything would fit, a second Series 2 Alpine was handed to Ken Miles. A talented racer and fabricator in his own right, Miles had just been employed by Shelby American. Using his own shop facilities, he managed to install a 260 cu.in. V8 and two-speed automatic into the Alpine in less than a week, at a total cost of $600. Having served its feasibility study purpose, the Miles prototype was kept by Rootes Motors Inc. Los Angeles for some time until its sale to a private buyer.
Read more about this topic: Sunbeam Tiger
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“To be sure, we have inherited abilities, but our development we owe to thousands of influences coming from the world around us from which we appropriate what we can and what is suitable to us.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“I do seriously believe that if we can measure among the States the benefits resulting from the preservation of the Union, the rebellious States have the larger share. It destroyed an institution that was their destruction. It opened the way for a commercial life that, if they will only embrace it and face the light, means to them a development that shall rival the best attainments of the greatest of our States.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“Such condition of suspended judgment indeed, in its more genial development and under felicitous culture, is but the expectation, the receptivity, of the faithful scholar, determined not to foreclose what is still a question—the “philosophic temper,” in short, for which a survival of query will be still the salt of truth, even in the most absolutely ascertained knowledge.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)