Hillman Avenger Tiger Sunbeam Tiger - SUPER rare SUPER cool 70s British classic car!
idriveaclassic
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Hillman Avenger Tiger (Sunbeam Tiger)
The Hillman Avenger Tiger isn’t the first tiger to stalk through the Rootes-Chrysler range and in fact, the name had been used, the Tiger name, on the Sunbeam cars as early as 1925 when it was used on a race car in the Sunbeam line up, so this was a name which carried weight and the brand had to get it right.
However, it would appear a tiger may not change its stripes but it might change it’s marque, because if you look at the paperwork for this from new, it’s down as both the Hillman Avenger Tiger and the Sunbeam Tiger. A bit of digging round the murky corners of the internet, old forums and magazines of the time suggests there was an idea to launch in different markets under different names and with this being a press car, it might’ve been filed under both names for this reason.
Definitely a ‘who knows’ scenario, but an interesting piece of Rootes/Chrysler history.
Launching in the spring of 1972, The Avenger Tiger was essentially a bit of a publicity exercise. The general buying public loved buying into brands with a bit of racing prowess and the Avenger Super was brought into the Chrysler Competitions Centre and put into the capable hands of Des O’Dell.
If that’s not a name you’ve heard before, he was a man with good standing in the motorsport world. He’d worked with Aston Martin after the second world war and worked with the team which won 24 hours of Le Mans in 1959 and then spent 30 odd years with the Rootes, Chrysler, Talbot racing departments. He was pivitol to the success of the Hillman team in 1968 who won London to Sydney marathon in their Hunter and oversaw various winning Talbot and Peugeot teams.
He decides what they need to do is to modify the 1500 GT engine and bring in some key changes:
bigger inlet and exhaust valves
revised combustion chambers
increased compression ratio
different plugs
and twin weber carbs
Whilst the suspension was slightly tweaked, it was front mcpherson struts, shortened front springs and the avenger estate system to rear
The brakes, rear axle and gearbox were all matched to the GT
The car, if you could buy one with only 200 built, was £1,546 to buy and that was before a single extra or your numberplates or road tax had been paid for!
After a roaring success with motoring press, the MK2 was unveiled in the autumn of 1972. The GL body was used this time with that sporty look of quad round head lamps, with better fuel consumption from the MK1 and a cheaper price tag of £1,350. Again, low production run on these with only about 400 made but also available in red/black colourway in addition to the Sundance yellow/black as seen on this.
The Avenger name continued beyond the Tiger and was eventually in the mid 70s fully badged up as Chrysler.
A rare beast and a rather excellent publicity piece!
20 Comments
Always a pleasure on a Sunday. ❤ x
She drove what would have normally been a Hillman Hunter estate but being an American market car, it was called a Sunbeam Arrow. Of course, Hunters were known as the Arrow series cars over here but not as a badge identifier.
Love your style Steph and you really do drive so many cars from my best era of driving.
Extremely well presented.
Love how you match your outfit to the car.
Hillman Avenger Tiger Sunbeam Tiger - SUPER rare SUPER cool 70s British classic car!
idriveaclassic
36,720 views
Hillman Avenger Tiger (Sunbeam Tiger)
The Hillman Avenger Tiger isn’t the first tiger to stalk through the Rootes-Chrysler range and in fact, the name had been used, the Tiger name, on the Sunbeam cars as early as 1925 when it was used on a race car in the Sunbeam line up, so this was a name which carried weight and the brand had to get it right.
However, it would appear a tiger may not change its stripes but it might change it’s marque, because if you look at the paperwork for this from new, it’s down as both the Hillman Avenger Tiger and the Sunbeam Tiger. A bit of digging round the murky corners of the internet, old forums and magazines of the time suggests there was an idea to launch in different markets under different names and with this being a press car, it might’ve been filed under both names for this reason.
Definitely a ‘who knows’ scenario, but an interesting piece of Rootes/Chrysler history.
Launching in the spring of 1972, The Avenger Tiger was essentially a bit of a publicity exercise. The general buying public loved buying into brands with a bit of racing prowess and the Avenger Super was brought into the Chrysler Competitions Centre and put into the capable hands of Des O’Dell.
If that’s not a name you’ve heard before, he was a man with good standing in the motorsport world. He’d worked with Aston Martin after the second world war and worked with the team which won 24 hours of Le Mans in 1959 and then spent 30 odd years with the Rootes, Chrysler, Talbot racing departments. He was pivitol to the success of the Hillman team in 1968 who won London to Sydney marathon in their Hunter and oversaw various winning Talbot and Peugeot teams.
He decides what they need to do is to modify the 1500 GT engine and bring in some key changes:
bigger inlet and exhaust valves
revised combustion chambers
increased compression ratio
different plugs
and twin weber carbs
Whilst the suspension was slightly tweaked, it was front mcpherson struts, shortened front springs and the avenger estate system to rear
The brakes, rear axle and gearbox were all matched to the GT
The car, if you could buy one with only 200 built, was £1,546 to buy and that was before a single extra or your numberplates or road tax had been paid for!
After a roaring success with motoring press, the MK2 was unveiled in the autumn of 1972. The GL body was used this time with that sporty look of quad round head lamps, with better fuel consumption from the MK1 and a cheaper price tag of £1,350. Again, low production run on these with only about 400 made but also available in red/black colourway in addition to the Sundance yellow/black as seen on this.
The Avenger name continued beyond the Tiger and was eventually in the mid 70s fully badged up as Chrysler.
A rare beast and a rather excellent publicity piece!