tigers in new zealand

[avengertiger]

i heard recently that there are possibly 2 tigers in new zealand definetly one confirmed as a guy here in nelson drove it back in the 80s,and when it came up for sale at turners he went to buy but couldnt afford to at the time.
i will try find out more info but any urban myths or stories post them here to see if they can be tracked down,they may still be sitting somewere waiting to be found!!!
the other was imported from the uk and was rotten may have been possibly reshelled and might have been in the christchurch area.these are stories from an old chap with a huge knowledge of nz motor sport history.
it was he who drove the tiger and had a pretty cool story on how he got to drive it.
he was driving a modified honda 800 and the tiger overtook him on a straight one day,he took off in pursuit and managed to overtake and pullaway on the twisty bits eventually the tiger driver flashed the lights and they pulled in and had a yarn about both cars and agreed to swap cars to the next town (pretty cool seeing as both were complete strangers).
i will try pin him down and get more details regarding what colour and mark the tiger was and wether he can remember anything else about it.

[JoKer]

I mystified - whats special about a Tiger?

chassis number? parts? OEM? are they 'tuned' like prodrive etc?

[avenga]

I mystified - whats special about a Tiger?

chassis number? parts? OEM? are they 'tuned' like prodrive etc?

The Tiger was a special limited edition performance model of the Avenger. About 200 of the MK1 were made and about 450 MK2 were made.

It came standard with a 1500cc Avenger engine with dual Weber DCOE40's, big valve "S" head which had been skimmed to raise the compression ratio to 9.4:1. It also had uprated suspension.

The Tiger 1500 produced 107 gross bhp (Gross is measured on a testbed at the flywheel with no accessories i.e water pump and alternater etc) or 92.5 DIN bhp (measured at the flywheel but with all the accessories connected). to give you an idea the Tiger is about 12HP less powerful than my 1500 and about 25HP less than your rally car (at the flywheel).

They made 2 models, the MK1 and the MK2. The MK1 was based on a Super and had the strip speedo with a dash mounted tacho and better seats. It also featured a black bonnet bulge, a rear spoiler and came in Sundance Yellow. The MK2 had a full black bonnet in Sundance Yellow or Wardance Red, "Alpine/GT" dashboard and dual headlights.

Dave would be able to correct me on any of the info and provide more info as he owns a MK1 Tiger back in Ireland. It is said that only around 50 survive so it would be cool if some of them made it to NZ.

Here is a link to the Avenger Sunbeam owners club (ASOC) page about the Avenger Tiger.

http://www.asoc.co.uk/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=53

Here is an MK1 Tiger



And here is a MK2 Tiger

[JoKer]

mint cheers, also explains ASOC to me in 1 hit (I googled it but never got a proper result)

[avengertiger]

there was nothing special about the tigers performance really it was built in order to homologate parts for the avenger to rally although not all homologated parts ended up in the road going versions the brm head being one,other unique features to the tiger mk1 were magnesium minillites,2up 2down lucas spotlamps,wing mounted bullet mirrors,bonnet pins,remote brake servo,and the head was slightly ported and stamped edc over spark plug number 1.the distributor was also stamped 41365 due to the carbs and cam with no vacum advance available.rear springs were lower and stiffer and armstrong heavy duty 10 point adjustable shocks were standard.
the colour was sundance yellow and mk2 tigers came in both sundance and wardance but lost the minillites and were replaced with exactons as standard with minillites being optional,they also lost the excellent restall bucket seats and came with standard gls interior.and the bullet mirrors were replaced with radbourne items.they changed the bonnet bulge to a matt black standard bonnet also.i believe power was up slightly for the mk 2 tiger.
what appealled to me was its striking look compared to other period fast saloons the escort mexico mk1 was tame in comparison and the rs2000 hadnt been released yet.
there are some interesting stories from the head of the competitions dept at the time regarding what was used in the works cars and what was actually homologated.
there was one white tiger built and some great looking replicas in different colours a green one and a blue one from memory and one recently surfaced in the usa having being exported there and rallied all its life,i believe this is now undergoing a rebuild.

[Growler]

I did have a genuine rear "Tiger" wing floating around many years ago...can't remember what happened to it...