Other little cars with V8s ?
 

So what other little cars came with or were modified for V8s?


I'll start it off with...

- Sunbeam Alpine > Tiger

English, Italian, whatever...

TVR-Griffith

The Sunbeam Tiger has to be at the top of the list, after all it was featured on "Get Smart".

Trivia, do you recall that the later Tigers were powered by a Chrysler engine?

Back when I was in High School I saw an M-G TD that had had a Ford flat head "60" stuffed under the hood.

I go to a Doughnut Shop that has a local gathering on Saturday afternoons and saw a Triumph TR-4 with a small block Chevy 400 nestled in it.

Lots of floks are putting Chevy 350s in Jag sedans these days also.

The Cunningham, Allard and Curtis cars were all purpose built for competition with big bore American engines but never got the break that Shelby got with the Cobra.

After that Jensen (and Jensen-Heley) had a big Chrysler engine and lest we forget there was also the Citroen with a Masseretti mill.

The infamous gas shortage of the 70's and 80's made short work of most of the big block prototype cars at that time. Nothing much has come along to spark the interest until Saleene, and Rouch, started tweeking the Mustangs. Then the Cobra kit car market blossomed.

Now almost every manufacturer touts the "highest power in class" and tries to compair their offering to some of the old Muscle to boost sales. I guess some of them are pretty quick, lots of gimmicks but they just have no soul (which includes all ricers).

Mk 1 Escort Panelvan with 289

and also my namesake
Mk 1 ford Capri with 302 ===> sth african PERANA
MK 2 ford Capri with 302===> german MAKO

Morgan Plus Eight.

Rover V8-powered, it was introduced in 1968 and is still in production. Sadly, production will end early next year since Rover will stop producing the engine.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Chrysler stop making the Tiger because their smallest V8 wouldn't fit into the Sunbeam? After they bought Rootes and inherited the Tiger with a Ford engine, they just called them V8 powered until they were all sold, and then just dropped the Sunbeam name all together. I don't believe there were ever any Tigers with Chrysler engines.

Bumpster

AMC Gremlin
 

AMC Gremlin with a 304cid I think? LOL!!%/

Yes the TVRs were very advanced from a style perspective in their day. VERY small dealership network in the US.

The Jensen Interceptor had a large Hemi. It was the bigger and more expensive brother of the Jensen-Healey. I had an Interceptor way back in the day... 1974. It really was a nice car but eventually the electronics became problematic and the New England salt ate the life out of the unprotected metal parts.

Bumpster, I believe your right, Tiger's weren't produced with Chrysler engines, even though they owned Sunbeam...engine size was a consideration and also what I remember from the time was that they had a big supply of Ford engines sittiing around, and just kept using them....

daimler sp250

an MG B British car will hold a small block chevy( I had one that I built while in college)Lots of fun and you get a lot of looks when you drive it.

The MGB was actually available from the factory with a V8, but only in hardtop (:CRY: ) called the MGB GTV8 using the Rover V8 engine.

GUMBALL UK

Don't forget the Triumph TR-8. If I remember correctly, the engine was the 215 cu in aluminum Buick. ...had a TR-7, back in the '70's and it looked like it would be a natural for a 302 Ford, but I never got the chance to try it. Anyone else ever give it a try?
TWM

That's right, the 215ci buick engine became the Rover 3.5ltr (don't know the full history of how it came about) and seems to have been used in lots of cars - shame it's finally coming to an end, that engine has been around for ever.

GUMBALL UK

Triumph Stag.....?

GUMBALL UK

I dropped a 327 Chevy in a Vega while in High School. 400+HP rocket! Lots of fun............those were the days. I should have called it a "Terry" and built more of them! .......of course I wasn't a racing legend at the time, though, so sales may not have been good. :LOL:

The Iso Griffo and the Bizzarini were two Sports Cars that used Chevrolet powered V-8 engines.

Perhaps, the confusion with the Chrysler V-8 and the Sunbeam stems from one of the more peculiar distribution arrangement in automotive history.

The Sunbeam Tiger was the brainchild of Ian Garrad. The car was manufactured by the Rootes Group of England which had produced the Sunbeam Alpine--a four cylinder cousin. Garrard convinced Rootes to hire SAI to stuff the SB Ford under the bonnet.

In '64 Chrysler UK acquired the Rootes Group which placed, under the Chrysler umbrella, the Hillman, Singer, Commer, and Sunbeam models. Much to Chryslers surprise, they found that one of their most popular models was, in fact, powered by a Ford drivetrain. The Sunbeams utilized, in later versions, the Ford Toploader transmission--a rare 25 1/2 length box. About 7,000 Tigers were produced.

For what ever reason, the distribution channel was set up through Chrysler of Canada. So.... here we have a major American auto company (Chrysler) whose foreign subsidary is making a sports car in England, distributed to the U.S. through another foreign subsidary (Canada), with a Ford drive train. Pretty odd.


Last edited by Cal Metal on 07-16-2002 at 07:11 AM

And don't forget the 1956 BMW Type 507, or it's grandchild, the present-day Z-8

Jensen Intercepter:3DSMILE:
pk