[Tigers] List-Ownership stories

[CoolVT at aol.com]

Thank you. Great story and I remember the Hemis and 7 mpg.
 
 
In a message dated 9/13/2012 11:39:28 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
v8tracker at gmail.com writes:

Some  long-time list members may remember some of this from years ago when  
I
still had hopes of finding my Tiger and to those I apologize for  the
repetition.

I was 21 when I bought my Tiger new on October 8,  1965, according to the 
note I
signed (36 payments at $102.11). That's the  only document I have relating 
to
the car so I don't know the VIN. I traded  my TR-3A on it.

Of course, I really wanted a Cobra  after having driven one while working an
SCCA race in Lafayette, LA. Also,  of course, I couldn't afford one.

The Sunbeam dealer in Baton Rouge,  Louisiana was Love Motor Company, 
long-since
out of business. It was  essentially a used car lot and this was the only 
Tiger
they had in stock.  They had had it since early in 1965 and it had a few 
hundred
miles on it. I  suspect their finance company was pushing them to get it off
floor plan. I  knew of only one other Tiger in Baton Rouge - a BRG one  with
Webers.

I was bookkeeping for a Rambler dealer at the time and  had to have my 
mother
co-sign the note for me. About a year later, my  father talked me into 
going to
work for him at a Chrysler-Plymouth  dealership in a Baton Rouge suburb. The
deal was for no increase in salary,  but I would have a new car to drive.
Initially, that was a new Plymouth  Satellite hardtop. I wanted a Hemi, but 
had
to settle for a 383 2-barrel. I  kept the Tiger despite my father telling 
me I
was foolish to be paying car  notes when I had a new car for free. The 
Satellite
was nice, but the Tiger  was way more fun. 

We bought lease returns from Chrysler Leasing each  month to resell as used 
cars
at the dealership. These were very nice cars  which had been used for six 
months
or so by the engineers at the Chrysler  space facility in New Orleans, 
which was
a big operation at the  time.

I spotted a 1966 Dodge Charger Hemi at one of the auctions. I  convinced my 
dad
that we should buy it even though it was a model year old  and we didn't 
sell
new Dodges. After all, it had a Hemi in it and we did  sell Plymouths with
Hemis. 

I also told Dad I would sell the Tiger  to my brother, if I could have the
Charger. My brother, in turn, promised  to sell it back to me when he was 
ready
to get rid of it. All of this  happened within the hour or so in between the
time I spotted the Charger  and when it crossed the auction block.

The Charger was unbelievable. I  could tell the right rear quarter panel had
been replaced and called the  engineer who had it leased. He told me he 
lost it
on a wet street in New  Orleans and took out a telephone pole. He also told 
me
he backed off when  he got nervous at 135 on a highway in Texas. 

All that, and the car got  almost seven miles per gallon when you were in a
hurry which, of course, I  was all the time.

Everything was great until my brother decided to go  to California on 
vacation.
I tuned the Tiger and checked it over for the  trip and all looked good. The
only problem was that my brother came back  driving a new Pontiac Firebird 
400
convertible instead of the  Tiger.

It seems that the Tiger developed clutch problems in Los Angeles  and my 
brother
traded it in on the Firebird when he was told it would take  a week or so to
change the clutch. (It was probably just a bad slave  cylinder, but we'll 
never
know for sure.)

That's the last I heard of  the car. So, if anyone knows of a light blue 
Tiger
from Louisiana that was  at a Beverly Hills Pontiac dealer around 1968 or 
1969,
please let me know.  

It was a Mark I with the metal top boot and short shifter, probably  with a 
VIN
in the late teens.

Just as a side note, Mr. Love from the  dealership called me after I had 
had the
Tiger for a few months and asked  me to stop by and see him. It turned out 
he
had a 1965 GT-350 he wanted to  trade me for the Tiger. The Shelby had 
several
thousand race and street  miles on it and was rough, loud, and brutally 
fast.
Hearing that Detroit  Locker chirp as we turned back onto Mr. Love's lot 
told me
I could not  drive that car every day and have any hopes of keeping either 
my
license or  my sanity. 

So there you have it. I haven't owned a Tiger in almost 50  years, but I 
had a
new one once and I drove Shelby's two jewels when they  were just cars and 
not
legends.

I've owned and driven a bunch of  cars in the last 50+ years and I'd like to
have a lot of them back, but the  Tiger will always be "the one that got 
away".
Even so, I think I've been  damn lucky with cars.

Thanks for listening.

A.C. Tynes
New  Orleans,
_______________________________________________

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