Attention naysayers

[Warren]

Maybe the Tiger appeals to me because I had several Karmann Ghia
convertibles and everything I did to make them go fast just made them louder and less reliable. After putting on probably 20,000 miles on a couple different cars in 10 years I've been pretty pleased with their reliability.
I also have a car that has 90,000 original miles on it. It feels like it's just getting broke in some days



https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cu...be9J-ouiqa86z07HFevpVegcmiUCTN6YHUr57CXOlRySo

 

[JimsCat]

Naysayers?

I rarely post here although I read daily. My '65 Tiger has about 105,000 miles on it and still starts and runs great. I autocrossed it fairly successfully for 6 years before deciding it was worth saving, and never failed to drive it home. Didn't do much development work on it (lowered and a 3:31 limited slip diff). Instead replaced it with a prepared Spitfire, two rotary-powered formula cars for SCCA Solo I (now called time trials) and a rotary Super Seven clone (sequentially, not all at once).

I really want to attend the September 2021 meet at Kansas City. There are some obstacles -- I'll be 82 (if I'm still around) and my wife has dementia. I've been a member of CAT since the '70s (member no. 1162) and I'd like to meet a few of the folks whose names I see in the newsletter and the forums (including you, Warren). If I make it there, will I drive my still reliable Tiger? No; I think the Tiger would make the trip, but it's driver most likely would not. So the tentative plan is for it to travel by trailer.

Hopefully, I'll be accompanied by my son who is building a gorgeous restomod '66 Tiger.

No naysayer here!

Jim

 

[michael-king]

Nice story

Jim,

Nice story and even nicer looking kitty! Great to see you still using it. Did you fit the LAT70s in period when auto-x or are they later additions? Interesting billet cover on the oil.filter.. Very trick

 

[JimsCat]

Thanks, Michael. You're another fellow I'd like to meet. Kind of a long "drive" from Australia.

I purchased my Tiger from the original owner for the princely sum of $1100 (a bit more money value in 1968) and I have owned it for 52 years. It had steel wheels and hubcaps then. I bought the LAT70's from an Alpine racer. They were not pristine even then, having marks from tire mounting machines. The racer had lost the spinners, so I adapted some from Chevy wire-style wheel covers. I also bought a Parish Plastics fibreglass hardtop from a Tiger owner who needed cash for a clutch replacement. As you can tell, I did everything on the cheap.

I autocrossed mostly on the steel wheels, widened to 6 inches. I failed to mention the rear antisway bar I added for autocross, plus the clamp on the right rear spring that eliminated wheel hop on launch.

The car still wears its original paint. On a quiet day you can hear it fade.

Jim

 

[michael-king]

I got to say Jim i think i like it better now without the front splitter and kenworth exhausts .

Drop by some time...had a few CAT and SAOCA members come through down under and do some road trips in the fleet... Sadly travel this year looks a write off...

 

[JimsCat]

The car has gone through a few detail iterations in 52 years. When I first installed the Thrush side pipes many years ago, the reaction was, "What have you done to your poor little car?"

Much later, when I told people I was going to remove them, the reaction was, "No-o-o-o!" By then, most people had never seen the car without them.

Now, with four mufflers under the car, it is relatively quiet. We get old . . .

Jim

 

[Warren]

As Tony the Tiger would say

That's Grrrrrreat, It's so good to hear from you Jim. Should the SUNI happen it's well beyond my driving range of my body and possibly the car. It's likely that a fly in happens . To borrow a joke this is the first year that Covid 19 has limited my travel trips to Hawaii all the other years it was limited by the lack of cash. As cars get faster and faster and they do more of the driving for you it becomes more of a challenge to drive a slow car fast.