HSC 55 sunbeam tiger and Jim Adams DNS

[michael-king]

So...

While doing some searching for some historic race info i accidental came accorss some new info ( to me)

At the Bahamas speed week in Nassau we know the Shelby built BP tiger (shell) was raced for its laat time by sports car forum and another Tiger raced with a hardtop as 007n driven by Sydney Oakes.

However in 1965 the Hollywood sports car Tiger was listed to enter as number 63 driven by Jim Adams. This was for race 15 the Nassau trophy. The car was a no show not arriving....

Interesting it had been entered.

 

[hottigr]

 

[at the beach]

Both Tigers in the 1965 Runoffs were crashed. There was no time to repair either in time to make the boat to Nassau.

Chris Vandegriff recalls that after the runoffs John Panks flew to LA to meet with his dad. The result was that HSC was given just a few hours to turn over the Tiger to Rootes. Chris remembers replacing the brake calipers that day while Doanned swapped cylinder heads. I seem to recall that Vincent Motors in Pasadena then started racing the ex-HSC Tiger. Didn't George Folmer blow up the Tiger's Dana 23 rear end at the starting flag of a Vincent Motors race?
Buck

 

[michael-king]

Yup.. Maybe they saw the results of the 2 Tigers in 64 and thought they'd have a run?

Was the nassau event after the scca runoffs where the Tiger got taken out by the 'vette? Maybe was still being repaired? Or maybe at the time Afams had the injured leg?

 

[at the beach]

The injured leg supposedly really upset Rootes who needed the racing publicity. Apparently during the injury time HSC refused the substitute driver Rootes came up with = Ken Miles!

 

[michael-king]

The injured leg supposedly really upset Rootes who needed the racing publicity. Apparently during the injury time HSC refused the substitute driver Rootes came up with = Ken Miles!

Iirc ive read Doane only liked Adams driving his cars.. Sports, canam etc...

I also remeber reading Doane also waa concerned someone else driving the hsc Tiger would be able to learn his tricks... Didnt he remove much of his suspension, engine etc when the car was sold?

 

[at the beach]

Doanne supposedly had installed a quick rack and did modify the suspension. He reversed the mount of the calipers from the inside of the spindle to the outside and in the process had to mill the caliper and I believe the longer MG steering arms as well. He reversed the dish or offset of the rotors from inside to outside. This, combined with his HSC wheels (which would not have fit without those mods) helped ackerman and grip. Chris V recalls removing the calipers in the effort to turn the car over to Rootes so I imagine Doanne may have "normalized" the front a bit at that time. Stock HiPo heads were swapped onto the car replacing his tricked out gems which Doanne later told Tiger owner Mike Andress that had benifieted from moving the location of one of the valves. Ask Mike for details.