The Tiger Sharpens its Claws

Look at about 7:30, does the early Tiger have Mk2 headlight trim rings? I like the red body/white hardtop look.
 
A lot of the rally tigers ran the non-peak rims, perhpas so that snow didnt build up in them like it would with meaked ones.. perhaps for easier fitting of the stone sheilds they often fitted with leather limiiting straps. On the cars that ran the acopolis rally they had peaked rims.. but then again.. no snow on those rallies.

As a side note the LM alpines and LM Tigers ran generic round chrome lucas rims not the MKII style non-peak ones with the profile to match the peak in the top of the guard.
 
Not sure what you mean by rootes sourced or elsewhere.. assume you are reffeing to the plain round non-peaked chrome ones used on the LM Tiger and LM Alpines?

If so they were just generic round chrome rims from lucas, they were not used on rootes audux line products or any of the cars with the comon front guard line. They might have been used on the commers.. but they are just a generic 7" headlight trim ring as used on many british cars at the time.

I just always thought it odd that the used the rootes specific ones on the rally tigers and on the rootes supported racing alpines in the states and UK.. yet even the sebring and rally cars (which also ran at LM) used the plain round ones (excpet the USA preped sebing car wihch had the MKII style rims).. just rootes being rootes.. perhaps the MKII style ones were used on snowy rallies as if you used the plain round ones there is a ridge betwen the body and rim that snow could build up on and with the MKII ones there isnt
 
claws

that's a lot of speculation. it may also have been based on the budget. if you run the risk of losing them would you put a lot of money into something that was in short supply or use something generic. save money on one end and spend it on something more important.
 
Seabrook said:
My wild guess would have been aerodynamic drag had something to do with it.
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Larry.. if it was on the lemans cars.. sure i'd buy into that.. and i assume thats why they ditched the peaked "eyebrowed" rims on the lemans tigers, alpines and the circuit cars in many cases. But they didnt use the rootes parts, just the plain round ones.

On the rally cars they used the rootes ones.. as i said, they stop the ridge that things might build up on... but there would be no aero advantage as they just dont get to the speeds that it would make a difference.

It was a consisient choice. and in rootes fashion an odd one.. its not like they didnt have the parts in stock.. they were not rare then, just off the shelf items.. it predates the MKII itmes (they used chrome rims on the tigers and alpines, the husky, singer gazelle items.. not the painted ones of the mKII)

If aero was the true aim.. they really hsould have used the rootes items on the LM cars.. which some of them now have.

I have also heard a suggestion the race cars used the plain round ones as they may have been clip on and faster to change incase of breakage.. and the rootes clip ons had a habbit of clipping off...

probably the reason is lost to time.. but they were consistent in the factory use of the roote sones on the rally cars on snowy events (and a couple of others) and plain round ones on factory track cars.. sebing alpines, LM alpines 61-63 and the LM tiger in 64.
 
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