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| Dave Stone and his recently completed "Hollywood Sportscar" Tiger |
A nice frontal view of the car |
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In mid-June I attended a Sunbeam Tiger event in San Jose. The purpose
of my visit was to be re-united with the very original Firestone tires taken off
my Alexis
Project car. (Some of us are easily amused!)
You may recall that the 37-year old on the Alexis tires were in such
great shape that I felt they should find a home on some significant restoration. As it turned out, this was accomplished
when I gave the tires to Dave Stone in California. He was restoring a very historically significant Sunbeam Tiger -- The Hollywood
Sportscar Tiger -- which is a uniquely successful Tiger racecar of the mid-60s, 1966 to be exact. The car gets its "Hollywood
Sportscar" name from the famous Doane Spencer race prep shop where the car was built for racing back in the 60s.
Most unexpectedly, that Tiger
actually
used the exact same 13" tires which were taken off the Alexis. Dave even had period
pictures of the car shod in the very same Firestone tires. So, he was most anxious and appreciative of getting them
for his significant project car. The first big unveiling of his beautiful restoration was at this Tiger event and so I went out to see it (and my tires). It was a great event centered around the unveiling of Dave #55 Tiger. Obviously it was as big a hit as the car was immaculately restored in every minute detail of period correctness. An honored guest for the weekend was Ron Dykes who actually drove the car to its championship in 1966. The car has already been accepted for the Monterey Pre-Historics in August (Yes, the car is of that caliber). Maybe that will cause me to finally go see the Monterey event. It would be fun to see the car on-track (albeit with some newer rubber on the road!!). So, thanks to Dave for inviting me. It was a pleasure seeing the fruits of his two year endeavor -- a true labor of love. |
