I owned a Sunbeam Tiger I bought new in May of 1967. The original ones ('65-'67) had Ford 260 V8s they bought from Ford after the 289 replaced it. The Tiger II, which was made for 1/2 year (or less), had the 289. They had run out of 260s. They were actually 1968 models sold as 1967 1/2.
A little history: Lord Roots who owned Sunbeam contracted Carol Shelby to make a tiger out of his Alpine. It was essentially an entirely new car with a similar looking body. The actual weight balance was 51/49. Only drawback was to get the back two spark plugs out, you had to open a door in the firewall from the inside footwell. It had some Cobra carryovers - Warner T10 transmission, but a stock engine with 2 barrel carb. They had Cobra kits to add on - everything from street headers, 4-barrel carb and manifold (said "TIGER" on the side instead of COBRA), to a solid lifter kit - all Shelby designed.
Here's where it gets interesting. By 1967, Chrysler had bought Sunbeam and was still producing the Tiger. My English built Sunbeam had a Chrysler motors gold emblem on each side above the rocker panel, and a Ford engine under the hood. Two things ended production. Chrysler didn't want to be selling cars with Ford engines in them and the new American safety regulations had recently come into being which eliminated a lot of cool imports after 1967. An extensive redesign wasn't practical. '67 was also the last year of the Austin Healey 3000 - another safety reg casualty. Later MGs had to add ugly impact bumpers to meet new regs and eventually jack the body off the frame to meet height regs. They still made MGs the way they were supposed to be in England but shipped "Americanized" versions over here. Sunbeam was long gone though. Really miss that car although it got me in a lot of trouble.
