On February 23rd 1965 31-year old Charlie Parsons of Oklahoma City OK specially ordered a brand new 1965 Sunbeam Tiger from Auto Europe in Chicago. Why Auto Europe? Because Charlie wanted them to arrange what they had for countless other customers looking for the trip of a lifetime. He wanted to accept delivery of his new Tiger in Antwerp, Belgium where he would then spend the next few weeks getting to know his new Ford-powered sports car on vacation.
And on April 15th 1965 Mr. Parson’s European adventure began when he met his new Tiger for the first time at N.V. Camerman, the official Rootes Group dealer for Antwerpen.
Three weeks later Charlie would return his new Tiger, now with 3,275 miles of adventure registering on its odometer, back to Antwerpen where it would be delivered by ship back to the USA, to the port of Houston Texas to be exact, where it arrived on June 11th 1965.
“This trip, from the time the ink hit the order form until Charlie’s Tiger was back in Oklahoma, involved less that four months. But it began a love affair between Charlie and his Tiger that would extend for the rest of Charlie’s life almost fifty years later. Even Hollywood couldn’t dream up a story this good.
Once home from Europe Charlie’s Tiger saw limited use over the following decades, a total of 22,000 miles by 2014 10 be exact. But it is clear the Tiger never saw a limited amount of care. After Charlie’s passing his family sold his Tiger, still in virtually new condition, with even its original paint looking just like it did in 1965. Sure, it needed some servicing after years of sitting under a cover, but after all of that was done she now runs like new again as well. What Is even more impressive is the amount of documentation Charlie saved from Day 1. I can honestly say I have never seen a more organized or comprehensive collection of documents with any old car- Charlie even saved the envelopes! I’ve posted a sampling of it here just because it is so fascinating.
Over the years I’ve owned a lot of Sunbeam Tigers, most of them pretty amazing in their own right. And a lot of them have been original and unrestored as well. But as far as I’m concerned “Charlie’s Tiger” takes the cake for its story and level of preservation. While I wasn’t fortunate enough to meet Charlie I can tell by his Tiger that he was my kind of guy. It is my goal to care for this Tiger the way he did for the years to come, and I’m certain I’l often think about just how much fun Charlie and this Tiger had for those first 3,275 miles racing through Europe!
