Jon's Tiger Avon Build

Sunday, August 12, 2007

1st Tiger Visit

Saturday 11th August 2007

I have been up to Tiger's workshop today and I was a bit disappointed as Jim (the MD) was quite 'off-ish'. Also the parts place closed at 1pm and my mate Ian (Tiger Supercat owner) came with me just to purchase a £350 roll bar that was waiting for him. I had pre-arranged the trip over two weeks prior to the "1pm meeting" and Jim was always pre-occupied with other customers so I wasn't that impressed. I asked him to quickly go through some cost options so I could get a kit on order but he said "..to speak to Sue on Monday". Again, not impressed as I had £8k in my pocket ready to give to him!!

I had it all planned that I was going to build a V6 Tiger Super 6. My original budget was around £4k for a rolling chassis and £4k for engine/engine mods/transmission and a further £1k for the two exhaust systems, estimating build duration of 14-16 months. I have planned the build for four months to the last nut and bolt and now that I am ready I was upset to find out Tiger don't make a Super 6 anymore. Damn, back to the drawing board.

I kept asking Jim questions and wanted to see some examples (hoping to see demo cars) but he didn't really help. If it wasn't for the fact that there was quite a few Tiger owners there with their own kitcars I wouldn't of seen many cars at all. As with the Westfield visit a month before, I expected to see a mini-showroom and then have the sales pitch. OH NO I DIDN'T, Jim just wanted to pass it over to Sue in the parts department. They have a lot to learn there I think. I also think Tiger should keep up to date with their website AND prices.

Anyway after seeing Jim's point about the implications of using a V6 in a Tiger (of which I already knew and had made provision for) his comments were worthy as he HAS made over 2500 of the cars! After a few conversations with Jim and some punters I have narrowed the options to an Avon Zetec, totally damn different to the V6 Super Six, but it does have a wider cockpit.