Hot Rod in Roadster Clothing: LS3-Swapped 1964 Sunbeam Alpine

The Sunbeam Alpine is a two-seat drop-head sports car, a roadster first manufactured by the Rootes Group from 1953-1955, and again from 1959-1968. We don’t really care about the Marks I and III (1953-1955)—like most British sports car enthusiasts, we’re more interested in the Series I-V Sunbeam Alpines produced from 1959-1968.

This Series III Sunbeam Alpine is the rarest of the bunch, only made in 1964 and 1965, with fewer than 6,000 being built. But that’s not why we think this silver-over-red 1964 example is cool; hiding under the classic 1960s European bodywork is an LS3-powered hot rod.

Two Seats, Eight Cylinders, No Roof—The Perfect Car

The American V-8 in a British sports car is not a new concept. Carroll Shelby had the idea back in 1961, when he asked AC Cars if he could shove a Ford V-8 into their Ace roadster, and the Shelby Cobra was born. At the same time that Shelby and AC Cars were partnering to build the Cobra, the Rootes Group was also thinking the Sunbeam Alpine needed more power to compete in the global markets. An attempt at a partnership with Ferrari to develop a high-powered inline-four failed, but separate conversations with Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles led to the development of Alpines powered by Ford V-8s.

Why was Ford getting so lucky with British sports car manufacturers wanting their new V-8? In the case of the Sunbeam Alpine, the Ford 260ci V-8 was the only one that would fit. Ultimately, Jensen Motors was awarded the contract to build the hot-rodded version of the Alpine, renamed the Sunbeam Tiger, with Carroll Shelby getting a small royalty for each car produced.

Can A British Roadster Be A Hot Rod?

The 1964-1967 Sunbeam Tigers built by Jensen Motors look nothing like the bewinged and LS3-powered 1964 Sunbeam Alpine seen here, which will be crossing the block at the Mecum Auctions event in Orlando on July 8, 2022. Tigers were based on the Series IV and V Alpines; as we mentioned, this 1964 is a Series III—the only Alpines to sport the jet-age tailfins.

Some HOT ROD readers might balk at calling a Sunbeam Alpine a hot rod, but it’s hard to argue after looking at the build sheet. The aforementioned LS3 is not the standard 430-hp mill from Chevy Performance (as if that isn’t enough power to make this flyweight sports car feel like a rocket ship)—the LS3 has a Comp Cams camshaft and Frankenstein Engine Dynamics heads, breathing through a FiTech EFI, stainless steel headers, and a Flowmaster exhaust.

A Tremec six-speed manual transmission connects the 500-ish horsepower LS3 (we estimate) to a narrowed Ford 8.8-inch rear axle on parallel leaf springs, with Wilwood disc brakes on all four corners to slow things down. If that’s not enough hot rod DNA for you, the front suspension is a narrowed Heidts Super Ride Mustang II kit, and there’s Mickey Thompson rubber on all four corners (ET Street S/S flavor, near as we can tell). Longitudinal V-8 with manually shifted gears feeding a live rear axle in a car manufactured with none of those parts originally—yeah, that’s a hot rod in our book.

LS3-Swapped Sunbeam Alpine—The Affordable Classic Corvette

If you want a truly American version of the 1960s V-8 roadster experience, expect to shell out a minimum of $50,000 for a solid-driving C2 Corvette. A 2nd-generation Ford Thunderbird could be had for a little more than half of that, but to our eye the 1964 Sunbeam Alpine is much more attractive than the Square Bird. A quick peruse of the interwebs shows an original 1959-1968 Sunbeam Alpine can be had for less than $15,000, with the best examples coming in well under $30,000, but those have half the desired number of cylinders. The flipside of that coin is the Sunbeam Tiger, ranging from $60,000 to well over $100,000.