Ian Garrad was the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

West Coast sales manager for

Rootes Group The Rootes Group was a British automobile manufacturer and, separately, a major motor distributors and dealers business. From headquarters in the West End of London, the manufacturer was based in the English Midlands, Midlands and the distribu ...

, parent company of

Sunbeam A sunbeam, in meteorological optics, is a lightbeam, beam of sunlight that appears to radiate from the position of the Sun. Shining through openings in clouds or between other objects such as mountains and buildings, these beams of light scatter ...

. He was instrumental in the design and eventual production of the

Sunbeam Tiger The Sunbeam Tiger is a high-performance V8 engine, V8 version of the British Rootes Group's Sunbeam Alpine Roadster (automobile), roadster, designed in part by American car designer and racing driver Carroll Shelby and produced from 1964 unti ...

Sunbeam Tiger

Ian started his career as a factory representative in

Toronto, Canada Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in 1951. Ten years later, he became the manager of the west coast sales unit for the Rootes Group, in Los Angeles. It was during this time that he discovered that while the

Sunbeam Alpine The Sunbeam Alpine is a two-seater sports roadster (automobile), roadster/drophead coupé that was produced by the Rootes Group from 1953 to 1955, and then 1959 to 1968. The name was then used on a two-door fastback coupé from 1969 to 1975. T ...

fared well in

SCCA The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting Autocross, Rallycross, High Performance Driver Education, HPDE, Time trial, Time Trial, Road racing, Road Racing, Regularity rally, R ...

events, drivers were begging for more power. He produced two prototypes for what would become the

, with a degree of risk to his career. The best of the two prototypes were shipped back to

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with the goal of persuading management to enter production; a new car with the Tiger name consisting of the diminutive Alpine body with a large Ford V8 engine. The model was short lived due to labor problems in England, such that Chrysler was brought in as a minority partner in 1965. Chrysler showed no interest in producing a sports car using a competitor's engine, nor the man that bought it to market. Ian moved on to other ventures but was active with Tiger Clubs, until his death in 1986.

References

Living people American salespeople American marketing businesspeople Year of birth missing (living people) Rootes Group {{US-business-bio-stub