Complete Kit Car – September 2019

ANNIVERSARY | TIGER RACING

40 September 2019 http://www.completekitcar.co.uk

Very tidy Zetec installation on throttle bodies.

Positively luxurious interior for this Cat E1. Matching seats have carbon effect detailing.

Steve Tuck hadn’t planned to buy a kit car at all!

Always a tinkerer with his existing cars, in 2005 he

came across an unfinished Tiger Cat E1 and bought

it on impulse. “I spent the next six months taking it

apart!” he laughs. Completed with its original Pinto

engine two years later, it passed the SVA regulations for which it was

never designed (being an early example). Since then he’s constantly

fettled the Cat, the most significant change being to upgrade the

engine to a 2.0-litre Duratec on Jenvey throttle bodies. “With the

Duratec it was a changed car,” comments Steve. And with over 200bhp

we aren’t surprised. Since he’s had the car Steve has used it extensively,

not just with his local EATOC group, but also on regular continental

trips. He reckons he’s done around 30,000 miles in it so far. “I don’t like

being without the car on the road, and I’m not one for polishing.”

TIGER CAT E1

the Tiger Six was ready for the Sandown kit

car show mere months later.

Originally Ford Crossflow powered,

it would be the introduction of a Ford

Pinto engine that would define the car’s

distinctive styling and name... the taller

engine enforcing a bonnet bulge and

ushering in the name change. The Tiger

Super Six became the company’s mainstay

for years to come.

Unlike the RM Seven, which was

too similar to the Caterham Seven to

escape legal action, the Super Six was

indeed distinctive. Not only was the

bodywork utterly unique (particularly the

bonnet bulge and distinctly profiled rear

wheelarches), but the car’s construction

bore little resemblance to anything else.

For starters, the Super Six used larger-

than-usual 1.5in square chassis tubes

and up front Jim Dudley called on his

Volkswagen expertise to use Golf lower

wishbones, modified VW uprights and

Golf vented front discs and calipers. Add

in a Golf upper steering column alongside

more conventional Ford Cortina based

components, and the Super Six was utterly

unique... and capable.

Pushing hard, and up against a tough

recession, in 1994 the company then

landed a major contract to supply complete

cars to Japan. A move to much larger

premises in Charlton, South East London,

saw production ramped up and all was

looking rosy, until Japan pulled the plug

and Tiger once again found itself facing a

fight to survive.

By then, Tiger had developed its Zetec

engined model with independent rear

suspension SSI (which stood for Super Six

036 Tiger.indd 40 02/08/2019 1:41 pm