1969 Sunbeam Alpine GT - Back on Craigslist

As I've mentioned before, I have a soft spot for cars made by Rootes. My grandmother worked for Rootes in their Manhattan office. My first British roadster was a Sunbeam Alpine. I even had a dog named Rootes.

Rootes, the dog, came into my life around 1988 when some a**hole threw her out of a car in the parking lot in front of my business. I grabbed her before she ran into traffic and took her inside.

A few days later a man, who had a few too many drinks at the bar next door, came into my business and started playing with the dog. He then started insisting that the dog was some sort of exotic breed. (She was very obviously a mutt. She most likely came from a very long - but distinguished - line of mutts.) The more I insisted that she was a mutt, the more he insisted that she was a purebred exotic dog. He just couldn't remember what the name of the breed was. (As drunk as he was, I'm not certain he would have been able to tell me his own name had I asked.) I happened to be looking at a catalog of Sunbeam parts at the time and, seeing the word Rootes, I finally said "Yeah, you're right, she's a New England Rootehound", just to shut him up. Much to my amazement and amusement, he replied "I knew it! Rootehounds are great dogs! They make great pets. You're going to love her!" For the next few days me and the guys who worked for me called her "The Rootehound". Eventually it was shortened to Rootes.

Rootes lived to the ripe old age of 16. For 13 years she came to work with me everyday. When I'd take one of my roadsters to work, she'd bark until I put the top down. On mornings when it was too cool to put the top down, she'd spend the 20 minute drive looking at the roof and barking. I think she thought she could intimidate it into lowering by itself. She spent her last 3 years of life at home, sitting on the front lawn in the summer and in front of the fireplace in the winter. Not a bad life for a dog who was so unwanted by someone that they threw her out of a car in a parking lot near a busy street. She was the first and last of the noble New England Rootehound breed.

OK, this isn't a pet blog, it's time to write about the car...

I wrote about this car back in February, 2010. You can find the post here.

The Alpine GT replaced the Alpine roadster in the US. Looking a lot like a shrunken Plymouth Barracuda (no surprise as Chrysler owned Rootes Motors by the time this car was designed and built), the Alpine GT was relatively quick and very well appointed. It was one of only a few reasonably priced British GT cars ever sold in the US (I consider the Triumph GT6+ and the MGB GT sports cars. A true GT has a backseat that is at least semi-inhabitable. The Sunbeam's is, the Triumph's and the MG's are not. The Jensen Interceptor and Jaguar XJS are GTs, but they weren't reasonably priced.)

These cars never sold well in the US. Few survive. This is one of the nicest I've seen.

The asking price is $4500.00, but the seller is willing to take "interesting trades", including your "unfinished project". Hmmm... If it wasn't so far away from me...

Located somewhere near Portland, OR, click here to see the Craigslist ad.

A big thanks to JaCG reader, Tim, for sending me the link to this car!

The picture below is of Rootes sitting in the front yard. In the background, in front of the garage, is one of the Alfa Spiders I owned at the time.