1947 - 1962 The early years
TVR Engineering was formed in 1947 by TreVoR Wilkinson in Blackpool. That year he rebodied his old Alvis Firebird. The first true TVR was built in 1949. Amongst other details it took its front coil springs from a dogdem car! The second car was built in 1950 and the third in 1951. These first cars ware all aluminium bodied open sportscars.
In 1953 production started on a new chassis which carried a variety of glassfibre bodies and used many different engines. Around 20 of these cars were built. In 1955 Trevor designed the first backbone type chassis used in all production TVRs to this day. Ray Saidel asked TVR to supply unbodied cars with Coventry Climax engines for the American market. These cars were sold as Jomars. This led to further development of the chassis as TVR geared up for true series production. Unfortunately this was a false dawn despite around 200 orders being received from the USA. The number actually produced is not clear but it was not large.
Serious production finally got underway in 1958 with the TVR Mk 1. This later became known as the Grantura Mk 1 and set the mould for many years with its long nose and wraparound rear window. At this time TVR was lurching from one financial crisis to another and Wilkinson was being gradually edged out of control. In 1960 the Grantura Mk II appeared with some body and chassis changes. John Thurner designed the chassis which in a few variants served TVR for many years. In 1961 the Mk IIa was introduced with front disc brakes as standard and one was road tested by The Motor magazine. In 1962 the prototype Grantura Mk III is built using the Thurner chassis. Trevor Wilkinson resigned and a works team took part in the Le Mans 24 hour race with a spectacular lack of success.
1962 - 1965 The V8s arrive At some point in 1962, legend has it, an AC Cobra and a TVR Grantura were in Jack Griffith's New York workshops. The mechanics, naturally, decided to see if the Cobra's V8 would fit in the Grantura. It did. Well it almost did. Griffith decided to do a proper conversion on a MK III and found it to be a very quick car.
TVR ended 1962 in receivership. In 1963 the line is continued by Grantura Engineering. In 1963 Griffith decides to sell V8 engined TVRs in the US and the Griffith 200 is born. The cars are good for 150mph. In 1964 the body is restyled with a new tail utilising Ford Cortina 'ban the bomb' lights. This new style was used for the MG engined Grantura MK III 1800S and the Griffith 400. At this time around 90% of production was going to the USA. The first attempt to move away from the traditional TVR body was begun when Trevor Fiore designed the Trident. In 1965 the Griffith finally makes it to the UK market, the Trident was shown at Geneva to great acclaim and Jack Griffith ended his association with Grantura Engineering. The company was again having money problems and sliding toward bankruptcy.
1965 - 1982 The Lilley Years
Arthur and Martin Lilley bought the company and TVR Engineering was back in business. One story is that Martin's Griffith was at the factory when the company went under and he wanted it back! At some point during the changes bits of the Trident project left TVR and soon reappeared on an Austin Healey chassis built by Bill Last's Trident Car Company. Under the circumstances the Lilleys thought it unwise to pursue the issue and concentrated on turning what was left into a going concern. Some cars were assembled using remaining parts. Some cars were even exported to the US, this time imported by Gerry Sagerman.
In 1966 the MK IV 1800S is introduced with numerous improvements. Trevor Fiore is once again called upon, this time to help design the Imp based Tina. 1967 saw the introduction of the new V8, this time under the Tuscan name. Later this year the wheelbase was lengthened to 7' 6", the doors were enlarged and a number of other changes to the body were introduced including MKII Cortina rear lights. The Tina generated much interest but failed to make it into production.
By the end of 1967 the (mostly) Ford Kent powered Vixen S1 was in production and sales were at last on the increase. In '68 the 'wide body' Tuscan V8 arrived, a precursor to future styling changes. By the end of the year the Vixen S2 is in production with the longer chassis and new style body. The Lilley revolution was underway. The company even made a small profit! '69 saw the first of many 6 cylinder cars with the new Tuscan V6. Powered by the Ford Essex 3 litre, the car made many friends in the motoring press. Vixen sales meanwhile were getting better all the time. 1970 saw TVR move to new premises at Bristol Avenue. Late in the year the Vixen S3 saw some detail changes and the 2500 was announced. TVR needed a powerplant which would meet US emissions laws for the foreseeable future and the straight 6 Triumph TR6 unit was adopted. 1971 started with the first 2500s.
During the year the new M series was being developed and at the end of the year the last Tuscan was delivered. 1972 was a major transition period. The last of the 2500s and the Vixen S4 were built on the M series chassis but with the old style body. (M is for Martin incidentally) The original M series consisted of three models, the Triumph engined 2500M for the American market and the Ford powered 1600M and 3000M mainly for domestic consumption. The 1600M was dropped in 1973 and in 1974 sales passed the 400 mark. Three days into 1975 disaster struck, a fire gutted a large part of the factory and destroyed a number of cars. TVRs existence was once again in doubt but with enormous effort from loyal staff and assistance from TVR North America the company clawed its way back to health. The first post fire car was built around April but it took the whole year to get production back to normal.
The awesome 3000M turbo raised the engine power from 138bhp to 230bhp and took performance into the supercar league. The turbo installation had been developed by Broadspeed for the Ford Capri but the project died. The 1600M was reintroduced. In 1976 the Taimar finally added a hatchback to the range, otherwise identical to the 3000M it was also available as a turbo. 1977 saw the 2500M replaced by a detoxed version of the 3000M.
In 1978 the TVR Convertible is the first open car since 1958 and immediately becomes the best seller. Again it is based on the 3000M and available as a turbo. Somehow it became known as the 3000S. In the background TVR were working with ex Lotus designer Oliver Winterbottom on a completely new car. In 1979 as the last M series cars were being produced the factory was gearing up for the car which finally broke the continuous evolution from the MK I. The first production Tasmin was started in November. The range was introduced with a choice of 2 litre, 4 cylinder Ford ‘Pinto’ (Tasmin 200) or 2.8 litre V6 ‘Cologne’ (Tasmin 280) engines and convertible or hardtop bodies. The soft top was built first to familiarise the factory staff with the new cars before the coupe production was started. In 1981 the +2 was added to the range but sales were not going well and after nearly 15 years of relative prosperity TVR was again on shakey ground financially.
1982 - 2004 Peter Wheeler invents the modern TVR
Sales started picking up and Tasmin production continued. A few turbo cars were built and shown but thoughts were turning to a new engine. The 2 litre cars were not selling and the decision was made to move up to the ex Buick 3.5 litre Rover V8 . In 1983 the 350i was introduced and the Tasmin 280 became the 280i. 1984 was the year the Tasmin 200 expired and TVR started increasing the size and potency of the Rover powerplant. The 390SE was the start of a push toward higher and higher performance, indeed a few escaped the factory with 4.2 litre engines!
The problem with the Tasmin, or “wedge” was that you either love the shape or you hate it. TVR knew that they were missing a huge chunk of the market who harked back to the more round styling of previous TVRs. So at the 1986 Motor Show, TVR first offered his customers the new mighty S Series! Although similar in looks to the previous 3000S, the only shared components are the door handles! It used the same Ford 2.8 Cologne seen in the Tasmin/280i although this quickly became the 2.9 litre unit in the S2 and S3.
The Griffith was introduced at the 1990 Motor Show and took 10 times as many orders as the wedge-shaped Speed 8. The first Griffiths were delivered to customers in 1992, and the following year, the Chimaera was first shown to potential buyers. Both used V8 engines, with increased capacity. 1993 also saw the introduction of the Cerbera, again with a Rover V8 engine at the Motor Show. The production version would have TVRs own 4.2 litre AJP engine. This engine, stretched out to a V12, was the powerplant behind possibly the wildest TVR ever, the Speed 12, which though originally designed fom the outset as a race car, spawned a road going version of which one still exists. One bank of the Speed 12 effectively became the Speed Six engine which was used in every subsequent TVR.
In the meantime, the S Series was updated by the introduction of the S4C and the V8S, using the Rover V8 engine, and continued until 1994.
1999 saw the Griffith's replacement, the Tuscan, followed in 2001 by the Tamora to replace the Chimaera. These were joined by the T350 in 2003, and then by the Sagaris, a T350 on steroids with an array of cooling slots and spoilers etc and the 4.0 litre engine from the Tuscan S.
2004 to present In 2004, the TVR company was sold to a Russian, Nikolai Smolenski, who decided to focus on product development and quality control, resulting in arguably the best engineered TVRs ever produced. The future looked rosy, with the announcements of a brand new new purpose-built production facility near Blackpool airport, together with a move of the company headquarters to a new facility in Lancaster to include a TVR museum.
However, sales fell off during 2006 along with the plans for TVR's future. The company was initially split into a smaller number of companies including TVR Engineering, TVR Cars Distribution Ltd and Blackpool Automotive, the latter comprising the manufacturing division at Bristol Avenue. The bitter blow fell in December 2006 when it was announced that Blackpool Automotive had gone into receivership. In February 2007 the receivers placed Blackpool Automotive up for sale, including the TVR trademark, in a sealed bid auction. Nikolai then bought back the company - and most importantly the intellectual property rights to the name TVR - for a fraction of what he originally paid for it in 2004.
After a lengthy period of rumours and speculation and promised "relaunches". it emerged that TVR had been sold in June 2013 to a British company owned by Les Egdar, former VP of EA Games, before taking Aston Martin to a class win at Le Mans. Seems like the right person to TVR forward into a new era!
In 2015, news of the launch of a new TVR was released to the public, to great fanfare, and TVR started taking deposits for the first cars to be produced in 2017 at a purpose-built new factory in Wales.
There followed another lengthy period of rumours and speculation and promised "launches", punctuated by initially-keen customers asking for the refund of their deposits. At the time of writing (January 2024) only one prototype car has been produced. The Welsh factory is not completed.
In December 2023, TVR announced that its new European Development and Brand Cetre would be located at Thruxton Race Circuit.
Promising?
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