Understanding TVR: the life and times of an unforgettable British car maker

The appeal of a TVR is obvious: powerful, affordable, and handsome. Before and after the closure of the Blackpool factory in Bristol Road in 2006, the TVR Car Club enthusiastically supported (and continues to support) every TVR, from the earliest specials to the last Sagaris or Typhon. But the firm had a long and illustrious history well before the flip paint, sonorous exhaust notes, and outrageous styling.

To the 5,000-member TVR Car Club, preserving the marque’s legacy means using the cars it created on road and on track. On its website it states: “We aim to promote all things TVR…We have always argued that with the performance available in any TVR, it cannot be fully exploited on the public highway so we give our members the opportunity to drive on the race circuit at our various track days.”

TVR: a potted history (1947-2006)

With its roots in Blackpool, Lancashire-based Trevcar Motors was formed by the late Trevor Wilkinson in 1947, to sell and repair cars, as well as perform general engineering works. That same year, with enthusiast, Jack Pickard, TVR Engineering (from the first, middle and last letters of his name, TreVoR) was formed, so the pair could build their own cars.

The firm quickly made a name for itself in tubular backbone chassis design, with its Morris Eight-based One and Two (the earliest example of which is now in the Lakeland Motor Museum) and Three winning races.

An alliance with US racer Raymond Saidel produced a series of cars known as ‘Jomars’; Saidel liked TVR’s chassis design and built a series of cars for his own use, and for customers. Bernard Williams joined in 1955 as director; three years later, the four-cylinder Mk1, soon renamed ‘Grantura’ was released, TVR’s first formal ‘model’ and a further development of the Jomar-chassied cars sent to the US.

Cash flow problems beset the company as the 50s ended and trouble followed into the next decade, eventually coming under the control of Keith Aitchison and Bryan Hopton, who ran a Lotus/TVR dealer in Chester. By 1961, two new companies existed: Layton Sports Cars Limited and a sister firm, Grantura Engineering Limited.

Despite a raft of smaller race wins, the firm, paradoxically, had a poor Le Mans debut, just before Trevor Wilkinson left.

He and Jack Pickard went on to set up another engineering business in TVR’s wake. US sales were falling, and the Grantura, while well-regarded, was also behind schedule.

After much wrangling, Layton Sports Cars got a new name: TVR Cars Limited. A sister firm, Grantura Plastics Limited was created to build the fibreglass bodies the new firm needed.

Management also learned of an experimental Blue Oval V8-engined Grantura variant known as the Griffith, built by Long Island, New Jersey Ford dealer, Jack Griffith, creating a nameplate that would be revived twice more, as history records.

Development in the UK proceeded at a rapid pace, but TVR, unable to meet demand, went into liquidation in 1964, work split between the Griffith series and the Trevor Fiore-designed, aluminium bodied Trident. Dealer, Bill Last, bought the rights to the car and began building Tridents as a stand-alone marque two years later.

It was in 1965 that father and son shareholders, the Lilleys (Arthur and Martin), bought TVR’s assets to offset the loss of their investment. Keen to rebuild the reputation of the Griffith in the US, they developed the car into the Tuscan, itself a spin-off of the Vixen (1967-1973) which was a much-improved Grantura 1800S.

Although racing driver, Gerry Marshall, had done much for the Griffith’s image on track, in the US, the car had poor standing with customers owing to build quality and reliability. While the Tuscan (V8) aimed to mitigate this, it was not a success. Modifications performed to racer John Burton’s car by mechanic, Mike Bigland, resulted in a car that provided the basis for the later M Series of the Seventies.

Elsewhere, considerable efforts were expended trying to get a new model – the steel-bodied Tina – off the ground; ultimately, it came to nothing. 1970 saw the firm move to a new site in Blackpool (Bispham) – Bristol Avenue, where the firm would stay for 36 years.

In 1972, the M Series – successor to the Vixen and Tuscan – was ready, with a John Bigland-designed chassis, it was stronger, lighter and more responsive than its predecessors. Two consecutive years previously, TVR had made headlines like never before when nude models appeared on its stand at Earls Court. Exports for the M Series were strong in the US, and more distributors signed on in Europe.

The beloved M Series, which ended its run with the Taimar, was replaced with the angular Tasmin of 1980; designed by Oliver Winterbottom, its high price and contemporary did much to put off the TVR faithful.

Chemical mogul and TVR fan Peter Wheeler was in control the same year. The company moved away from the fours, V6 and straight six engines that had characterised earlier models, and shifted gradually towards the Rover V8, buying into a Coventry-based engine specialist and renaming it TVR Power.

The so-called Wedge-era, begun by the Ford V6-engined Tasmin of 1980, ended in 1989 with the Rover V8-powered 430SE in 1991, with V8s displacing as much as 4.5-litres in the form of the 450 SEAC.

The entry-level S Series (1986-1994) also harked back to the rounder TVRs of yore, the latter V8S cars providing a test bed for the later models that were to characterise Wheeler’s tenure of TVR – the revival of the Griffith name in 1990, and the Chimaera of 1993, with styling assistance from Wheeler’s German Pointer dog, Ned, who had the freedom of the factory.

Ned’s teeth marks in the lower half of an early foam Chimaera model were later fashioned into a lower grille and indicator nacelles, bisected by a lower swage line that ran the perimeter of the body. With a lengthened Griffith chassis, the Chimaera was a softer and more accessible TVR, all things relative, with a large boot and the option of power steering.

1996’s Cerbera coupe, and 1999’s Tuscan (the name was used in the 60s, 70s and 90s Challenge Race Series) would use TVRs own straight-six engines (the firm’s own V8 engine would also appear in the later Cerbera Speed Eight, and a V12 would also be used in the limited run, race homologated Cerbera Speed Twelve.

TVR moved into engine production as supplies of the venerable Rover V8 dried up, and would continue into the T350C, Tamora, Typhon and Sagaris models, the latter launched under Wheeler but mostly produced under the auspices of TVR’s new owner, Nikolay Smolensky, whom Wheeler sold the firm to in 2004.

Two years later, TVR’s Bristol Avenue factory would be closed. Now demolished, the industrial estate is home to a TVR specialist and is a regular site of pilgrimage for the TVR Car Club.

Once loud (and proud), TVR was reduced to silence.

Heard, and never forgotten, the most memorable aspect of a pre-2000 TVR, defined by their engines, is obvious. TVR Car Club secretary, Mervyn Larner, summarised their appeal brilliantly. “It’s the sound,” he said.

In a 1992 interview with CAR Magazine, the late Peter Wheeler was similarly blunt. “I don’t think it’s because we make the best cars in the world,” he said. “What we make are cars that are good value for money.”

Footnote: TVR post-Wheeler

With Wheeler out of the picture in 2004, Bristol Avenue lasted until 2006, Wheeler passed away in 2009, aged 64.

Seven years later, Smolensky sold TVR to a consortium led by businessman Les Edgar – and a new Ford V8 engined, Peter Stevens-chassied Griffith was launched, glimpsed at the 2017 Goodwood Revival. While production has yet to begin, further investment has promised an electric Griffith, and a future range of TVR electric vehicles and SUVs.