The Story of TVR — The Boy Car Blog

In 1946 Trevor Wilkison opened a car garage called Trev Car Motors. A couple of years later his friend wanted to join the shop, so he did and they renamed the company TVR. After a couple of years, they had their first car. It was called the TVR One. This little sports car was very similar to the Caterham Super Seven and would be the first of many to be struck by TVR’s bad luck.

They had the whole frame built out, complete with a Ford engine that produced less than 50 horsepower, they just needed a coachbuilder to build the body. So they gave it to a local coachbuilder to design and build out a sporty looking body. When they had finished the build, the designer wanted to take the new car for a test drive. He crashed it. This would be the first of many of TVR’s unlucky cars.

In 1955 TVR made their second car. It was a sleek, low design that kept the center of gravity super close to the ground. A guy named Ray Saidel, who was racing in America at the time, noticed the greatness of the little TVR Sports Saloon and ordered seven of them to race in.

Ray started to win lots of races in the little British Sportscar. People started to notice Ray and the car, and asked if they could buy a TVR. So Ray partnered with TVR to sell the sports saloon in the US. The US version had a name change to Jomar and it was made with a little more trunk space. They even started to make a hardtop version just because the public wanted it. But it didn’t sell well and they had many mechanical issues.

Their next car, called the Grantura, was one amazing car. It was light and had really good handling and it was super fast for the horsepower. But, there was a big problem with it. It wasn’t really suited to the streets of the UK. It was uncomfortable, had no cargo space, and it guzzled down fuel. There were only a few sold, and the ones that did had many issues. This caused the company to go bankrupt.

After they had got back on their feet, TVR needed a new car. A Long Island Ford dealership owner, by the name of Andrew Griffith, had an idea. He wanted to cram a small block V8 under the hood of the great handling Grantura, he had one problem though, the engine was literally too big. So, he did the next logical thing and asked TVR to make a new chasis to fit the small block on.

In 1964 TVR announced the TVR Griffith. This car is probably one of the best sounding TVR’s ever. The body styling was mean and aggressive, and it leaned back every time it accelerated, which was super cool. There were tons of orders for this new British V8 sports car. TVR were unfortunately having a hard time shipping the cars to the US, which meant they had fewer sales. Ford also became frustrated with the new car not selling, and they didn’t want to damage the Ford name, so they stopped supplying TVR with the engines for the Griffith. They had to shut the factory down again because they couldn’t produce the car without the engine.

At the 1965 British Auto Show TVR showed a concept car. They had put all of their remaining money into just getting the car to the show. Arthur Lilly, a former Lotus engineer, was very interested when he saw the car, so he bought the company, and finally, TVR was back in business again.

Arthur thought they needed a Griffith but without a V8, so that’s what they did. They offered customers engines going from an inline four, all the way up to a V6. These engine options helped the newly called Vixen TVR to be super successful.

And then the factory burned down. So, they bought a new factory and needed to make a new model to help boost the sales of the slowly dying company. The guy who designed the new car was called Oliver Winterbottom (which is the best name ever by the way). It was boxy and not at all aerodynamic. It was called the Tasmin. Let’s just say this car was the worst TVR ever (and they have had a few by this stage).

Arthur Lilly had enough with the company, so he sold it to a big TVR enthusiast named Peter Wheeler. In 1986 TVR threw the boxy design in the trash and went back to their roots of little roadsters. They called their new car the Series S, and It was a huge success. People loved them for a weekend drive and as fun track cars. They also brought back the beloved Griffith, with a luxury model called the Chimaera. There was also a TVR built that had 2 small back seats, called the Carebaera.

But in 1999 they created one of the most good looking TVR’s yet, the Tuscan. It had a wavy body line with a beautiful hood that didn’t have any straight lines. And, in TVR fashion, there were no airbags or power steering, even though it was a law in the UK by now.

The inline 6 had a great sound, but it had 2 problems. The battery was mounted on the underside of the car was completely exposed, so it caught on fire really easily. Then when it did catch fire, you couldn’t get the hood off the car because it was bolted down! This meant the whole car would burn before you could open the hood. Even with this big issue, the car still sold really well and will go down in history as the best looking TVR ever.

The next TVR to be made was called the Sagaris, and it would be one of the coolest RWD cars ever with side-mounted exhausts, large hood vents, and loud sound from the engine. It was crazy. It weighed the same as a Mazda Miata, but it had over 400 horsepower. But this would end up being the last TVR that you could buy for a while.

There was a plan to make a Sagaris Speed 12, but one day the CEO of the company took the prototype out for a test drive, and when he got back to the office he advised that the car had too much power and that he could barely control the car. So it was scrapped.

The company was sold to some British businessmen who wanted to start the company back up again. So, in 2015, they announced the new Griffith. It looks like it could turn out to be a pretty cool car and hopefully it should go on sale very soon.

The story of TVR is one of perseverance and resilience, given the roadblocks that they have conquered. They are a really good British company and I hope we see more cool TVRs soon!