Information AboutTvr |
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]] ]] TVR is a manufacturer of Sports Car s, located in Blackpool in Lancashire , England . TVR has survived, not just as a marque, but as a thriving independent manufacturer. TVR's philosophy is to create light-weight sports cars with powerful engines and no driver aids. TVR comprises TVR Engineering, which manufacture sports cars and grand tourers, and TVR Power, their powertrain operation. HISTORY TVR was founded in 1947 by Trevor Wilkinson , under the name of Trevcar Motors. In 1954, Wilkinson changed the name of the company by taking three consonants of his first name for the company name. The first car was built in 1949. In 1953 the concept of Glass-reinforced Plastic bodywork over a tubular steel backbone chassis was born, which is continued to this day. Many of the early cars were sold in kit form to avoid a British tax on assembled cars but in the 1970s this option was phased out and only complete cars sold as that loophole was closed. In the late 1950s, TVRs were powered by Coventry Climax engines, MGA 4-Cylinder or 4-cylinder Ford Engines (with performance models having Shorrock superchargers). As with many other British sports cars, engine size remained beneath 2 litres, and all produced less than 100bhp. Most TVRs were sold in the domestic (British) market, although small quantities were exported overseas. In the 1960s, American motor dealer Jack Griffith decided to transplant a 4.7 litre V8 from an AC Cobra he owned into a TVR Grantura, much in the same way that V8s were first transplanted to AC Cobras (It is in honour of Jack Griffith that the TVR Griffith was named). Towards the end of the 1960s, TVR returned to Ford for a 2994cc V6 Zodiac engine for the new Tuscan racer. This produced 128bhp, giving a 0-60 time of 8.3 seconds, which was represented very acceptable performance for a 1960s car. The 1970s saw a number of engines used in TVRs (particularly the 'M Series', and Tasmin), these were mainly Triumph 2500s, and Ford Essex and Pinto V6s. In the 1980s under the ownership of Peter Wheeler, TVR moved away from naturally aspirated and turbocharged V6s back to large V8s, namely the Rover V8 (to which Rover bought the intellectual property rights from Buick). Capacity grew from 3.5 to 4.5 litres. In the 1990s, TVR Power (the powertrain producing arm of TVR) had produced a number of modified Rover V8s, but TVR decided to move towards an in-house engine design. The AJP8 engine was developed by Engineering Consultant Al Melling and was a lightweight alloy V8 - an noteable achievement for such a small company. It was originally destined for the Griffith and Chimaera but development took longer than expected and it finally hit the road in the Cerbera and the Tuscan race cars. It has been said that TVR's chairman, Peter Wheeler has a passion for traditional straight six powered British sportscars. Based on this, TVR set about designing a straight six derivative of the AJP8, but engineered to be cheaper to produce and maintain. This engine became known as the Speed 6 and was designed by TVR's head of engineering, John Ravenscroft (a protegee of Al Melling). This engine now powers most current TVRs. TVR TODAY TVR is the third largest specialised sports car manufacturer in the world. A diverse range of Coupé s and Convertible s are offered, most using an in-house Straight-6 cylinder engine design, others an in-house V8 . These cars are built from sturdy tubular steel frames, cloaked in aggressive body designs. TVR'S OWNERS The history of the company can divided into four eras, based on ownership:
In July 2004 , 24 year old Russian, Nikolai Smolenski, bought 100% of the company from its owner Chemical Industry Consultant and TVR Enthusiast Peter Wheeler, for about £15 million. Despite Smolenski's Russian origin, he reportedly intends for TVR to remain a British company and continue the tradition of building lightweight high-performance cars that started more than thirty years before he was born. In April 2006 TVR laid-off a small proportion of its 300 staff and are looking to relocate to an unspecified location due to poor sales over the winter period of 2005. Production is rumoured to have fallen from the building of twelve cars per week to only two. TVR have stated that they hope to bring back its laid-off workers once sales pick up. MODEL LIST 1 - Not technically a TVR model, but used TVR chassis/body. 2 - Never went into production. 3 - Built exclusively for racing. EXTERNAL LINKS
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