>I was admiring a very classy sports car called a TVR that I had never
>heard of, when the owner walked up and explained that it was British,
>and that TVR stands for Trevor, the guy who makes the car. It has
>a Ford 2.8 liter motor and a Jaguar rear end. Sort of a low end
>Lotus. Very suprising to see this car in a small town like Las Cruces
>where most people don't even know what my TR7 is.
Sounds like the somewhat homely (IMO) TVR Tasmin. The earlier cars are much
prettier.
So are the latest cars that are trying to look similar to the earlier cars!
TreVoR
Wilkinson started TVR back in the 50's. Some of the earliest TVRs sent to the
US
were called Jomars. These are very rare. The first production TVR was the
Grantura MK1 of 1958-1960. Only 100 were made before the model was updated and
called the Grantura MK2. Both the MK1 and MK2 used Coventry-Climax, MGA, or
Ford engines. By the time the MK2 was in production, most cars had MGA/B
engines.
Both models had a tube frame with Volkswagen front torsion bar suspension at the
front and the rear. Trevor's financiers pushed him further into the background,
while mis-managing the company. Trevor eventually became disgusted with the
way
the company was managed and left the company around 1962. He hadn't driven a
TVR until a couple of years ago, when the TVR car club US flew him out for
their
annual bash.
I won't bore anyone with anymore details, but the car evolved while retaining
the
characteristic stubby shape until 1979, when it was replaced with the Tasmin
series.
The wedge shape was in style at the time. TVR commissioned Oliver Winterbottom
to
do the styling. He also did the homely Lotus Elite and Eclat (not the early
Elite!).
The TVR car company became stable when Martin Lilley bought the company in 1965.
He finally sold it to Peter Wheeler in 1982. It's a shame that the new TVR's
aren't
available in the US.
A GIF of my '59 Grantura MK1 can be obtained from hoosier, or from me if you
don't
have access to FTP.
steve valin steve@sgi.com
I've just had my brain washed and I can't do a thing with it.
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