Beautiful bruisers
TVR’s eventful history is peppered with blind alleys, culs de sac and – being less charitable – some monstrous creations that were never likely to win over an audience used to cars that blended aggression and beauty in equal measure.
But that should come as no surprise, because for a low-volume manufacturer working with a separate tubular chassis and a glassfibre body, just about every car you make has the potential to be unique.
Certainly in the early days every example was different, before the TVR template was set with the original Grantura, which provided the family ‘look’ right through to the dawn of the wedge at the start of the ’80s.
With that in mind, it’s almost impossible to narrow down the list to just 10, but here’s a selection of our favourite weird and wonderful one-offs from the Blackpool back catalogue.
1. 1971 SM TVR Zante
The most famous of all dead-on-arrival TVRs achieved notoriety first for being part of the infamous Earls Court show display featuring models Susan Shaw and Helen Jones in their birthday suits, and then for being dumped unceremoniously in the factory ‘graveyard’ when it was no longer needed.
Martin Lilley’s second foray into wedge territory was styled by ‘father of the TR7’ Harris Mann, its shooting brake style following the lead of the Reliant Scimitar GTE, and made by Specialised Mouldings Ltd in Cambridgeshire – hence SM.
An attempt to extend the model range with an upmarket, modern GT, it was stymied by sitting on an aged Vixen 2500 chassis with Triumph 2.5-litre power, and a poor reception in the critical US market sounded its death knell as the focus switched to the crucial new M-Series that was launched alongside it.
Anorak fact Sid James and Barbara Windsor reputedly tried to order an SM at the show to be used as a fundraiser for the Variety Club
2. 1967 Grantura Gem
The products of the Hoo Hill industrial estate were not always known for being pretty, but the Gem that emerged from TVR’s neighbour Grantura Plastics was particularly, er, ‘distinctive’…
It’s not strictly a true TVR, then, but the company was descended from Trevor Wilkinson’s original operation, staffed by former TVR employees, and was still producing all of TVR’s bodies.
Add in the fact that it was run by businessman, racing driver and TVR Car Club president Tommy Entwistle and it deserves a place in our list, even if TVR decided that its blunt-nosed lines meant that it didn’t deserve a place in its model line-up.
Still, the Gem had its qualities – not least a roomier cabin and a proper opening bootlid – and continued to be developed and raced by Entwistle for more than five decades.
Anorak fact The Gem’s long-wheelbase Tuscan chassis wore glassfibre panels, made in moulds taken from a hand-formed aluminium plug
3. 1965 TVR Trident Convertible
Perhaps TVR’s greatest missed opportunity, the fabulous Trident moved the company away from its famous style – formed by a pair of Rochdale bonnets – and into the world of sophisticated GTs, with an angular shape that predated the Tasmin by over a decade.
Four were made, but just one was a convertible – a must for the US market, which also demanded the 289cu in Ford V8 squeezed beneath the long, tapering bonnet.
The styling was by Trevor Frost – then working under his Italian mother’s maiden name Fiore – with the steel bodies made by Turin coachbuilder Fissore.
Orders worth £150k were taken at its 1965 Geneva debut, but the model slipped through the cracks in one of the firm’s regular changes of ownership, and was hijacked by Suffolk TVR dealer Bill Last.
New owner Martin Lilley watched on as Last’s Trident Car Co built c130 Clippers, Venturers and Tycoons on Austin-Healey and Triumph chassis – but at least he got the lovely prototype as a company car.
Anorak fact In the ultimate irony, glassfibre bodies for the Trident emerged from Grantura Plastics – TVR’s next-door neighbour
4. 1988 ‘White Elephant’
Having started its Blackpool life in standard 3.5-litre, 190bhp form, the Rover V8 grew into ever more extreme incarnations as the ’80s progressed.
As it got more powerful, however, strict emissions regulations became tougher to meet, so TVR began looking for a replacement.
A potential answer came from the unlikely source of Australia, in GM-Holden’s aluminium 5-litre V8 – supplied by Tom Walkinshaw, whose TWR team was building Commodore racers for the Aussie manufacturer.
The 440bhp HSV unit was mated to a Borg-Warner T5 ’box and fitted into a special car built to Wheeler’s personal spec.
The starting point was a 420SEAC chassis, while a 350i coupé body was crisply updated with muscular flared wheelarches and integrated headlamps behind Perspex covers.
When it was found that the Rover unit could be made to meet emissions targets after all, however, the Holden V8 was abandoned.
Wheeler used the car for two years to go shooting before it became a factory hack then, like the Zante, it ended up abandoned behind the works.
Eventually sold, this unique piece of TVR history has now been fully restored.
Anorak fact Wheeler specified a bespoke hidden compartment for his guns, plus a special carpeted cubby behind the seats for his dog Ned
5. 1982 TVR Tasmin Turbo
Martin Lilley finally achieved his ‘wedge’ ambitions with the launch of the Tasmin in 1980, but surely even he could have never imagined the number and variety of versions it would spawn over the next decade and more.
In fact, it took the enthusiastic attentions of incoming TVR boss Peter Wheeler to truly release the model’s potential with a series of ever-more extreme Rover V8-powered models.
Before all of that, however, came the Tasmin Turbo, first as a convertible in 1981 then in definitive coupé form at the October 1982 Motor Show.
With a turbocharged version of the standard car’s 2.8-litre ‘Cologne’ V6 beneath its heavily reworked bodywork it made nearly 50% more power – a heady 228bhp at 5600rpm and 249lb ft of torque.
Anorak fact The Tasmin wasn’t the only unique turbocharged model: Lilley owned a unique ‘SE’ version of the 3000S Turbo convertible
6. 1966 TVR Tina
Trevor Frost must have got a taste for TVR after the Trident (see number three), because just a year later came the pretty Tina.
This time, however, there was no V8 power or tubular chassis, with the tiny 2+2 (and its convertible twin) sitting on a Hillman Imp Sport floorpan, with its rear-mounted 875cc ‘four’.
Again built at Fissore, with hands-on input from TVR co-owner Martin Lilley, the steel-bodied sports car was called Tina – a name shared by the newborn daughter of Lilley’s friend and TVR racer/dealer Gerry Marshall – and revealed in open form at the Turin show in 1966, with the coupé following in London later in the year.
Sadly, TVR couldn’t build production models in the volume required to make them profitable, even in glassfibre, and the project died despite a universally positive response. Happily, both prototypes survive.
Anorak fact Gerry Marshall acquired the coupé in 1989 with the intention of restoring it, but never had time and in 2005 it passed to its namesake Tina, who returned it to its former glory
7. 1986 TVR 420 Sports Saloon
The idea of a more practical TVR was hardly a new one – after all, the Sports Saloon revived the name of one of Trevor Wilkinson’s earliest models, and the Tasmin was available as a ‘+2’ from soon after its launch (albeit with room only for very small children).
But with the 420 Sports Saloon TVR attempted to make it a practical proposition for adult passengers, with self-levelling rear suspension for the chassis (sourced from a 420SEAC) and an ungainly roofline to boost headroom.
The shape was claimed to be all-new, but was clearly Tasmin-based, as if a 350i had reversed at high speed into a MkV Cortina.
Despite the promise of its 265bhp V8, visitors to the October Motor Show were not impressed and the project was canned, with the body eventually being cut up – later donating its nose to the ‘White Elephant’.
Boss Peter Wheeler didn’t abandon the 2+2 idea completely, of course, and it would reappear in the hugely successful Cerbera a decade later.
Anorak fact As well as 47 2.8-litre V6-engined Tasmin +2s, TVR also built six +2 coupé versions of the V8-powered 350i
8. 1989/1990 TVR Speed Eight
Rather than spend money it didn’t have developing cars that people didn’t want to buy, TVR used a ‘suck it and see’ approach: make a prototype, then build it if buyers like it.
The Speed Eight was a perfect example: first shown in 1989 at the London Motorfair as a slightly soft-edged, longer-wheelbase two-seater replacement for the ‘wedge’, it returned a year later at the NEC longer still, curvier still, and by then with 2+2 seating (above) – a first for a TVR drop-top.
This rapid change was made possible by the modelling method pioneered on the ‘White Elephant’: the body was sprayed with expanding foam, which was then carved to shape and coated with a layer of glassfibre.
Sadly for the Speed Eight, however, the Griffith was also given its debut at the 1990 event, and comprehensively stole the limelight; the prototype went into storage before eventually being destroyed.
Anorak fact The 1989 car had a 225bhp 3.9-litre Rover V8; in 1990, it was offered with a 240bhp 3.9 or a 286bhp 4.3
9. 1987 TVR Evolution S
The S-series was launched in 1986 as the new entry-level TVR, giving a lower price point for the marque while the wedge moved progressively upmarket.
But just a year later, TVR hinted at the new model following its angular sibling’s lead with the ‘Evolution S’, unveiled at the 1987 London Motorfair.
It was to still be V6-powered like its lowlier incarnation – except that the show car actually had no motor, while TVR tried to decide whether to use a Swaymar-built 3.2-litre version of the Ford unit, or to re-engineer the
car to take a ‘completely new 3.3-litre V6’ – later revealed to be from Holden.
The body received a front-end restyle with large driving lights that previewed the look of the production V8S, and there were fat split-rim alloys, a limited-slip diff and tweaked front and rear suspension, while inside there was a full walnut-veneered dash.
Anorak fact A 2-litre Cosworth version of the S was also reputedly built, boasting a slightly terrifying 350bhp and a five-speed transaxle
10. 1996 TVR Griffith Speed Six
A true missing link, the TVR Griffith Speed Six prototype bridged the first curvy TVRs of the 1990s with the wild creations that would take the firm into the new millennium.
It was also the first appearance of the company’s all-new straight-six engine, hot on the heels of its monster V8, which made its debut in the Cerbera.
Revealed at the NEC show in 1996, the Speed Six show car employed a stock Griffith chassis, but with a radically reworked interior and lightly tweaked bodywork.
The faired-in headlights now incorporated the indicators, and there were some distinctive new high-level tail-lamps.
The all-alloy, twin-cam straight-six was to be available in 330bhp 3.2-litre or 380bhp 4-litre forms, but when the car reappeared at Earls Court a year later as the Tuscan Speed Six – with further body mods and a new chassis – it had the 360bhp 4-litre that production Tuscans would eventually sport.
Anorak fact In November 1994 a Griffith was also fitted with the AJP V8 engine – the unit’s name taken from the initials of the men behind the modular engine programme: Al Melling, John Ravenscroft and Peter Wheeler
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