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TVR produced about 1,500 vehicles per year, all built by hand. TVR has been in
production since 1958 and has built some of the most beautiful exotic cars in
the world.
The TVR can cost as much as $150,000
TVR was established in 1947 by Trevor Wilkinson. The first cars were specials
using the drivelines from production cars, tuned and installed in a lightweight
TVR chassis with minimal bodywork to maximise the agility and power-to-weight
ratio, which remain TVR virtues to this day.
TVR made use of proprietary engines, like many low-volume manufacturers, to
power its cars for many years. However, there were those who opined that this
somehow diminished the cachet of the Great British sports cars from Blackpool,
despite the fact that the engines, by the late '80s, were very heavily modified
to TVR's own unique, high-power specifications.
That began to change in the early '90s with the birth of the TVR V8 engine,
which in 1995 became the world's first racing engine to be de-tuned and
installed in a road car: the TVR Cerbera. The Cerbera was a rude awakening for
the supercar establishment. "0-100mph in nine seconds dead," screamed
Autocar magazine's front cover.
But the Speed Eight (aka AJP8) was only the beginning. In 1997, a Griffith Speed
Six concept car was unveiled at the Earls Court Motor Show. It showcased the TVR
Speed Six engine, a very modern take on the quintessentially British, growling
straight-six. The Speed Six engine, like the Speed Eight, first appeared in the
Cerbera. But the Speed Six is renowned as the power-house of the jaw-dropping
Tuscan Speed Six that starred with John Travolta and Halle Berry in the
Hollywood movie Swordfish.
The Speed Six is also the power plant of the T400R, with which TVR returned to
Les 24 Heures du Mans in France in 2003 and 2004. Both Speed Six-powered T400Rs
finished this most gruelling of automotive challenges - no mean feat in a class
dominated by German and Italian stalwarts.
At the end of 2004, the Speed Eight engine, after an illustrious motorsport
career, not to mention a spectacular crop of headlines in the world's motoring
press, ceased production with the Cerbera. Now, the Speed Six engine, in various
guises, is at the heart of every current TVR model.
And here is the point.
Every TVR car is now TVR-powered. Every TVR is a true thoroughbred sports car
powered by Blackpool-built engines, all with serious motor racing provenance.
This is all the more remarkable when compared with the efforts of other Great
British marques that have fallen into the hands of volume manufacturers. In the
same decade that TVR declared full independence, every other Great British
marque went the other way, sharing engines with sister marques.
This 'reverse trend' runs deeper than simply striking cars that look like no
others, powered by special engines that provide driving and performance
characteristics like no others. Climb inside a TVR and you will find unique
interiors with unique controls. A TVR is a very special driving environment
indeed.
The uniqueness goes further still because every TVR is hand-built to customer
specifications. Your own TVR will be a unique alchemy of passion, artistry and
technology in which you are personally involved. Specifying your own TVR is an
experience to be savored, but the amazing buying experience is but a prelude to
the wonder of ownership.
A TVR is engineered to invite your skill, judgment and feel to unleash the
purest, most exhilarating and involving motoring experience: the spirit of
driving.
TVR
TVR, TVR Tuscan, TVR Griffith, TVR Pictures
TVR Tuscan S
TVR Tuscan - Motorbase
TVR - Free Pictures - FreeFoto.Com
WCF Test Drive- TVR Tuscan II
Driving the TVR Tuscan - Jalopnik
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