So a few weeks ago I was driving along the motorway in
Britain and saw a van with TVR on the side of it - it might have been TWR, and it went by so quickly
that I missed it, but it got me thinking about both TVR and TWR, and you’ve asked for videos
about both of these car companies in the past so I thought it might be fun to a mashup where
I go through the histories of both TVR and TWR together, sort of chronologically.
I make these videos because I don’t know much about the car industry and I’m always
wanting to learn, so I’m learning with you, and as far as I've been previously been
aware TVR were the purveyors of loud, brash rear wheel drive cars and
they were very popular in the 1990s, but I don’t know much more about them than that.
I didn't really know anything about TWR. So, anyway, let’s find out together where TVR got
its name from, what the heck happened with the Russian investment in the 2000s and what
happened to TWR - where are they now? This is the TVR and TWR Story. [music] Tom Walkinshaw, the man who went on to found
TWR or Tom Walkinshaw Racing was born in 1946. That same year Trevor Wilkinson bought a garage
in Blackpool to do general engineering works, called “Trevcar Motors”. The company would
steadily move into car and truck servicing, eventually being renamed as TVR Engineering, TVR
being a shortened version of Trevor’s first name. By 1949 TVR had built its first original chassis,
the TVR One. Apparently, it wasn’t much of a looker, and didn’t have much luck either. It
was crashed even before it got a body, and once it had one it was crashed again and had to be
salvaged for parts. That wasn’t a great start for TVR, but things would improve with the TVR Two and
Three in 1952 that were used for competition. These first three cars had used parts from the
Morris Eight, but the next car, dubbed the TVR Sports Saloon, would use bits from the Austin
A40. TVR sold the chassis, and customers could add the fibreglass bodies themselves. Like the
earlier cars it was raced by Trevor Wilkinson himself which helped generate sales, especially when it
won! No two cars were exactly the same as TVR tailored them for each customer’s wishes.
As the 1950s rolled on and sales grew, not just in the UK but in the USA as well, TVR
gained investors and a corporate management structure. They kept iterating on their chassis
and body designs, still in limited numbers, producing a car that was first and
foremost designed for the racetrack. With the existing company suffering heavy debts
the management team closed it, setting up two new companies to continue TVR car sales. They went on
to produce a new car - the 1958 TVR Grantura. Like previous TVRs, it used suspension from existing
cars such as the Volkswagen Beetle, Austin/Morris, Austin Healey or Triumph - anything really that
made the car better on the track. There was a choice of engines from Ford, Coventry Climax and
Austin/Morris. Given so many different parts, performance figures were pretty variable, but a
Grantura with a 1.6L MGA engine got to 60 in about 12 seconds and on to almost 100mph (158km/h). The
company continued to struggle with production, so although there was a healthy order
book, the waiting list grew. TVRs founder, Trevor Wilkinson was the production manager,
so the board replaced him to attempt to fix the problem. Over time Trevor’s role in the company
diminished and he left the company in 1962. Production issues continued - in 2 years TVR
only sold 100 Grantura’s. Things had to improve, and they did, again with new investors. The second
generation Grantura sold 400 cars in 2 years, but after spending big on motorsports events
that didn’t produce the wins the company was looking for they were once again low on cash,
despite a new third generation Grantura with a stiffer chassis and new look body. The main
business went bankrupt, with only an offshoot that produced the bodies remaining solvent.
With the company barely ticking over, there was interest from Jack Griffith, the
owner for a Ford dealership in the USA in producing a more powerful V8 TVR. Work began
by adding a Ford 289 V8 into the Grantura, meaning the first car had bags of power, but with
existing brakes and chassis the car was dangerous in the wrong hands! The goal had been to make
something to beat the AC Cobra, and it would be refined and named the Griffith in honour of its
American investor. The car certainly had speed, with a 0-60 of just 3.9s and a top speed of
150mph (241 km/h). But with a short wheelbase, this lightweight car was quite a handful! It
would be followed up by the Griffith 400 & 600, but with financial problems at TVRs base in
Blackpool these cars were built in the USA. TVR developed a new car using the Griffith
engine, the Trident with a metal body designed by Carrozzeria Fissore in Italy. A prototype
was displayed at the 1965 Geneva Motor Show, but TVR did what they did best and
once again filed for bankruptcy! “So, I built a third one. That burnt down, fell
over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up!” The rights to produce the Trident were sold, and it would be produced in Ipswich by the
Trident Car company. That left the newly rescued TVR without a new car. They continued producing
the Grantura, now into its fourth generation, and they’d launch the Tuscan in 1967. The Tuscan
had a lot in common with the Griffith – both were based on the Grantura, and both had
a Ford V8 to make it insanely fast! There was a plan to produce another new car
– the Tina, but its metal body was just too expensive to manufacture. TVR was being run on a
shoestring budget – companies like Aston Martin or Jensen had vast budgets in comparison. This meant
luxuries like a metal body, pop-up headlights, or interior luxuries were out of the question.
TVR was always a little stripped back and basic, which meant they continued being seen as
raw and lean sports cars meant for the track. Not a terrible image to have, but
one TVR had to lean on out of necessity. So, with a metal body out of the question, later
in 1967 the Tuscan was joined by the fibreglass clad Vixen, an evolution of the Grantura using
smaller, more modern 4 and 6 cylinder engines that sold better in the UK than the Tuscan’s large
V8. Although sales were disappointing in the first year – TVR again made a loss – they would improve
and the Vixen sold over 1,000 cars in 6 years. The same couldn’t be said for the Tuscan. It only
sold 174 in 4 years, with many going to customers in the USA who’d been wowed by the Griffith.
To help bolster sales, TVR went for a publicity stunt at the 1970 British Motor Show. They hired a
model to pose nude on their stand, which of course generated lots of publicity! For the 1971 show
they hired two nude models, because of course two is better than one! The show’s organisers
took a dim view to this and threatened to ban TVR from the show. All this of course led to even
more publicity and even more attention for TVR! In the meantime a young Tom Walkinshaw had
grown up and was racing MG Midgets in his native Scotland. He would soon be winning championships
and progressing to Formula Three and Formula Two. As the 1970s dawned TVR needed to update the
popular Vixen and not so popular Tuscan. They’d do it with the 1972 M series. The 1600M used a Ford
Kent engine seen in the Capri and the Cortina, and the 2500M used the Triumph 6-cylinder.
It’d be joined by the Ford Essex V6, also from the Capri. The M series was also
offered with a 5.0L V8 for the North American market. It used an all-new chassis, designed so
it cost less to produce in less time. The body was largely kept the same though, with
only the bonnet and rear end restyled. TVRs had never good with luggage. Most of
the cars had the spare tyre in the boot, which could only be accessed by moving the seats.
The M series improved on this a little by moving the spare tyre to the engine bay, but luggage was
still a problem, mainly due to using one solid fibreglass shell. TVR solved this problem with the
Taimar in 1976 – a 3000M with a rear hatchback. It proved popular, with almost 400 produced over
its life. It would be joined by the open top 3000S in 1978. As I mentioned in a Short recently,
although Morgan had problems importing their cars to the USA because they couldn’t certify the
engine, TVR managed to skirt US emissions rules, and it remained a profitable market. Over 60% of
their cars at this time went to the US or Europe. Today companies embrace “just in time” stocking
to maximise profits. TVR took the opposite tack, keeping three months of stock to hand.
In the 1970s this was a necessity if you wanted to keep producing cars given the
widespread strikes in the car industry. And when they weren’t trying to dodge strikes from
component suppliers, TVR was innovating. Saab has been credited with popularising turbocharged
cars in 1978, but TVR showed off a turbo at the 1975 British Motor Show. In the production
car it dropped the 0-60 time 2 seconds to 5.7s. While TVR was making their cars faster and more
practical, Tom Walkinshaw continued to race in the British Touring Car Championship. He decided to
take a leadership role in the preparation of his BMW 3.0 CSL by establishing Tom Walkinshaw Racing
or TWR in 1976. They soon moved on to modifying the Mazda RX-7, winning the British Touring
Car Championship in 1980 and 1981, with Tom Walkinshaw himself winning the Spa 24 Hour race.
Over at TVR the design of their cars were looking a little long in the tooth. They needed a new car
for the 1980s with an updated design. The result was what would become known as the “TVR Wedges”
starting with the Tasmin in 1980. Despite having little money for development, the Tasmin would be
the first car to use a bonded windscreen and an aerial built into the rear window defrost element.
TVRs management weren’t actually fans of the new shape, one describing it as “absolutely dreadful”,
but with limited funds once they’d had it designed they had to launch it regardless – they had no
more money! When it launched the press enjoyed the handling, but the high price and controversial
styling put some customers off. Soon TVR were on the brink of bankruptcy once again. Stop that, stop that! The company was sold to yet another TVR enthusiast
with money to pour into a passion project of bringing a beloved car manufacturer back from the brink.
They’d start by using the Rover 3.5L V8 engine from the SD1. The TVR 350i helped to drum up
business, especially in Arab countries that didn’t want Ford engines due to Ford’s close
dealings with Israel. Over time different versions with body kits and tuned engines
would look more aggressive with more power, using Kevlar instead of fibreglass for a lighter
and therefore faster and better handling car. TWR were also interested in the SD1,
and a TWR tuned version won the British Touring Car Championship in 1983 and
1984. TWR were showing they were winners, and that attracts car companies like moths to a flame. In
1982 TWR started a relationship with Jaguar. They started racing the XJ-S both in Europe and
Australia, and success would lead to Jaguar offering special TWR XJR-S road-going models. As
Jaguar exited Government control they extended the TWR arrangement to create the XJR-6 – a pure
racing car with an exotic carbon fibre chassis. Unsurprisingly for TWRs first foray into car
construction, it was unreliable at the start, but it would lead to the 1987 XJR-8 that would win the
World Sports Prototype Championship Drivers title, and the XJR-9 in 1988 which was also a Daytona
24 hour and Le Mans winner. They’d soon hired a guy you might have heard of called Ross Brawn to
design their cars. They created a partnership with Holden in Australia, recreating Holden Special
Vehicles to run Holden’s motorsports efforts and produce custom performance cars for the public.
TVR would source a 5.0L Holden V8 from TWR’s Holden Special Vehicles in 1988 to try to give
their wedge car a little more power, so yes, there is a connection, however tenuous, between
TVR and TWR! But as TVRs management had predicted, the wedge shape look hadn’t proven popular,
no matter how many body kits they tried, so in 1986 TVR had introduced the conventionally
styled TVR S. It would prove to be more popular, at least domestically, helpful after US
sales had become almost non-existent. TVR created the TVR Tuscan Challenge - a
one-make series to help elevate the TVR name and harken back to the classic Tuscan of the
1960s. Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, 30 cars battled it out on TV across the
globe and surely helped boost sales. The Griffith name also returned as a roadster
in 1991. Its chassis would be reworked a year later as the Chimaera. Both cars would build
on the success of the TVR S, selling over 7,000 cars between them, and still using the classic
Rover V8 engine tied to a Rover manual gearbox. It would be joined in 1996 by the hardtop Cerbera
which was the first TVR with more than 2 seats. The Cerbera introduced another first for TVR –
their own engine – the AJP8. Seeking independence from other car companies, TVR ploughed the
money they’d made from booming car sales into the development of an engine they could
use themselves or potentially sell to others. Finally, TVRs future looked rosy.
TWR was also on the up and up. They were winning on track and helping customise
existing cars, and would go one step further in the late 1980s, designing and building a car with
Jaguar. And not just any car – the Jaguar XJ220, the fastest production car, clocking in at 212mph
(341 km/h). Starting in 1992 Jaguar would produce 282 over 2 years. It won the GT category
of the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1993 but was later disqualified for failing to run with
catalytic converters. A few lucky customers bought a road going version of this race car -
the XJ220-S. I’m planning to do a video on the XJ220 in the near future, so if you’re watching
this after and I’ve already done the video there will be a link appearing around now so you can
go and look at that video if you really want to. TWR would continue their World Sportscar victories
with the XJR-14 and XJR-15. Jaguar ended sportscar racing in 1991, so TWR reworked the XJR-14
as the Mazda MXR-01 and the Porsche WSC-95, and the XJR-15 as the Nissan R-390. The Porsche
would win Le Mans in both 1996 and 1997. With all this success in motorsports, there was
only one logical next step for Tom Walkinshaw - Formula 1. He was recruited by
Benetton in 1991 and was subsequently involved with getting Michael Schumacher onboard.
TWR regular Ross Brawn would join him there. Together they helped Benetton win the 1995 World
Championship, but there was a falling out between Tom Walkinshaw and Benetton boss Flavio Briatore
which left Tom looking for his own team. He tried to buy a controlling stake in Ligier, but ended
up buying the Arrows team. It was a backmarker, but that could of course change with the
person behind TWRs motorsports victories, and it would be helped by securing new World
Champion Damon Hill. They nearly secured their first race win in 1997, but Hill’s car suffered
a hydraulic failure two laps from the end. By this stage the TWR operation had 1,500 people
across the globe in a plethora of motorsports. They’d moved into MotoGP, they’d returned to
touring car racing with the Volvo 850 and S40, and were still involved in exciting production
cars, such as the Aston Martin DB7 and Volvo C70, plus special performance versions of the
Saab 9-3 and Renault Clio. TWR also worked with Rover on a replacement for the Rover 45
that would be based on the Rover 75 platform, but heavy losses from the Arrows Formula 1
team that had never progressed from being a backmarker forced TWR in bankruptcy in 2002
and Rover lost access to TWRs work. The parts of TWR were sold off, with the Australian arm
being sold to Holden. The Arrows Formula 1 intellectual property was sold to Minardi which
would become the Alpha Tauri team eventually. An updated Arrows chassis also appeared on the
Super Best Friends, sorry Super Aguri entry in 2006. That was the end of the road for TWR, but when
we left TVR in the 1990s they were riding high. They’d go on to launch the Tuscan Speed Six
in 1999, capitalising on the Tuscan racing series. The open top Tamora and T350 coupé
in the 2000s were based on the Tuscan and designed for everyday driving, using a smaller
6-cylinder version of TVRs engine. Although they were supposed to be easier to drive, they still
lacked things now seen as a given on other cars, such as ABS, front airbags and traction
control. TVR thought these gave a driver overconfidence and would risk the driver’s
life in the event of a rollover. TVR did at least provide some creature comforts,
such as power steering and a softer clutch. Due to their high price the Tamora and T350
weren’t as successful as TVRs in the 1990s. The Tuscan racing series was 10 years old at
this point so work began to create its successor, eventually the car would be known as the T400R.
There were plans to build a version for both on and off track use, and like TWRs Jaguar XJ220 it
would be the fastest production car available. But TVR worried this was a little too
much power to put into road users hands. In the end just 7 cars were build, and
like the XJ220 were raced at Le Mans. The accolade of the fastest TVR ever produced
would go to the Typhon. This started life as a project to win its category at Le Mans. To
do this it needed to be stable driving at over 200mph (321 km/h), something TVR had never
had to deal with in the past. There were many delays to the project, and it never raced at
Le Mans. Just three cars were ever produced. Another new TVR mainstream car appeared in 2003 –
the Sagaris. TVRs weren’t exactly known for their high build quality, certainly when compared
to regular production cars. With the Sagaris, TVR were determined to fix these problems, and it
was hailed by some as the best TVR ever produced. In 2004 TVR was sold once again, this time to
Russian banker Nikolay Smolensky. Despite TVR owners worries of production ending in Blackpool,
Nikolay said TVR was safe and he intended TVR to remain a British company. Just two years
later TVR production had dropped from 12 cars a week to just 3 or 4 and TVR had to lay
off 300 workers. Later that year TVR announced production would move to Turin with only engine
production remaining in the UK. TVR owners were outraged and staged a protest - parading their
cars through London, dubbed the “London Thunder”. It made little difference. TVR had been split into
several businesses, and by 2006 each had been sold off or had gone bankrupt. Stop that! Stop that! Stop it! Stop it! The business assets were sold to the highest bidder – a guy called Nikolay
Smolensky who detailed plans to produce 2,000 cars by 2008. The Sagaris was relaunched
as the Sagaris 2 and production was supposed to start again - soon. Nothing came of that, but by
2010 TVR said production would restart in Germany this time. That deadline also came and went.
In 2013 it was reported that TVR had been sold once more to two British businessmen – one of whom
used to own the games company behind Populous. With no TVRs being manufactured, their first step
was to set up a business to get genuine TVR spares to existing customers. The next job was to start
development work on a new car in partnership with Cosworth and using a Ford 5.0L V8 engine, the
old TVR engine factory having closed down when TVR stopped making cars. The new car would
reportedly be ready by 2017. Production would be in Ebbw Vale in south Wales, and the Welsh
Government made an investment into the project. The new car, still not completed, was unveiled
as the next generation TVR Griffith in 2017, but as of the making of this video the car
still isn’t available to purchase. TVR is still taking deposits, and talking up efforts to
make an EV TVR. Would that be a TEVR?!? So there you go, the potted history of TVR and
TWR. Both companies focused on powerful sports cars with varying degrees of success. For TWR
it led to a series of victories at the top of motorsports, but a sticky end as they flew to
close to the sun in their quest for Formula 1 success, as so many have done before and since.
TVR had more modest goals – to produce simple, powerful sports cars that the enthusiast
could enjoy on or off the track. That led to multiple bankruptcies as the company was
saved again and again by rich businessmen who wanted to save the car company they
cherished. And it may yet rise again, although that’s looking increasingly unlikely. But
the passion that was poured into both companies produced some truly memorable and potent
sports cars that should never be forgotten. Just a quick public service announcement.
If you’re my age or even a bit younger than I’d recommend checking your blood pressure on a
regular basis. I happened to check mine for the first time in a couple of years, a couple of years
ago, and found it was 180/120 – that’s a very high figure and I didn’t feel like anything was out
of the ordinary, I didn’t feel sick, I didn’t feel there was anything weird. Inexpensive tablets
quickly brought my blood pressure under control, but staying at such a high blood pressure
could have caused severe health problems. There was plenty of places you can check you
blood pressure for free, and home machines like this one that I use here are relatively
inexpensive. I’m not a medical professional, so take my words with a grain of salt but there
are medical people out there who recommend you go and check your blood pressure – so what
can it hurt? It’s something that certainly surprised me and it could be useful to you as
well. Anyway, that’s a little bit different of an end of video but anyway, thanks for
watching and I’ll see you in the next video.
