A review of the TVR sports car, covering development, important features and technical data for every model in the range, from the Grantura to the Chimaera.<\/p>\n
In this article, I offer a nostalgic look at The TVR Sports Car, one of the elite group of classic cars, which were manufactured from 1958 to 1992+.<\/p>\n
TVR was founded in 1947 by Trevor Wilkinson.<\/p>\n
In 1956, TVR began producing its own glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) body shells, in addition to the chassis. Within two years, the Grantura’s groundbreaking design was born.<\/p>\n
TVR Scholarship<\/p>\n
The TVR Grantura Series 1 was launched in 1958. It used a GRP die-cast steel body, with a 1.1-litre Coventry Climax engine.<\/p>\n
Series 2, launched in 1960, offered various engines, including the MGA engine, and integrated rack-and-pinion steering.<\/p>\n
The 3 Series, introduced in 1963, used either the 1.6-liter or 1.8-liter MG engine. Vixen succeeded in Grantura.<\/p>\n
TVR Griffith 200<\/p>\n
In 1963, the TVR Griffith 200 sports car was introduced. It was, essentially, a TVR Grantura Series 3 in which the 1.8-litre MGB engine was replaced by a 4.7-litre Ford V8, the same unit found in the AC Cobra.<\/p>\n
The demand for this competitor to the Cobra was such that TVR was inundated with orders.<\/p>\n
TVR Griffith 400<\/p>\n
In 1964, the TVR Griffith 200 was replaced by the TVR Griffith 400 sports car. Like its predecessor, it was a two-seater coupe. It used the same engine, but had a higher top speed due to the increased gear ratio.<\/p>\n
As a result of a prolonged pavement strike in the US, by 1967, 59 Griffith 400s and 10 Griffith 600s had been built, with the newer body design.<\/p>\n
TVR Tuscan<\/p>\n
The TVR Tuscan sports car, introduced in 1967, was a two-seater stationary coupe.<\/p>\n
The V8 version used the same 4.7-liter Ford V8 engine as in the Ford Mustang.<\/p>\n
By 1970, since only 72 Tuscan V8s had been built, they were replaced by the Tuscan V6 sports car, which used Ford’s 3-litre V6. When production ended in 1971, TVR Vixen succeeded him.<\/p>\n
The TVR Vixen was developed from the TVR Grantura, and was introduced in 1967. It used a 1.6-liter, 4-cylinder Ford engine. The fiberglass structure is built on a tubular frame.<\/p>\n
TVR M Series<\/p>\n
To replace the TVR Vixen and TVR Tuscan models, TVR M Series sports cars were launched in 1972. They used a glass-reinforced plastic body on a metal chassis. The series included the 1600M, 2500M, 3000M, 3000S and 3000M Turbo.<\/p>\n
In 1974, the 2.5-litre Triumph engine in the TVR 2500M was replaced by the 4.7-litre Ford V8 as used in the TVR Griffith 200.<\/p>\n
Hence the TVR 5000M was born. Only a handful were built due to a fire at the TVR factory in 1975.<\/p>\n
TVR Tasmin<\/p>\n
In 1980, TVR Tasmin, also known as TVR 280i, was introduced. It was wedge-shaped, and was available as a two-seat convertible, as well as a two-seat and 2+2 fixed-head coupe.<\/p>\n
The Tasmin 280i used a 2.8-liter Ford V6 engine, while its cheaper counterpart the Tasmin 200 used a Ford 2-liter 4-cylinder engine.<\/p>\n
The Tasmin wedge shape was not well received, and sales were poor.<\/p>\n
Based on the Tasmin 280i, the Tasmin 350i sports car appeared in 1983. Variants of the 350i included the following:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
TVR S Series<\/p>\n
In 1987, TVR introduced the S Series. This saw a move away from the wedge shape to the traditional TVR design incorporating curves.<\/p>\n
The V6 S series used a Ford V6 engine, while the V8 S series used a modified 4-liter fuel-injected Rover V8.<\/p>\n
The TVR 2-litre V8 S series was a supercharged version of the V8 S. It used a modified 3.5-litre Rover V8 engine, with a sub-1998 cc displacement, along with fuel injection and a supercharger. They were two open seats.<\/p>\n
The TVR Griffith 500<\/p>\n
In 1992, the V8 S series was retired and replaced by the TVR Griffith 500 sports car.<\/p>\n
Like the Griffith 200 and 400 of the 1960s, it was a lightweight, fiberglass, two-seater. At first I used the 4 liter Rover V8 engine which can be easily increased in capacity.<\/p>\n
All use a five-speed manual transmission. The interior design was of a high standard. Production ended in 2002.<\/p>\n
TVR Chimaera<\/p>\n
Also in 1992, the TVR Chimaera sports car was introduced. It was a two-seater convertible and, like the Griffith, used the same lineup of Rover V8 engines.<\/p>\n
It was designed for long-distance driving, and so was more spacious internally, and its suspension was less stiff than the Griffith’s.<\/p>\n
Engine specifications were in line with Griffith’s, although there were minor top speed improvements.<\/p>\n
This marked the end of the classic TVR sports car<\/p>\n
After 2000, TVR has produced a number of exciting sports cars which, unfortunately, are beyond the time frame of this review.<\/p>\n
This stroll down memory lane may have answered, or at least shed light on, a possible question:<\/p>\n
What a TVR sports car it is for you<\/em> favorite?”<\/p>\n However, if that question remains unanswered, I will review, in some detail, in future articles within this site, the full range of TVR sports cars that appeared in a memorable era spanning from 1958 to 1992.<\/p>\n I hope you’ll join me on my nostalgic travels “down sports car memory lane”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A review of the TVR sports car, covering development, important features and technical data for every model in the range, from the Grantura to the Chimaera. In this article, I offer a nostalgic look at The TVR Sports Car, one of the elite group of classic cars, which were manufactured from 1958 to 1992+. TVR […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-cars","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ridetriton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ridetriton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ridetriton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ridetriton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ridetriton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ridetriton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ridetriton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ridetriton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ridetriton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ridetriton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}