No more cars from TVR, says Smolensky
This time it's really over for TVR as a carmaker, as Smolensky turns to wind power for TVR
Smolensky made the revelation to our newshound colleagues over at Autocar, saying that customer demands and costs of production are too high to make a return to building sports cars viable.
Since production officially ceased in 2006, Smolensky had been trying to return to building TVR sports cars and, among his weirder wheezes was plans to resurrect TVR using re-conditioned Sagaris, Cerbera or Chimaera models with LS3 GM V8s (not a bad idea) or even BMW diesels (utter madness), and a project to build a more or less all-new model.
But what happened? "We built three cars," he told Autocar. "A Tuscan Mk2 with a 400hp Corvette LS3 engine, a Cerbera powered by a BMW twin-turbo V8 diesel and a GT350 powered by a 100kW electric motor. They all worked well but the costs were high. We would have had to sell them at between £100,000 and £200,000, which was too high to make sense."
Smolensky has no immediate plans to sell the TVR name either, so that's it folks: TVR will not make a car again for the foreseeable future, and the car brand that was once the poster-child of the anti-environmentalists will now be slapped on to portable wind turbines. Well, people have said before that Smolensky is full of hot air...
I agree with the above, he should do the decent thing and look for a buyer who will at least try and restart production.
But a Tuscan Mk2 with an old 400hp Corvette LS3 engine...between £100,000 and £200,000?....come on now, don't be silly.
Just sounds like he's made a bit of a starting effort but got bored and can't be arsed anymore
But a Tuscan Mk2 with an old 400hp Corvette LS3 engine...between £100,000 and £200,000?....come on now, don't be silly.
Just sounds like he's made a bit of a starting effort but got bored and can't be arsed anymore
all of which would have to be payed for by the buyers
How do Morgan manage to keep producing their cars, the customer base is most definitely there, but from a regulation point of view? Is it just that they keep producing basically the same car, but just keep emissions in line?
Sorry, what I'm trying to say is, could you not just build a Griff with a compliant engine?
But
all of which would have to be payed for by the buyers
Donkervoort only makes 35-50 cars a year, they seem to manage OK, too. Controlling the aftermarket, motorsport and event business generated by the brand helps. And of course, they too get help from a major OEM.
If I were planning to restart TVR beyond an aftermarket and race team support business and maybe turn out half a dozen Sagarii, I'd be on Jaguar Land Rover's doorstep PDQ.
Breaking even in the first few years would, I would have thought, be a rare thing, it could take quite a while for that to happen. There are still some investors out there that would be willing to assist bank roll it given a decent business plan.
As a consequence, shares of European and North American producers of wind energy turbines have seen a sharp decline."
How much does a Sagaris shell cost to make?
Bolt in an LS3, and knock them out at 50k a pop.
Easy.
Just wish I could get ahold of a shell.
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