RE: No more cars from TVR, says Smolensky

[SEN 18]

Look lets be honest and quite frank on this one, if S goes into the Wind Turbines industry that more of his old mans money down the drain.If he,s bored Heinz baked beans need a bean counter.

[DonkeyApple]

julianc said:

The wage bill was one of the items I had been thinking about, but I had always been under the impression that circa 250 were made redundant, which reduces the estimate of wage bills somewhat.

And yes, Jon and I have signed a MoU to cover short term profit sharing.....

I can't recall the employment figures but I thought it was around 650 at the peak of production but had fallen by around 250 to 400 by the time NS took over.

I got a lot of flack at this time for suggesting that the work force needed to be nearer 100 for the volumes they were selling but I think a lot of workers were twiddling thumbs by then and in the UK when it comes to manufacturing the labour cost element tends to be the real sticking point.

I remember Trevor Cooper saying how they had to take a day just to finish off a door so that it fit the shell. It was things like that that really hurt them. Doors should have been produced well enough that they fit any chassis straight off. And the shells should have been made accurately as well.

The technology was available to construct sufficiently accurate shells and doors an it would have probably saved 3-4 full labour days per car. But the cash needed to invest in that tech was taken out of the company by the owner.

My guess is that there were lots of archaic processes that could have been modernised to cut production times, labour costs and improve quality and reliability. But then there is the valid arguement that if tVR had thought like that then they quite probably wouldn't have dreamt up some of the features that made us live them.

Those swooping dash modules must have been a bigger to fit and trim but when you compare the interior of a TvR to a Marcos you can see instantly why TVR were able to punch above their weight.

A wierd little feature on my car which I only noticed a while ago one evening is that the central turn knob for the doors in the dash pulses like a heart beat at night. Someone dreamt that up and I doubt it would have happened if TVR were being run logically.

It's swings and roundabouts but I think it is fair to say that many of TVR's abject business failings were responsible for creating cars in a different league to their competition, most of which have also gone bust anyway.


Wedge wedge wedge ( do forget to claim your royalty on those 3)

[900T-R]

W3dge (sorry I'm a cheapskate, I am confident this is different enough to exempt me from copyright infringement claims).

[JonRB]

DonkeyApple said:

A wierd little feature on my car which I only noticed a while ago one evening is that the central turn knob for the doors in the dash pulses like a heart beat at night.

That might just be dodgy electrics though.

[GTRene]

if VW also would buy TVR (just imagining a bit) they could also use their short W8 or even short W12 ;-)

not that it has the nicest engine sounds, but its not bad either.

here the comparison between a W8 and a V8 in length...
also in the pdf their is also the W12 comparison.
with such short engine it can lay more backwards from the front axle which is good for balance.



W engine pdf

http://www.eskimo.com/~riffraff/files/W_engines.pd...

[V8 GRF]

GTRene said:

W engine pdf

That is seriously interesting stuff.

Is that information freely available from VW or is that somethings that's become available from an unofficial source?

[JonRB]

The W12 has its origins in two VR6 engines stuck together just like the Speed12 hd its origins as two Speed6's stuck together, so there is form there.

The W8 is a W12 with the end cylinder lopped off.

(Obviously it is way more complex than that, before somebody hauls me up on it)

[GTRene]

The nice thing is, the W12 is when you look at the pictures, about as long as a normal V8...that's a advantage me thinks.



@V8 GRF, I came "across" it ;-)

and thought, that is some interesting info, normally I always thought it was more compact in wide, but its more in length of course...and wide is about the same as a normal V engine although different way of using that wide.

edit: the W12 from VW is wet sump and the "same" W12 for the Audi seems to be dry-sump? so says the pdf info, maybe interesting too for some occasions.

Edited by GTRene on Friday 20th July 18:56

[julianc]

DonkeyApple said:

julianc said:

The wage bill was one of the items I had been thinking about, but I had always been under the impression that circa 250 were made redundant, which reduces the estimate of wage bills somewhat.

And yes, Jon and I have signed a MoU to cover short term profit sharing.....

I can't recall the employment figures but I thought it was around 650 at the peak of production but had fallen by around 250 to 400 by the time NS took over.

I got a lot of flack at this time for suggesting that the work force needed to be nearer 100 for the volumes they were selling but I think a lot of workers were twiddling thumbs by then and in the UK when it comes to manufacturing the labour cost element tends to be the real sticking point.

I remember Trevor Cooper saying how they had to take a day just to finish off a door so that it fit the shell. It was things like that that really hurt them. Doors should have been produced well enough that they fit any chassis straight off. And the shells should have been made accurately as well.

The technology was available to construct sufficiently accurate shells and doors an it would have probably saved 3-4 full labour days per car. But the cash needed to invest in that tech was taken out of the company by the owner.

My guess is that there were lots of archaic processes that could have been modernised to cut production times, labour costs and improve quality and reliability. But then there is the valid arguement that if tVR had thought like that then they quite probably wouldn't have dreamt up some of the features that made us live them.

Those swooping dash modules must have been a bigger to fit and trim but when you compare the interior of a TvR to a Marcos you can see instantly why TVR were able to punch above their weight.

A wierd little feature on my car which I only noticed a while ago one evening is that the central turn knob for the doors in the dash pulses like a heart beat at night. Someone dreamt that up and I doubt it would have happened if TVR were being run logically.

It's swings and roundabouts but I think it is fair to say that many of TVR's abject business failings were responsible for creating cars in a different league to their competition, most of which have also gone bust anyway.


Wedge wedge wedge ( do forget to claim your royalty on those 3)

Agree with what you say.

And occurrences of said word suitably noted.