New TVR still under wraps!
Discussion
AUTODESIGN said:
Just totally wild reading! When it gets to the stage when deposit holders are questioning whether their credit card will cover any potential losses it really has hit new lows! This is really very simple- the lack of communication/obvious progression indicates a genuine problem. As deposit holders ask for returns so the investors and future investors start to run. And that is the key here- this company needs huge future investment to succeed. I fear the owners were trying to get to the stages of initial production without the extra required capital. I would hazard a guess that is what has happened here. Les is a wealthy guy but even he knows he wont be wealthy for that long if he ploughs in more funds. The worrying thing is that i think the funds might be dwindling to the point the company surviving from its deposits! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out the chances of getting any deposits back when its at that stage. TVR is not a dead brand but need to be run by management with good marketing and an indepth knowledge of the automotive industry. Sadly it has neither of those two critical components. The third ingredient is cash and lots of it! The poor online videos speak volumes about management skills! I personally as an ex deposit holder am upset at this shambles. My only reason for posting is not to be a troll and wish disaster but point out to other TVR /Petrol heads that their deposits are at risk.
I do not believe that CC deposits are at risk. They are covered by S75 of CCA.Agree, it is the absence of communication here that is going to cause the loss of faith....less swanning about please.
Just looked at the timeline for the DMC 12
"The first prototype appeared in October 1976. Production officially began in 1981 in Dunmurry, a suburb of southwest Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the first DMC-12 rolled off the production line on January 21. Over the course of production, several features of the car were changed, such as the hood style, wheels, and interior. 9,080 DMC-12s were made before production halted in early 1983."
4 and a bit years.......I hope not.
Madest Mike said:
I do not believe that CC deposits are at risk. They are covered by S75 of CCA.
Agree, it is the absence of communication here that is going to cause the loss of faith....less swanning about please.
Just looked at the timeline for the DMC 12
"The first prototype appeared in October 1976. Production officially began in 1981 in Dunmurry, a suburb of southwest Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the first DMC-12 rolled off the production line on January 21. Over the course of production, several features of the car were changed, such as the hood style, wheels, and interior. 9,080 DMC-12s were made before production halted in early 1983."
4 and a bit years.......I hope not.
OOPs seems I am wrong about CCA...didn't TVR say deposits were safeAgree, it is the absence of communication here that is going to cause the loss of faith....less swanning about please.
Just looked at the timeline for the DMC 12
"The first prototype appeared in October 1976. Production officially began in 1981 in Dunmurry, a suburb of southwest Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the first DMC-12 rolled off the production line on January 21. Over the course of production, several features of the car were changed, such as the hood style, wheels, and interior. 9,080 DMC-12s were made before production halted in early 1983."
4 and a bit years.......I hope not.
Edited by Madest Mike on Tuesday 14th August 06:15
Madest Mike said:
OOPs seems I am wrong about CCA...didn't TVR say deposits were safe
On TVR website:Is my money at risk?
No – we would never allow that to be the case. We are well funded, and are here to stay! The deposit line has opened in response to a large number of requests from potential customers wishing to place a deposit on the basis of the information currently available both in the motoring press and on our website. If you do not consider this to be sufficient for you to decide whether or not you should place a deposit, we recommend you do not do so. However, if you pay by credit card, your payment is guaranteed by the credit card company.
Also,
What is the Launch Edition?
The Launch Edition, or LE (no prizes!), is a limited run with extra specification and special features at a discounted price against the usual list price for that specification, to celebrate the marque’s return to production in its 70th birthday year. The Launch Edition is now fully allocated.
Errr...wasn't that last year!
Edited by Madest Mike on Tuesday 14th August 06:14
Edited by Madest Mike on Tuesday 14th August 06:15
I would welcome any qualified accountants to take a look. I can't see what assets the company can have apart from the one car. Unless they are valuing the brand and design etc. I would hazard a guess that the directors have invested by way of loans . That way they get the money back tax free and potentially quicker . The problem comes when the companies debt ( director /bank loans etc exceed assets , deposits and cash . I have a hunch where this company is at ! If it was all going swimmingly there would be press demonstrators built by now and the trusty deposit holders might have received a nice brochure / deposit holders pack to retain interest . But no , YouTube videos are the sum of it ! So calling all accountants to take a look and let us know when they next post accounts .
It is hard to believe that someone at TVR hasn't read the comments here and done something about an update long before now.
I myself have been wavering as to whether to put a deposit down but effectively TVR are waving two fingers at the existing deposit holders so I'm glad I haven't as I would not be happy at all had I done so.
Its not as though this thread and others on FB and elsewhere are demanding action but its only common decency to have had some update, communication (key fob!) and some decent marketing and video.
Deposit holders and potential deposit holders (me as-was) are owed the decency of a bit more about the new car, progress and a bit more than blurred and shaky privately taken videos. TVR seem to be relying on private individuals to be their marketing department and its difficult to believe that we have got to this stage. Surely if they can get the car to events then it isnt too much to ask to take it to an airfield for a day and do a proper video??
Maybe they are heartily pissed off that there has been groundswell against the front of the car and have decided to ignore all media and carry on in a bubble on everything - if they haven't then it certainly seems like it.
I myself have been wavering as to whether to put a deposit down but effectively TVR are waving two fingers at the existing deposit holders so I'm glad I haven't as I would not be happy at all had I done so.
Its not as though this thread and others on FB and elsewhere are demanding action but its only common decency to have had some update, communication (key fob!) and some decent marketing and video.
Deposit holders and potential deposit holders (me as-was) are owed the decency of a bit more about the new car, progress and a bit more than blurred and shaky privately taken videos. TVR seem to be relying on private individuals to be their marketing department and its difficult to believe that we have got to this stage. Surely if they can get the car to events then it isnt too much to ask to take it to an airfield for a day and do a proper video??
Maybe they are heartily pissed off that there has been groundswell against the front of the car and have decided to ignore all media and carry on in a bubble on everything - if they haven't then it certainly seems like it.
This is taken from the 'A Lot of Saggys for sale' thread. I hope GB8CH doesn't mind as I agree with hs comments particularly the 3rd paragraph.
GB8CH
4 posts
17 months
Yesterday (18:49)
bobfather said:
I don't see how the new Griffith would be causing this as they are entirely different animals. The Sag is the ultimate expression of the mad TVR marque. the new Griffith is pure function, a fine car I'm sure, but it's not borne out of TVR heritage, it's borne out of modern engineering. The sag was full of aesthetic design features which had now function. As Les says 'every hole and every curve is there purely for function'. I don't see how someone who loves form over function would sell it to buy function over form.
I have to disagree with you on your remarks about the Sagaris having features with no function. If you are talking about the wheel arch air-pressure vents being filled in on the production car, this was a result of cost saving by the Russian. A filtering/ducting system was production ready prior to the cars launch and I personally drove a prototype fitted with this system in torrential rain with none of the 'spray and stones on the windscreen' later claimed. The decision to compromise the design by filling them in was the main reason I resigned.
The truth is that the car was designed to incorporate all aerodynamic aids and this is the main reason for the cars still distinctive form. It was originally intended to be a replacement for the Tuscan Challenge car and not a road car at all, so focus was very much on function however, unusually, the functional stuff was baked in by a stylist, rather than by a race engineer in a rush later on. In fact, I would struggle to point out a single sculptural element of the car that doesn't have a valid aerodynamic or functional reason for being there and I was the Chief Designer of it. It was also tested in the wind tunnel at MIRA and benefited from the advice of the engineering team responsible for the TVR race team of the day, who built the Le Mans cars.
I get the impression that the new car is lacking in most of the ingredients that made the original cars so special. The supposed aerodynamic prowess of the new car seems to be assured by mere mention of GM and a diffuser. His career since the F1 doesn't fill me with the same level of confidence personally. If you get an engineer to design a horse, you get a camel. It's not very well styled, the front end especially and it is simply too dull. I can't imagine any school kids with a poster of it on the bedroom wall. And that was what it needed to do to re-launch the brand imho. Get people excited.
GB8CH
4 posts
17 months
Yesterday (18:49)
bobfather said:
I don't see how the new Griffith would be causing this as they are entirely different animals. The Sag is the ultimate expression of the mad TVR marque. the new Griffith is pure function, a fine car I'm sure, but it's not borne out of TVR heritage, it's borne out of modern engineering. The sag was full of aesthetic design features which had now function. As Les says 'every hole and every curve is there purely for function'. I don't see how someone who loves form over function would sell it to buy function over form.
I have to disagree with you on your remarks about the Sagaris having features with no function. If you are talking about the wheel arch air-pressure vents being filled in on the production car, this was a result of cost saving by the Russian. A filtering/ducting system was production ready prior to the cars launch and I personally drove a prototype fitted with this system in torrential rain with none of the 'spray and stones on the windscreen' later claimed. The decision to compromise the design by filling them in was the main reason I resigned.
The truth is that the car was designed to incorporate all aerodynamic aids and this is the main reason for the cars still distinctive form. It was originally intended to be a replacement for the Tuscan Challenge car and not a road car at all, so focus was very much on function however, unusually, the functional stuff was baked in by a stylist, rather than by a race engineer in a rush later on. In fact, I would struggle to point out a single sculptural element of the car that doesn't have a valid aerodynamic or functional reason for being there and I was the Chief Designer of it. It was also tested in the wind tunnel at MIRA and benefited from the advice of the engineering team responsible for the TVR race team of the day, who built the Le Mans cars.
I get the impression that the new car is lacking in most of the ingredients that made the original cars so special. The supposed aerodynamic prowess of the new car seems to be assured by mere mention of GM and a diffuser. His career since the F1 doesn't fill me with the same level of confidence personally. If you get an engineer to design a horse, you get a camel. It's not very well styled, the front end especially and it is simply too dull. I can't imagine any school kids with a poster of it on the bedroom wall. And that was what it needed to do to re-launch the brand imho. Get people excited.
The silence from TVR is deafening and speaks volumes.
If there was any good news or significant progress to report they would have said so. It seems we have one man and his TVR swanning around and I wouldn't be at all surprised if that is the extent of the new Griffith production.
I fear we are going to see many disappointed deposit holders in the near future.
If this isn't the case maybe LE and TVR would be good enough to say so in some form of communication.
If there was any good news or significant progress to report they would have said so. It seems we have one man and his TVR swanning around and I wouldn't be at all surprised if that is the extent of the new Griffith production.
I fear we are going to see many disappointed deposit holders in the near future.
If this isn't the case maybe LE and TVR would be good enough to say so in some form of communication.
Monkeylegend said:
The silence from TVR is deafening and speaks volumes.
I find it impossible to believe Mr Edgar isn't reading this thread. And that's the weird thing. A small company can turn on a sixpence. Call meeting, come up with plan to set peoples minds at ease. Put plan into action.N7GTX said:
This is taken from the 'A Lot of Saggys for sale' thread. I hope GB8CH doesn't mind as I agree with hs comments particularly the 3rd paragraph.
GB8CH
4 posts
17 months
Yesterday (18:49)
bobfather said:
I don't see how the new Griffith would be causing this as they are entirely different animals. The Sag is the ultimate expression of the mad TVR marque. the new Griffith is pure function, a fine car I'm sure, but it's not borne out of TVR heritage, it's borne out of modern engineering. The sag was full of aesthetic design features which had now function. As Les says 'every hole and every curve is there purely for function'. I don't see how someone who loves form over function would sell it to buy function over form.
I have to disagree with you on your remarks about the Sagaris having features with no function. If you are talking about the wheel arch air-pressure vents being filled in on the production car, this was a result of cost saving by the Russian. A filtering/ducting system was production ready prior to the cars launch and I personally drove a prototype fitted with this system in torrential rain with none of the 'spray and stones on the windscreen' later claimed. The decision to compromise the design by filling them in was the main reason I resigned.
The truth is that the car was designed to incorporate all aerodynamic aids and this is the main reason for the cars still distinctive form. It was originally intended to be a replacement for the Tuscan Challenge car and not a road car at all, so focus was very much on function however, unusually, the functional stuff was baked in by a stylist, rather than by a race engineer in a rush later on. In fact, I would struggle to point out a single sculptural element of the car that doesn't have a valid aerodynamic or functional reason for being there and I was the Chief Designer of it. It was also tested in the wind tunnel at MIRA and benefited from the advice of the engineering team responsible for the TVR race team of the day, who built the Le Mans cars.
I get the impression that the new car is lacking in most of the ingredients that made the original cars so special. The supposed aerodynamic prowess of the new car seems to be assured by mere mention of GM and a diffuser. His career since the F1 doesn't fill me with the same level of confidence personally. If you get an engineer to design a horse, you get a camel. It's not very well styled, the front end especially and it is simply too dull. I can't imagine any school kids with a poster of it on the bedroom wall. And that was what it needed to do to re-launch the brand imho. Get people excited.
Obvious cloud cuckoo land GB8CH
4 posts
17 months
Yesterday (18:49)
bobfather said:
I don't see how the new Griffith would be causing this as they are entirely different animals. The Sag is the ultimate expression of the mad TVR marque. the new Griffith is pure function, a fine car I'm sure, but it's not borne out of TVR heritage, it's borne out of modern engineering. The sag was full of aesthetic design features which had now function. As Les says 'every hole and every curve is there purely for function'. I don't see how someone who loves form over function would sell it to buy function over form.
I have to disagree with you on your remarks about the Sagaris having features with no function. If you are talking about the wheel arch air-pressure vents being filled in on the production car, this was a result of cost saving by the Russian. A filtering/ducting system was production ready prior to the cars launch and I personally drove a prototype fitted with this system in torrential rain with none of the 'spray and stones on the windscreen' later claimed. The decision to compromise the design by filling them in was the main reason I resigned.
The truth is that the car was designed to incorporate all aerodynamic aids and this is the main reason for the cars still distinctive form. It was originally intended to be a replacement for the Tuscan Challenge car and not a road car at all, so focus was very much on function however, unusually, the functional stuff was baked in by a stylist, rather than by a race engineer in a rush later on. In fact, I would struggle to point out a single sculptural element of the car that doesn't have a valid aerodynamic or functional reason for being there and I was the Chief Designer of it. It was also tested in the wind tunnel at MIRA and benefited from the advice of the engineering team responsible for the TVR race team of the day, who built the Le Mans cars.
I get the impression that the new car is lacking in most of the ingredients that made the original cars so special. The supposed aerodynamic prowess of the new car seems to be assured by mere mention of GM and a diffuser. His career since the F1 doesn't fill me with the same level of confidence personally. If you get an engineer to design a horse, you get a camel. It's not very well styled, the front end especially and it is simply too dull. I can't imagine any school kids with a poster of it on the bedroom wall. And that was what it needed to do to re-launch the brand imho. Get people excited.
(Sorry, back to the originally scheduled programing...)
Dear Points of View
Why oh why oh why oh why could you not have just produced an updated Sagaris?
The Sag looks classic, modern and futuristic all at the same time.
Les, you have a stunning wife, why are you trapesing around town with such an ugly slapper?
I don't care if she was taught to cook by GordonRamsey Murray.
Why did you not just get Murray to sort out your wife's plumbing and ask Henry Ford Engines to give her one?
I know I would.
Why oh why oh why oh why could you not have just produced an updated Sagaris?
The Sag looks classic, modern and futuristic all at the same time.
Les, you have a stunning wife, why are you trapesing around town with such an ugly slapper?
I don't care if she was taught to cook by Gordon
Why did you not just get Murray to sort out your wife's plumbing and ask Henry Ford Engines to give her one?
I know I would.
Depositor Update
Dear Testarossa (nice posts by the way, I can't figure you out....)
Thank you for your patience and apologies for the delay in this latest update emerging - it's not simply that we're still a small team working flat out every hour of the day on all fronts, with no huge PR machine as yet (although that happens to be true!) - we are also close, we believe, to being able to announce some very big news indeed. We can't yet hint at it, but suffice to say that it moves our volume plans from an original high of 2,000 units a year, to a significantly higher volume across multiple platforms and territories. Needless to say, very exciting, and we look forward to sharing as soon we can publicly announce it.
So, what's been going on?
As well as working on the major project above, we nipped over to Le Mans with the Rebellion TVR and won the non-hybrid class (3rd and 4th overall, and despite a slightly eventful start to the race!), which made us very proud and smiley indeed. The mules have been busy testing at Dunsfold (the Top Gear test track) and other circuits, the Demonstrator Prototype (DP1) has been shown at Le Mans, Burghley, Silverstone and Beaulieu. It has also been driven on track extensively, with tweaks to various aspects, not least gearing, finessing what is already an incredible car straight out of the box. More on that in a later part of this update.
We've not made any secret of the fact that there have been delays in getting possession of the main factory facility in Ebbw Vale. To mitigate the position, and crack on towards start of production (I know everyone is waiting impatiently for their car, including me!) we have secured another facility meanwhile (originally this was due to be the SVO premises) which the Welsh authorities assure us will be ready in October. This will allow us to get under way with pilot builds, workforce training, and so on, and it's possible that the very first production cars will be built here. That's one of the (many!) beauties of iStream - you can almost 'pop-up' a factory in any location, to any scale, more or less overnight.
Deposit Queue positions
A very commonly asked question is “What’s my place in the queue?”. Before we answer that one there are a couple of points to take into consideration. The first is that deposits can be placed by phone, on-line, bank transfer and cheque. It has happened that people have reserved a car using our on-line form but not paid the deposit for some weeks. As a result, we decided very early on to determine queue positions at the point we actually receive cleared funds in our account- this seemed the fairest way.
Next up is what happens if somebody drops out from the deposit list (hard to believe, I know). Up until now, we have automatically moved everybody up a place, with the blank spot moving to the end of the queue. We will continue to do this if any cancellations are received. We have included at the bottom of this email a record of the details we have on file for you, and would ask that you confirm our records reflect your wishes. Following receipt of these confirmations, we will then let you know (by 1st week in September) broadly where you are in the build queue – to the nearest 50 cars, so you will know whether you are in 1-50, 51-100, 101-150 etc. We would like a reasonably high response rate to be able to respond accurately, although a lack of response will not prevent us assuming our records are correct, and sending you your approximate queue position.
Ok, so what does the slot position actually tell me?
Well, as you can appreciate, a new production line for a hand-built car does not start with the flick of a switch and gain immediate momentum. The production curve will be non-linear. We have said that it is our intent to build all 500 LE cars within the first 12-14 months from start of production (SoP). This is still the case, but that doesn’t mean 10 cars a week from day one – volumes will increase as we build confidence in the supply chain and the production line itself – there will be issues that need resolving as we start production, slowing it down somewhat, while we adjust.
Further impacts on your delivery date may come from specialised paint and trim finishes or other accessories and options you may choose – potential delays from chosen options will be made clear prior to finalising your order though.
Is the price still fixed?
Another point we have noted, from conversations with many of you, and feedback on forums, is the price of the car. Just to re-confirm, this is (and will remain) £89,995 for the Launch Edition car. It's one of the things we're working extremely hard on - we're not ones to diss (forgive the pun) the opposition, but when someone told me the price of the Evora next to us in the pit lane at Silverstone, I nearly fell out of the car! To deliver the car we are, for sub-£90k, is pretty amazing, and requires very careful supply chain management.
Launch Edition or Configurable; Coupe or convertible; MY01 or later car??
We're frequently asked whether we will be making a convertible version of the Griffith, and the short answer to that is ‘yes - but not yet’; the car has been designed to accommodate this (and to be easily manufacturable in LHD form) from the very outset - the roof doesn't add to the structural rigidity of the tub, and is there purely for aero, to keep the rain off, and your barnet under control. Timing of the convertible is yet to be decided however - there's a huge amount of engineering involved in developing a soft top system that would be acceptable to us in terms of fit and finish, and which doesn't try to rip itself off the car at 200mph, so this model will only come after we have completed the initial production run of 500 cars.
The cars that follow on from the LE cars are referred to as MY01 or ‘configurable’.
It seems that some are assuming a configurable car could be more highly specified than the LE car. This is not necessarily the case and, inevitably, a configurable car will cost more to purchase when optioned to a similar spec as the LE car. Some LE included features will NOT be available on later models, including ‘configurable’ cars.
The broad top-level specification for the LE car is as follows:
Carbon fibre panelled chassis structure
Carbon composite body
Ground Effect diffuser system
5.0 Gen 3 Coyote multiport injection (2018) engine with Cosworth Dry Sump & TVR Power performance power upgrade
Full Premium leather interior
19” Front, 20” rear alloy wheels (unique to LE edition)
AP Racing brakes (6-piston front + 4-piston rear, discs on bells)
Tremec Magnum XL manual 6-speed gearbox, rated to 700lb/ft.
Choice of colours including unique LE colour
£89,995 OTR
The base configurable car (MY01) is as follows:
Composite panelled chassis structure
Composite Body
Ground Effect diffuser system
5.0 Gen 3 Coyote multiport injection (2018) engine – wet sump
Leather interior
Standard 18”/19” alloy wheels
Standard brakes
Standard 6-speed manual gearbox
Full range of colours (special colours at extra cost)
£79k OTR (Target price currently).
The configurable car can be specified with many of the LE ‘standard’ options:
Carbon fibre panelled chassis structure
Carbon composite body
5.0 Gen 3 Coyote multiport injection (2018) engine with Cosworth Dry Sump & TVR Power performance upgrade
Full Premium leather interior
19”/20” alloy wheels
AP Racing brakes (6-piston front + 4-piston rear, discs on bells)
Tremec Magnum XL manual 6-speed gearbox, rated to 700lb/ft.
We haven't finalised options costings at this stage, but on current estimates the likely cost if all of the above options were chosen, would be in the region of £115k - hammering home what good value the LE car is; we'd like to say we're just being generous, but the truth is that there's huge advantage to us in making the first 500 cars to a similar specification, as it simplifies things massively while we get the production process humming along.
Racing Improves The Breed (Particularly When You're Winning!
Further to the incredible performance of the TVR-Rebellion cars in the Le Mans 24 Hours that I couldn't help bragging about earlier(!) we will be running again at Silverstone on 19th August, and I hope that lots of you will get a chance to see them performing. The governing body of the World Endurance Race series, the ACO, have now acknowledged that the Hybrid Toyotas had something of an unfair advantage at Le Mans, and have sought to level the playing field with a number of changes prior to Silverstone, so the fight is now properly on, as they say - see you there!
It’s worth noting that TVR Racing is run completely independently from the TVR road car operation – we've heard a few people mutter that we’re diverting attention from the development and manufacture of the road cars - this is absolutely not the case, there's some crossover but the key personnel and people behind the project are different and there's no dilution of effort at all - on the contrary, as ever, learnings from the race programme feed directly and beneficially into the road car development and manufacturing environment.
Engineering/Technical
One of the key components of our car is excellent engineering and we always try to stick with ‘First Principles’ as a driving force. That means we constantly focus on:
Lightness
Lightness
Lightness
Rigidity
Handling
Aero
Weight distribution
Power per tonne
Safety
All easy to aspire to, but not so easy to achieve! The target weight for the car is <1300kg. The major powertrain components combined weigh over 375kg nearly 30% of the car’s total weight – not a lot left for the chassis, suspension, body, seats, wheels, trim, air-con etc!
Then you have to get the weight evenly distributed along the wheelbase – 50/50 – also not easy when you start with a hefty V8 and performance gearbox plus all the engine bay gubbins up front.
More of how we achieved that in another mailing. For now, I wanted to emphasise why your Ground Effect car has exceptional handling. Ground effect is the phenomenon of creating low pressure air under the car with fast-moving air, effectively sucking the car down onto the road. In order to achieve this, the airflow under the car must be as uninterrupted as possible – disturbed air (this happens when car components under the car such as exhaust pipes, sump, gearbox, differential interfere with the airflow) causes turbulence and therefore instability. In order to keep the air travelling beneath the car as ‘clean’ as possible, we have engineered a flat floor beneath the car, covering everything – engine bay, gearbox and diff. Obviously we can’t enclose the wheels, so there are a few additions to the floor that are designed to move the air around the wheels and not disturb the flow too much. As the air moves to the back of the car it is manipulated by the rear diffuser – the key to managing the ground effect properly.
As fantastic as this is, it has a number of inherent challenges for your average engineer. Luckily, we didn’t choose an ‘average’ engineer to design our chassis – Gordon Murray is popularly known as the god of Ground Effect. The primary challenges are those of managing heat when the engine bay is completely enclosed, what to do with the exhaust system when you have a front mid-engined car oh, and making sure you don’t have too much downforce – that creates drag, slowing things down! As ever, the physical world is a series of compromises that keeps it in balance – our car is no exception. We rely heavily on physics to make the car handle and therefore have to use the compromises that implies to our best advantage. The Griffith is only the second front-engined production car to have full ground effect – the first was the iconic Merecdes McLaren SLR – also designed by Gordon.
Interestingly enough, the ground effect chassis alone generates the equivalent of 570+kg of downforce at high speed – the same as putting this weight on top of your car. That’s an amazing difference between the Griffith and a non-GE car which would probably be generating lift at an equivalent speed!
The body surface of the car does the opposite though - it generates ‘lift’, sucking the car up, in much the same way an aircraft wing does. Other design features on the car add to downforce – the rear wing, the chassis and even the wing mirrors do their bit. We have tuned the overall effect such that the net product is just enough downforce to give exceptional handling at high speed, but not too much as to slow the car down.
Take a look at some of the aero work we have modelled below:
The amount of downforce generated by the floor is amazing – like placing half a tonne on top of the car!
Yes, but what does it drive like??
OK, I think it's brilliant, and you’d expect (and hope) I would say that. So, we asked one of our founders to try the car out at Silverstone Classic, Beaulieu and during some of our private test days. Our Stig has huge driving experience, has a large collection of sports cars including a number of TVRs, has driven all in anger successfully at various racing events over many years and has clocked up over 3500 laps on the Nurburgring..
Here are some of his impressions of the new car after testing (abusing!) the new Griffith at various recent events :-
“First, this is 100%, absolutely, a TVR in every way - there's no doubt that it's captured the essence, distilled the DNA, and is a true TVR; lots to be proud of on that front. Everyone says it looks great in the flesh, even if they had not initially thought so in the pictures; very few negative comments so far from anyone who's seen her in person.
Second, what a car! In the modern age where everything's got so bloated and tech-bound, a real breath of fresh air. Light, properly grunty, nimble, aural, analogue. Love it!
Yes, you can really feel the aero package working – and the chassis? Wow! Stiifff. You can ride the kerbs as in a race car, at any speed, and there isn't a single murmur, creak or groan. Genuinely first class - added to which the aircon blends nicely, she idles happily in tropical heat (both before and after being ragged on track), the mirrors work..there's a decent boot...What a car...!
Re the questions as to how she handles on the limit? Turn in is instinctive, telepathic, full of resolve, and at ordinary levels the handling is just so beautifully benign, with no nanny aids needed, then towards / on the limit she's easy to provoke into mild understeer, lift-off oversteer, lairy booted oversteer, or happy just to hold a line and play tunes on the fiddle as you please; it's all good, perfectly balanced, and all accompanied by the aforesaid sense of total structural integrity, chassis resolve, safety (passive and active) and bulletproof mechanical grunt and integrity. All so much fun!”
Next Update
In responding to the requests for more frequent updates, we will be sending out another (no later than October) but, in the meantime, we will be sending you the elusive questionnaire mentioned in a previous update, together with some provisional option choices (audio, media, etc.) for the car for your feedback - on the basis that we want to be able to feed your responses directly into the options list, we have had to get to the point (which we're nearly at now) where we've sufficient clarity on what we're able sensibly to offer in the way of upgrades, packs, etc., and at what cost (both in terms of financial cost to us and impact on the simplicity of the production run of the 500 LE cars), before finalising the form. Please watch out for it in your inbox shortly.
We will also bring you more information on the technology under the skin of the new car and a further update on our progress with the later Gen 3 Coyote.
That’s about it for the moment; I hope you’ve found this update helpful and informative - and we'll share the major news I mentioned at the beginning of this update the minute we can.
Best wishes
Les
Les Edgar
Chairman
TVR Manufacturing Ltd
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