Monday 28th April 2003

The TVR Story (Part 1)

Graham Bell untangles the facts

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[Terminator]

Hmmm "Graham Bell untangles the facts" must be a euthemism for "Yet another journalist condenses Filby's 'Success Against the Odds' into one page"

I wonder how long Mr Bell spent with Trevor Wilkinson, Jack Griffith and Martin Lilley 'untangling the facts'?



PS. I'm back from yet another 2 weeks in the USA, which may account for my cynicism. Blame it on jetlag.

[grahambell]

Actually I collected info from several sources but Filby's book wasn't one of them.

[gemini]

good to read it in one page
whens part 2?

[grahambell]

gemini said:whens part 2?

When Ted feels like putting it on the site!

[PetrolTed]

Get out of bed the wrong side Colin? If the facts are correct and we're entertaining/informing people does it matter what the sources are?

[v8thunder]

Good article - looking forward to part 2. Interesting how TVR's early history can be compared to that of Ferrari, Porsche and Lotus (began with modifying other road cars for racing, led to chartered rebodies + engine developments, then the evolving range was launched). Wasn't Carrol Shelby involved in the V8 Griff's development?

[Toffer]

Thank you Graham for your interesting article...I am eagerly awaiting Part 2.

In the meantime, anyone interested in this kind of thing should get hold of a copy of John Tipler's "TVR The Complete Story"

I add this book to my list of endorsements that include SHELL OPTIMAX and AUTOGLYM Leather Cream!

[Bigbrowncow]

Thanks for the article - much appreciated!

[Terminator]

PetrolTed said: Get out of bed the wrong side Colin?

Errr, something like that

If the facts are correct and we're entertaining/informing people does it matter what the sources are?

Probably not. A good, informative article agreed, but one that has appeared many times before, had obviously been copied from one or more sources and contained nothing new.

Basically, my cynicism is derived from having been 'stitched-up' many times in the past years by people contacting me on matters of TVR history and then publishing the information as their own.

To answer V8Thunder's question, as far as I recall (from a conversation I had with Jack Griffith about 3 years ago) Shelby had no input into the Griffith project, the only connection was that Jack Griffith stored the original AC bodies at his Long Island storage facility when they were shipped from the UK for Shelby to collect and this gave him the idea to try the Ford V8 in the Grantura body. The rest, as they say, is history.

© Colin Lyons

[tvrgaas]

Isn't plagarisum coping from only one source but research from more than one.
Some people says that Filby has errors, eg the names of the Saidel offspring (Jo-Mar). I do sometimes wonder if the major actors (Trevor, Martin, and Peter W) change the story every few years or just say stuff to wind-up journalists, I sure Peter does! So why was the Tasmin so called, Girlfriend or Maserati?

Edit to add who should we venerate/blame for 1962-1965?

>> Edited by tvrgaas on Tuesday 29th April 00:03

[PetrolTed]

Colin, I know you have some interesting connections and knowledge of TVR history. Any chance of you sharing a few snippets?

[christof]

Thanks for the very interesting article.

I really enjoyed to read it !!!

I'm currently doing the german TVR brochure which also contains a 5 pages history chapter.

All in all we will have a 30 page TVR brochure including a DVD or VHS band.

[jaydee]

What are these TVRs then ? Anyone on here own one ?

[robp]

Nice article, well written too

[ustvrdude]

Hello Graham and "Ted",
Being quite the fan and collector, (its
getting a bit obscene what I have, but I'm sure there are a FEW people that may have more) I always read with interest,
"TVR History" partially to see if I think there are any errors, yet also happy to see the knowledge passed on to "new" TVR owners. (a bit like letting the BMW owners know they made the Isetta
too)
Anyway, I think it was pretty on point with the exception of the first
display of the "M" chassis. I think Naked Chicks and the Zante adorned the
71 show, but not an "M" chassis, a Vixen chassis maybe, but... oh well,
petty really. Nice recount of History. If you do talk of the Wide Body Tuscans, note the real numbers were from probably MAL016 on. (I have MAL004 and saw MAL006 w/5700 miles on it and neither are Wide Bodies)

Lastly, for Ted, I finally bought a new enough computer to "see" my drag race with Phil Hill. As my dial up would take 20 hrs to send to you, I will make a CD to send to you!! Really!

Bill Sanford

[tasmin83]

I've been reading the posts in response to Graham's article on TVR history. As for the statements about this book or that book having mistakes in it, I think you will find most books have at least some mistakes in them. Is the information as posted on the site a rehash. Perhaps so, but I think it's always good to put a capsule history out there from time to time to let people, not well acquainted with the TVR marque, in on the varied history of TVR. How many owners of the newer cars, who have never owned a TVR before, have that much knowledge of the early years of TVR that many of us have gleaned from decades of TVR ownership? I see it as a nice service to the uninitiated.
As for the questions related to the V8 powered Griffiths, I say get a copy of Mike Mooney's book which will be out very soon, if you want a great account of the Griffith story(it's called "The Griffith Years", by the way).
Graham, thanks for the work, and I look forward to "Part 2". And, if you want to see a large collecton of the older cars, come on over to our
"Out of the Woodwork" celebration, sponsored by the TVR Car Club North America in October. It'll be the first 30 years of TVR history before your very eyes.

[david010167]

For me, knowing bits of the history I have read and loving the cars, I thought it was a good article, and surely thats the point, it is a good article.

David

[grahambell]

Thanks for the comments people. Wouldn't deny that the article is basically a rehash of what's been written before, but then TVR history hasn't changed. The idea was simply to give a potted history of TVR mainly aimed at younger PH readers/TVR owners who maybe aren't so familiar with TVR's early days.

Inevitably it's almost impossible to come up with anything new doing this, but I'll just add this little snippet I got from Martin Lilley.

It concerns the 1971 Motor Show and the stunt with the naked blondes. Knowing that this would result in swarms of people around the stand, shortly before the girls came out, the TVR lot gave the stand's barriers a fresh coat of white paint.

The result was that for the rest of the day you could wander round the show and see all these motor industry and media types in their sober dark suits - with little white stripes across the front...

[jvaughan]

grahambell said: The result was that for the rest of the day you could wander round the show and see all these motor industry and media types in their sober dark suits - with little white stripes across the front...

I thought most Journo's wore dirty brown rain coats and loitered outside public loo's !!!!

Ill get my coat !

[matt]

jaydee said: What are these TVRs then ? Anyone on here own one ?

Believe it or not there are a few older TVRs still in existence.

Good to hear some of the early TVR anecdotes - one I heard (it might be from Success against the odds so sorry if it is) The story dates from either the 50's or 60's and goes something like this: An owner of an early TVR - maybe a Grantura returned his car to the factory because it wouldn't handle properly. A TVR mechanic took it for a test drive and promptly put it through a hedge and in to a field. They recovered the car cleaned the mud off and gave it back to the customer who was delighted by the improvement in the handling!

BTW I own the blue Vixen. Think the picture was taken at the NEC a couple of years ago. The car was also pictured in "Success against the Odds" with a lady on the bonnet (fully clothed though) outside a pub aptly called The Fox.

Matt