TAIMAR "T TOP"

[80tasmin]

TVR TAIMAR 1978- Fiberglass body, tube frame. "T" Top,Hatchback. New restoration.Cranberry metallic, Bisquit with walnut. 300 HP FORD 302. Aluminum heads, 600 CFM-Rhodes, Roller rockers all new. T5 Transmission, Falken tires new, T Slot wheels, New brakes,etc etc

Not mine, just came across it. For sale in Canada.

Restoration aside, this car wouldn't have left the factory with a T top?

[Slow M]

A long time ago, while living in Toronto, I had a friend named Rob Kroll who put a Mazda 13B in his M and cut T-tops into the roof.
I don't remember what year that car was but I do remember it being white.

B

Edited by Slow M on Friday 11th September 16:46

[80tasmin]

One t-top.
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1238098.htm

Original thread at General TVR Gossip and Stuff.
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

But no Taimars left the factory with a T top?


Paul

Edited by 80tasmin on Friday 11th September 19:23

[TVR_owner]

80tasmin said:

But no Taimars left the factory with a T top?

Paul

In the same way no TVRs left the factory with Ford V8 5000cc engines, no Taimars left with T Tops..

But I'm sure someone somewhere will try and attach some shread of evidence, maybe linking it to JW to give it provenance

[DavidY]

Didn't the Taimar Prototype have a targe top type arrangement? Back in the 90's this car was white and had a 1600cc engine, but my memory is being stretched here? (The car was also in the UK and Right Hand Drive and so isn't this one)

davidy

[Terminator]

TVR_owner said:

But I'm sure someone somewhere will try and attach some shread of evidence, maybe linking it to JW to give it provenance

Woodwork is in two weeks time; I'll ask some questions while I'm there (and still sober)

[TVR_owner]

Terminator said:

I'll ask some questions while I'm there (and still sober)

Best be quick then.

[80tasmin]

TVR_owner said:

In the same way no TVRs left the factory with Ford V8 5000cc engines, no Taimars left with T Tops..

But I'm sure someone somewhere will try and attach some shread of evidence, maybe linking it to JW to give it provenance

I contacted JW, no reply as yet.
IMHO this modification takes something away from the car, but, to each his/her own. It appealed to someone.
Paul

[Slow M]

TVR_owner said:

I'm sure someone somewhere will try and attach some shread of evidence, maybe linking it to JW to give it provenance

From Wikipedia,
Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", means the origin, or the source, of something, or the history of the ownership or location of an object.
John,
Don’t give that word so much weight, all old cars have history.
If it is the car I'm thinking of (and I haven't said it is), much of the work would indeed have been carried out at TVR North America and some of it would have been done by Lucky Kroll, Rob's Father. The owner was woefully inadequately equipped to handle most tools, devices, equipment, once attempting to remove the grass growing on his feet with a lawnmower.
The scope of work to which I make reference was limited to conversion to 13B and t-tops.
Please remember that most TVR related activities in Canada and the North-Eastern United States would have involved John Wadman in some way or form. As the car is located in Ontario, I would not be surprised if the V8 conversion was also performed by TVR NA, especially if it is done nicely.
Also, “shred” doesn’t need the extra letter; it grows into a modicum that way.
Glad I shared.

Paul,
I’d love to know if yours was the car that John drove at a high rate of speed around Park Lane Circle with four occupants around the summer of ’81. That was the day I learned to be respectful of John’s skill behind the wheel.

I think this is a good time to point out to many who don't know him that John Wadman is not only a major reason why many of us who live in North America have such a love for our TVRs but he is also an amazingly generous man and quite a brilliant mind.
John designed and built his own boat hull in the late 1970s, which, in its original jet driven-Oldsmobile powered guise, he still uses. He also built a Porsche 356 powered dune buggy, has undertaken numerous construction projects with little outside aid and is quite an accomplished welder, body man, automotive diagnostician and, of course, businessman. During many of the years through which Martin Lilley and Peter Wheeler were TVR to those of you in GB, John, approachable, engaging, and loyal to the bone to TVR, has been the embodyment of that marque to those who love it on this continent.

While I will once again miss Woodwork this year, it would be wonderful to know that those who do attend will give John some well deserved respect and appreciation for his accomplishments. At the same time, it would be nice to ask you in GB to consider that John's contributions to the over all sales of TVR cars, especially through the lean years, may well have contributed to TVR remaining solvent for long enough to give us some of the beauties of the 80s, 90s or 00s.

Bernard.

[TVR_owner]

Bernard, I replied and then deleted my post. We see things from different angles, better left that way IMO.

edited to add. JW may well have helped TVR survive, I don't know, but I see the folk who buy TVRs as those that helped keep it going, not those who sold them. His conversion work is of a high quality judging by the cars I've seen and it maybe that by prorviding something different, he enhanced desirability and that may have palyed some part. I see JWs cars as well converted TVRs, no more than that. That owners try to link the cars back to Bristol Avenue to enhance their value is what I have trouble with.

Edited by TVR_owner on Monday 14th September 09:14

[heightswitch]

TVR_owner said:

Bernard, I replied and then deleted my post. We see things from different angles, better left that way IMO.

edited to add. JW may well have helped TVR survive, I don't know, but I see the folk who buy TVRs as those that helped keep it going, not those who sold them. His conversion work is of a high quality judging by the cars I've seen and it maybe that by prorviding something different, he enhanced desirability and that may have palyed some part. I see JWs cars as well converted TVRs, no more than that. That owners try to link the cars back to Bristol Avenue to enhance their value is what I have trouble with.

Edited by TVR_owner on Monday 14th September 09:14

The american Dock strike didn't though

N.

[TVR_owner]

heightswitch said:

TVR_owner said:

Bernard, I replied and then deleted my post. We see things from different angles, better left that way IMO.

edited to add. JW may well have helped TVR survive, I don't know, but I see the folk who buy TVRs as those that helped keep it going, not those who sold them. His conversion work is of a high quality judging by the cars I've seen and it maybe that by prorviding something different, he enhanced desirability and that may have palyed some part. I see JWs cars as well converted TVRs, no more than that. That owners try to link the cars back to Bristol Avenue to enhance their value is what I have trouble with.

Edited by TVR_owner on Monday 14th September 09:14

The american Dock strike didn't though

N.

Sorry Neil, I get a bit tired of America saved the world (and no I'm not anti-American)...and golly gosh, now it saved TVR.

While I'm sure that extra sales oulets are good I would take a lot of convincing that the American Market had much more impact than any other sucessful retail outlet on TVRs survival!!

[80tasmin]

TVR_owner said:

..... I get a bit tired of America saved the world (and no I'm not anti-American)...and golly gosh, now it saved TVR.

While I'm sure that extra sales oulets are good I would take a lot of convincing that the American Market had much more impact than any other sucessful retail outlet on TVRs survival!!

And I don't disagree. I happen to own a 1980 Tasmin FHC, one I bought from JW last fall. It is, apparently, one of two 1980 FHCs sold in North America. Point being that they didn't exactly fly off the shelves here.
But, here's something taken from http://members.tripod.com/nigel_warner/tvrhist.htm...

"In early 1975 a fire gutted a large part of the factory and destroyed a number of cars. TVR recovered from the fire with help from loyal staff and assistance from TVR North America. It took the whole year to get production back to normal."

The first 2500M produced after that fire was sold in Canada by JW. It was once owned by a friend of mine here in Chatham, Ontario. He wasn't the original owner. That car is, as best I know, in Tennessee now.


JW did have approval from TVR to do his V8 conversions, but he wasn't the first....."It is said that in 1962 an AC Cobra and a TVR Grantura were in Jack Griffith's New York workshops and the mechanics decided to see if the Cobra's V8 would fit in the Grantura. It fitted and so Jack Griffith decided to do a proper conversion on a MK III and it was found to be a very fast car. Ufortunately TVR ended 1962 in receivership and in 1963 Grantura Engineering took over. In 1963 Griffith decides to sell V8 engined TVRs in the US"

Here are a couple of pictures I took of JW's first V8 conversion (the yellow car)








And, while I'm at it, in a moment of thinking realistically which I know I'm going to regret, I recently sold my M, just couldn't find the time to drive two TVRs.

Paul

[Slow M]

TVR_owner said:

That owners try to link the cars back to Bristol Avenue to enhance their value is what I have trouble with.

I'm starting to think that the angles from which we see things is not all that far apart.
Most people who try to link objects to people are profiteers trying to increase these objects value. Some others are adherents to the cult of fame. Both groups are a waste of my time. I love cars. I care who built them only to give credit where it's due but I am a stickler when it comes to definitions and objective truth.
Given the choice between an “original” Cobra and a Kirkham "replica," I’d take the replica. From my research, it’s the BETTER car.

By the way, I am not American, I'm Canadian; so is JW. TVR NA Ltd. is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the city I moved to after leaving England.
There would be nothing to gain from arguing about whether it is you or I who is more offended by the notion that the United States of America is running around saving the world. That idea is more stupid than ethnocentric. Most rational people can see that with the exception of WWII, US foreign policy blunders and CIA meddling have done more to destabilize geopolitical affairs than they have helped to ease tensions.
As they say, familiarity breeds contempt.

I was trying to remind some people of the very positive and often overlooked contributions made to the history of a marque by one individual.

B.

[80tasmin]

Slow M said:

I was trying to remind some people of the very positive and often overlooked contributions made to the history of a marque by one individual.

B.

[TVR_owner]

Slow M said:

I was trying to remind some people of the very positive and often overlooked contributions made to the history of a marque by one individual.
B.

Bernard, apologies on two levels due. One for suggesting you may be American, the other relates to my one-sided view of what individuals did or otherwise in TVRs history and that they could detract from JWs undisputed achievements. Too many folk say good things of his works to suggest that I would be correct.

I have been to Woodwork a few times in the past and the enthusiasm Americans and Canadians (alphabetical order..) show for the marque is amazing, the miles they cover to attend just this event on 4 wheels is more than many UK owners do in 5 years..

Question, would I like a nice JW converted M, of course I would.

[intermediate]

some confusion here
who is JW?
I know a couple of them but only one good one

[TVR_owner]

intermediate said:

some confusion here
who is JW?
I know a couple of them but only one good one

Its not the one that has a name for building pwerful relaible essex engines..does that help.

[intermediate]

some confusion here
who is JW?
I know a couple of them but only one good one

[heightswitch]

80tasmin said:

TVR_owner said:

..... I get a bit tired of America saved the world (and no I'm not anti-American)...and golly gosh, now it saved TVR.

While I'm sure that extra sales oulets are good I would take a lot of convincing that the American Market had much more impact than any other sucessful retail outlet on TVRs survival!!

And I don't disagree. I happen to own a 1980 Tasmin FHC, one I bought from JW last fall. It is, apparently, one of two 1980 FHCs sold in North America. Point being that they didn't exactly fly off the shelves here.
But, here's something taken from http://members.tripod.com/nigel_warner/tvrhist.htm...

"In early 1975 a fire gutted a large part of the factory and destroyed a number of cars. TVR recovered from the fire with help from loyal staff and assistance from TVR North America. It took the whole year to get production back to normal."

The first 2500M produced after that fire was sold in Canada by JW. It was once owned by a friend of mine here in Chatham, Ontario. He wasn't the original owner. That car is, as best I know, in Tennessee now.


JW did have approval from TVR to do his V8 conversions, but he wasn't the first....."It is said that in 1962 an AC Cobra and a TVR Grantura were in Jack Griffith's New York workshops and the mechanics decided to see if the Cobra's V8 would fit in the Grantura. It fitted and so Jack Griffith decided to do a proper conversion on a MK III and it was found to be a very fast car. Ufortunately TVR ended 1962 in receivership and in 1963 Grantura Engineering took over. In 1963 Griffith decides to sell V8 engined TVRs in the US"

Here are a couple of pictures I took of JW's first V8 conversion (the yellow car)








And, while I'm at it, in a moment of thinking realistically which I know I'm going to regret, I recently sold my M, just couldn't find the time to drive two TVRs.

Paul

History is a funny thing. the Original griffith did take the name of the US Importer. The first prototype car was a very crudely transplanted grantura. If you read the griffith years some will have you believe that It was an american inspired and engineered project.

For me a very very knowledgable engineer from Blackpool is the one to thank for the 200 and later 400 incarnation cars.

The man is legend and has forgotton more about TVR than any of us will ever know This is the man who engineered the Griffith chassis to produce a working car and later in the 400 a reliable one.

Neil.