New TVR still under wraps!
Discussion
Latest Press release from TVR.
Factory Update - Latest news leeked from Wales..
Hi Everybody,
I hope you’ve all had a great start to the New Year – 2019 is destined to be a momentous year for us here at TVR as we commence the final stage of our iDream ™ to bring TVR roaring back.
There is so much going on at the moment, with everything changing continuously, I now need to break updates down into bite-size chunks.
The single most important thing at the moment is the factory, so I’m going to dedicate this note to this critical singularity.
Now, please don’t take anything hereunder as gospel (unless I specifically say it is!) – all things are subject to change (more than once) and we do our best to give you as accurate information as we can, but are not always in control of the source of said information. However we are confident that the last few hurdles before we can formally announce that the factory is under way will be overcome very shortly now - we are as frustrated as anyone by the ongoing delays, I can assure you, but real progress is being made and we are very much down to the final stages.
Anyhow, I hope this note is of interest and I will be back in touch very soon with further updates on the subject matter as well as further information on the car itself. I have not forgotten that I owe you an update on the survey results and, in particular, renderings of the car with some cool exterior colour choices for you to consider. Our next update will be more general in nature and we’ll try to include as much factual information as possible, but in line with my previous notes, there is a balance between that and retaining the flexibility necessary to complete the journey on the best terms and to navigate the bumps in the road (and even the occasional sleeping policeman!) with the minimum of fuss and incident.
We’ll be in touch again shortly, and hope you enjoy reading this interim note meanwhile.
All the best
Les
The Factory:
So, the wheels grind a little more slowly onwards than we’d like, but onwards nevertheless! Apparently it snowed in Wales over Christmas period (gospel), and that slowed all email and telephonic communication down..
The Welsh Government confirmed a few weeks ago that they had now assessed two successful bids for the factory refurbishment and fit-out. The good news is that they are both UK (Welsh) contractors, rather than from a country we weren’t sure actually existed.
Furthermore, we had a meeting a few days ago with the WG representatives, the architects (CAPITA) and the facilities/contracts team to bottom out the timings for the announcement and commencement of the works.
The upshot is this:
With regard to the commencement on site of the factory work, as soon as we know, you will know
The Welsh Government have pressed very hard to finalise the contractor selection process and we have reached agreement with them to have the chosen refurbishment contractor also carry out the TVR-specific fit-out works (at our cost, of course!), which will reduce the time to handover and, more importantly, the risk of two different contractors missing something in the middle – like the toilet waste connecting to the fire sprinkler system.
From a TVR perspective, we are (amongst many other tasks, including nailing down the last parts in the Bill of Materials) focusing on making the factory experience as great as we can for our customers, without spending a fortune unnecessarily – not so much marble, chrome, and expensive biscuits (OK, maybe we’ll relent on the biscuit front!), as practical areas to see the cars in-build, talk to the workforce, discuss what you’d like to see in your dream Griffith etc.
At the end of the day, if you’re anything like us, you’ll probably want to come along and see your car in build because a) it’s very interesting to see something in bits, b) you want to understand what’s under the skin and what makes this car different to most other cars on the road and c) you can’t wait to continue the journey you started along with us, in what we hope will be a lifetime love affair with TVR.
With that in mind, we’ve worked hard on the front-facing bit as well as the production parts and thought you might like to see behind the scenes and get a glimpse as to what things will look like...
See below what the factory looked like a short while ago, and what we plan for the refurb.
This simple approach of putting a façade in front of the ‘standard’ clad finish of an industrial building creates a very cool effect without extreme or unnecessary costs.
Again, a simple approach creating a great open space focused on the cars themselves and, in particular, the unique construction approach used in the new Griffith.
Simple but effective use of materials (couldn’t afford marble, blew the budget on biscuit stock) that reflect the construction techniques and components of the new cars are used in the public areas.
Obviously you can’t see in this view, the rather tacky merchandising area where we’ll try to sell you some ‘T’ shirts and a key ring while you wait impatiently to collect your car.
As you would expect, in addition to the main entrance area, we will also have a number of additional areas where you can discuss your car, choose options, colours, leathers etc. etc with our team.
Additionally, we will have viewing areas for those who don’t want to do a full tour of the factory floor, but are interested to watch the process. Of course, a restaurant and other essential bits are planned to make sure that both customers and staff equally feel part of our family.
iStream Factory – plugs together from a kit – isKrEAm ^(tm):
Not much to say really, its big. The thin ‘buff’ coloured area is destined principally for car storage as we’ve assumed those collecting their car from the factory (the majority, according to our questionnaire), will probably do so on a weekend.
This next one shows the planned layout inside the factory, while managing to keep enough spare space for burn-outs if it’s wet outside (frequently). I know you can’t see the detail clearly (because we have secret stuff, of course), but that really is the layout (gospel).
Production Floor Layout
As I mentioned above, it is the intention that you can visit the factory floor to see how your car is built (and offer helpful advice to the factory operatives as to how they can do it better, regaling them with stories about how you completely dismantled and reassembled your Chim at the roadside once using only a Leatherman..). The factory layout has been designed specifically with this in mind.
Also, following previous introductions, please say hello to our most recently appointed director, with an emphasis on manufacturing (tech, process, procedure...)
Rich ‘Chopper’ Smith: (seen below setting TDC with TLC on his beloved Pantera)
Rich is an engineer, with a First Class Honours BSc in Mechanical and Production Engineering. He's also a geek, pioneer of the UK indoor karting industry (gospel) before growing up and spending a lifetime in manufacturing, air traffic control installation, and ultimately building a telecoms company from scratch to successful exit. He has set up, owned and managed several businesses including seven mid-to-large factories throughout the UK and he remains a shareholder and director of various companies within the automotive, telecoms and teaching sector.
As he’d pretty much retired (although only 22), and annoyed the rest of us by having ample leisure time to drive his collection of exotica (including the only other front-engined, ground-effect production car than the new Griffith – a McLaren SLR, also designed by Gordon Murray) we thought we'd reward him with a return to working life and an immediate promotion to Wales! Rich has also recently qualified as a helicopter pilot and acquired his own jet heli which will be a great help reducing commuting time and getting me home from (to?!) the pub!
I'll be back with more news as soon as I can.
Les
TVR Manufacturing Ltd
Factory Update - Latest news leeked from Wales..
Hi Everybody,
I hope you’ve all had a great start to the New Year – 2019 is destined to be a momentous year for us here at TVR as we commence the final stage of our iDream ™ to bring TVR roaring back.
There is so much going on at the moment, with everything changing continuously, I now need to break updates down into bite-size chunks.
The single most important thing at the moment is the factory, so I’m going to dedicate this note to this critical singularity.
Now, please don’t take anything hereunder as gospel (unless I specifically say it is!) – all things are subject to change (more than once) and we do our best to give you as accurate information as we can, but are not always in control of the source of said information. However we are confident that the last few hurdles before we can formally announce that the factory is under way will be overcome very shortly now - we are as frustrated as anyone by the ongoing delays, I can assure you, but real progress is being made and we are very much down to the final stages.
Anyhow, I hope this note is of interest and I will be back in touch very soon with further updates on the subject matter as well as further information on the car itself. I have not forgotten that I owe you an update on the survey results and, in particular, renderings of the car with some cool exterior colour choices for you to consider. Our next update will be more general in nature and we’ll try to include as much factual information as possible, but in line with my previous notes, there is a balance between that and retaining the flexibility necessary to complete the journey on the best terms and to navigate the bumps in the road (and even the occasional sleeping policeman!) with the minimum of fuss and incident.
We’ll be in touch again shortly, and hope you enjoy reading this interim note meanwhile.
All the best
Les
The Factory:
So, the wheels grind a little more slowly onwards than we’d like, but onwards nevertheless! Apparently it snowed in Wales over Christmas period (gospel), and that slowed all email and telephonic communication down..
The Welsh Government confirmed a few weeks ago that they had now assessed two successful bids for the factory refurbishment and fit-out. The good news is that they are both UK (Welsh) contractors, rather than from a country we weren’t sure actually existed.
Furthermore, we had a meeting a few days ago with the WG representatives, the architects (CAPITA) and the facilities/contracts team to bottom out the timings for the announcement and commencement of the works.
The upshot is this:
- One of the two successful tender submissions is preferred based on price & quality.
- We are organising diaries with all concerned to make a joint public announcement shortly. With that in mind, we’d like to organise a photo shoot at the factory with the Welsh Ministers, the contractor and an invited assembly of depositors in their TVRs and would like to invite expressions of interest to participate – emails to factory@tvrevents.co.uk
With regard to the commencement on site of the factory work, as soon as we know, you will know
The Welsh Government have pressed very hard to finalise the contractor selection process and we have reached agreement with them to have the chosen refurbishment contractor also carry out the TVR-specific fit-out works (at our cost, of course!), which will reduce the time to handover and, more importantly, the risk of two different contractors missing something in the middle – like the toilet waste connecting to the fire sprinkler system.
From a TVR perspective, we are (amongst many other tasks, including nailing down the last parts in the Bill of Materials) focusing on making the factory experience as great as we can for our customers, without spending a fortune unnecessarily – not so much marble, chrome, and expensive biscuits (OK, maybe we’ll relent on the biscuit front!), as practical areas to see the cars in-build, talk to the workforce, discuss what you’d like to see in your dream Griffith etc.
At the end of the day, if you’re anything like us, you’ll probably want to come along and see your car in build because a) it’s very interesting to see something in bits, b) you want to understand what’s under the skin and what makes this car different to most other cars on the road and c) you can’t wait to continue the journey you started along with us, in what we hope will be a lifetime love affair with TVR.
With that in mind, we’ve worked hard on the front-facing bit as well as the production parts and thought you might like to see behind the scenes and get a glimpse as to what things will look like...
See below what the factory looked like a short while ago, and what we plan for the refurb.
This simple approach of putting a façade in front of the ‘standard’ clad finish of an industrial building creates a very cool effect without extreme or unnecessary costs.
Again, a simple approach creating a great open space focused on the cars themselves and, in particular, the unique construction approach used in the new Griffith.
Simple but effective use of materials (couldn’t afford marble, blew the budget on biscuit stock) that reflect the construction techniques and components of the new cars are used in the public areas.
Obviously you can’t see in this view, the rather tacky merchandising area where we’ll try to sell you some ‘T’ shirts and a key ring while you wait impatiently to collect your car.
As you would expect, in addition to the main entrance area, we will also have a number of additional areas where you can discuss your car, choose options, colours, leathers etc. etc with our team.
Additionally, we will have viewing areas for those who don’t want to do a full tour of the factory floor, but are interested to watch the process. Of course, a restaurant and other essential bits are planned to make sure that both customers and staff equally feel part of our family.
iStream Factory – plugs together from a kit – isKrEAm ^(tm):
Not much to say really, its big. The thin ‘buff’ coloured area is destined principally for car storage as we’ve assumed those collecting their car from the factory (the majority, according to our questionnaire), will probably do so on a weekend.
This next one shows the planned layout inside the factory, while managing to keep enough spare space for burn-outs if it’s wet outside (frequently). I know you can’t see the detail clearly (because we have secret stuff, of course), but that really is the layout (gospel).
Production Floor Layout
As I mentioned above, it is the intention that you can visit the factory floor to see how your car is built (and offer helpful advice to the factory operatives as to how they can do it better, regaling them with stories about how you completely dismantled and reassembled your Chim at the roadside once using only a Leatherman..). The factory layout has been designed specifically with this in mind.
Also, following previous introductions, please say hello to our most recently appointed director, with an emphasis on manufacturing (tech, process, procedure...)
Rich ‘Chopper’ Smith: (seen below setting TDC with TLC on his beloved Pantera)
Rich is an engineer, with a First Class Honours BSc in Mechanical and Production Engineering. He's also a geek, pioneer of the UK indoor karting industry (gospel) before growing up and spending a lifetime in manufacturing, air traffic control installation, and ultimately building a telecoms company from scratch to successful exit. He has set up, owned and managed several businesses including seven mid-to-large factories throughout the UK and he remains a shareholder and director of various companies within the automotive, telecoms and teaching sector.
As he’d pretty much retired (although only 22), and annoyed the rest of us by having ample leisure time to drive his collection of exotica (including the only other front-engined, ground-effect production car than the new Griffith – a McLaren SLR, also designed by Gordon Murray) we thought we'd reward him with a return to working life and an immediate promotion to Wales! Rich has also recently qualified as a helicopter pilot and acquired his own jet heli which will be a great help reducing commuting time and getting me home from (to?!) the pub!
I'll be back with more news as soon as I can.
Les
TVR Manufacturing Ltd
m4tti said:
Christ on a bike. The milky bar kid must have been adopted 
As a kid I don’t quite remember her on telly, but it would have been time to whip a littlewoods catalogue out
I so miss the 80's - bumbling around in an Escort RS Turbo, Technotronic blaring out and a bird with big shoulder pads and frizzy hair in the passenger seat As a kid I don’t quite remember her on telly, but it would have been time to whip a littlewoods catalogue out
Wait a minute, for months every other post has been along the lines of 'just PLEASE update us, etc', yet when a fairly comprehensive and promising ('we really are in the final stages') then no body posts for nearly two hours?!
If all true then it sounds good. Production starting by the summer?
If all true then it sounds good. Production starting by the summer?
Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:
Wait a minute, for months every other post has been along the lines of 'just PLEASE update us, etc', yet when a fairly comprehensive and promising ('we really are in the final stages') then no body posts for nearly two hours?!
If all true then it sounds good. Production starting by the summer?
Yes it sounds good, but so did all the other updates.If all true then it sounds good. Production starting by the summer?
Have any of the previous time frames been met and have the hints of exciting news and future big announcements ever actually materialised?
Again it’s an announcement with no actual hard information in it.
I would probably be happier though if I’d ordered one after reading it.
Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:
Wait a minute, for months every other post has been along the lines of 'just PLEASE update us, etc', yet when a fairly comprehensive and promising ('we really are in the final stages') then no body posts for nearly two hours?!
If all true then it sounds good. Production starting by the summer?
All to busy with the Littlewoods catalogue to post at the momentIf all true then it sounds good. Production starting by the summer?
Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:
Wait a minute, for months every other post has been along the lines of 'just PLEASE update us, etc', yet when a fairly comprehensive and promising ('we really are in the final stages') then no body posts for nearly two hours?!
If all true then it sounds good. Production starting by the summer?
… well, to be fair to people here.. this update was supposed to be 6 weeks ago!!! the previous update, said we would hear from TVR again ~ 15th January... and it eventually came on the 5th March! (and again, it feels like they were pushed a bit, ie people kept reminding them, (ie me, for one) If all true then it sounds good. Production starting by the summer?
but as I said, as soon as people actually see work starting at the factory. It is ON!
unrepentant said:
When the T2 was launched the screen in the binnacle couldn't be viewed if the sun was shining! Oxley told me that Ben Samuelson's solution was to tell the owners to buy sunglasses! Which was probably what PW would have done. Instead Smolenski had them develop a new screen which was fitted to my car and that of Lady Di. It worked and the other cars were changed.
This fits - mine is one of the first 54 plate Tuscan 2s and it has the older screen. Almost impossible to read with the roof off. Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:
Wait a minute, for months every other post has been along the lines of 'just PLEASE update us, etc', yet when a fairly comprehensive and promising ('we really are in the final stages') then no body posts for nearly two hours?!
If all true then it sounds good. Production starting by the summer?
Yes, maybe, possibly, perhaps, could be..... If all true then it sounds good. Production starting by the summer?
So let's assume the ministers get their fingers out, Bob the builder starts by 1st April, and it takes up to 6 months to fix and fit the factory, production could start by September, yes, maybe, possibly, perhaps, could do......
My only worry is where is the money coming from? Is there enough in hand to get this all under way and produce cars? I have no idea what it costs to start up a business like this btw.
pole said:
It's the Piech Mark 1 ? I posted a pic recently and was just about to post these renders. Looks great, no doubt. Won't be cheap, target weight 1800 KG but will get the green applause. Love the back, but somehow does not match the style of the front (don't know where i heard that before 
) . Looks very 70's American. Any photos of the rear ? Will keep an eye on it.
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/in7ccv0h.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/qpjHS5o2" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/qpjHS5o2.jpg)
pole said:
Thx, at a 150k it would be highly competitive if they get the quality right, which i guess they will. Price will depend on chosen drivetrain to some extent. 3 years, might come out with the new Griff 
While looking very cool, this is a posh car and totally lacks the rawness of the Griff. You'll see a lot of people with pink and purple shirts in front of the golf courses in those.
bullittmcqueen said:
600+ horsepower and price more like 200K. And here's for the car-front experts: a good picture of the front. Gentlemen, start your flamethrowers:
The front.....LOOK AT THE FRONT.....that's a disaster! Horrible front end. I can't believe they designed the front of the car with a clean sheet, to look like that... etc etc etc.bullittmcqueen said:
pole said:
Thx, at a 150k it would be highly competitive if they get the quality right, which i guess they will. Price will depend on chosen drivetrain to some extent. 3 years, might come out with the new Griff While looking very cool, this is a posh car and totally lacks the rawness of the Griff. You'll see a lot of people with pink and purple shirts in front of the golf courses in those.
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/03/06/piech-hints-a...
Edited by N7GTX on Friday 8th March 14:52
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