Bringing '93 Griff 500 to the US

[bergxu]

Afternoon gents,

Bought a '93 Griff 500 in Blighty and am in process of bringing it here to The Colonies. I've also got a Dolly Sprint and 2500S Estate, both of which I imported here from the UK last year. Looking forward to the TVR's arrival very much as they're so thin on the ground here. It'll be my second Trevor, the first was a '69 Vixen S2 which I no longer own (but enjoyed immensely during my stint with it).

Anyhow, any suggestions with respect to care and feeding of this beast would be much appreciated. Also, who are the best folk to get spares from? As I understand, David Gerald TVR does not exist any longer? Correct me if I'm wrong. But in any case, whomever you guys suggest I deal with there in England for parts, I'm happy to patronize.

Also, if I want to add in a more wild cam and more rorty exhaust, who are the best places to go to for these bits? If you look on YouTube, Mole Valley Specialist Cars has a video up of a Griff 500 from their inventory that's sitting idling and it sounds absolutely amazing and I'd like for my car to be similar. Sounds as if their car has not just an exhaust but cam too...


Pic of my soon-to-be beast attached..

Cheers,
Aaron

Edited by bergxu on Sunday 18th August 23:41

[ianwayne]

David Gerald still exists but has been shortened to DG sportscars. They don't have spares available to the public any more though. Their spares business along with Racing Green (and Clevor Trevor?) has been amalgamated into TVR Parts Ltd. Or so I thought. It seems Racing Green TVR still have parts, but you have to be a registered trader:
http://www.tvr-trade-parts.co.uk/parts

This is TVR Parts Ltd:
https://tvr-parts.com/

Powers Performance also have a stock of TVR spares:

http://www.powersperformance.co.uk/

There is also Racetech:

http://www.racetechdirect.co.uk/

For bespoke parts, there's also ACT Products. If you hover on the menu headers, you'll see TVR options:

https://www.actproducts.co.uk/?doing_wp_cron=15635...

Searching for reviews will return positive and negative feedback on these, I have used all 4 successfully.

Getting stuff shipped to the USA may be an issue so you'll have to ask about that, and stuff often pops up on ebay too.

Edited by ianwayne on Monday 19th August 08:25

[bergxu]

Thank you Ian, very kind of you to compile that list for me. When I had my vixen I really didn’t need to buy too many spares for it other than some suspension bushings when I rebuilt it and those came from Superflex.

[geeman237]

bergxu said:

Afternoon gents,

Bought a '93 Griff 500 in Blighty and am in process of bringing it here to The Colonies. I've also got a Dolly Sprint and 2500S Estate, both of which I imported here from the UK last year. Looking forward to the TVR's arrival very much as they're so thin on the ground here. It'll be my second Trevor, the first was a '69 Vixen S2 which I no longer own (but enjoyed immensely during my stint with it).

Anyhow, any suggestions with respect to care and feeding of this beast would be much appreciated. Also, who are the best folk to get spares from? As I understand, David Gerald TVR does not exist any longer? Correct me if I'm wrong. But in any case, whomever you guys suggest I deal with there in England for parts, I'm happy to patronize.

Also, if I want to add in a more wild cam and more rorty exhaust, who are the best places to go to for these bits? If you look on YouTube, Mole Valley Specialist Cars has a video up of a Griff 500 from their inventory that's sitting idling and it sounds absolutely amazing and I'd like for my car to be similar. Sounds as if their car has not just an exhaust but cam too...


Pic of my soon-to-be beast attached..

Cheers,
Aaron

Edited by bergxu on Sunday 18th August 23:41

Aaron hi
I just sold my 1992 Griffith that I brought here to the US. I had it two years. I used Powers and Racetech for parts that were TVR specific, for the most part. Both equally good with service, price and shipping. I preferred to phone rather than order online as their online ordering wasn't set up for US sales I don't think. Postage costs were acceptable, delivery time good, usually around a week, and never any hold ups through Customs. Your local Autozone etc usually has oil filters, plug leads etc for Range Rovers. I used the US Land Rover/Range Rover specialists for a few bits but they are just buying them from UK suppliers and adding a mark up. Right now the Pound is way down and in our (US) favo(u)r. Definitely get the Rovergauge software and lead a copy of the Steve Heath book. I ran my pre-cat 4.0 on non-ethanol pump gas with no issues. It didn't over-heat in the SC summer where I live. Mind you, the heat soak into the cabin on a hot and humid day is bloody miserable. If you are handy with the spanners they are quite easy to work on.

The 'natives' have no clue what it is, and I suspect that most thought it was an MX5/Miata passing by. Only the real 'gearheads' over here really know what it is. I imported mine myself in a 20ft container with no issues at all, including getting it registered and titled. You might have to get creative with your rear number plate. I got away with getting one from Fancyplates in Ireland who supply the translucent ones. They made one with the digits of my SC plate and I improvised to make it sort of look like the SC one. Never got stopped for it.

Feel free to PM me with any other specific questions.



Congrats on your other Triumphs here. I have a 13/60 convertible, but it needs restoring.

[bergxu]

geeman237 said:

Aaron hi
I just sold my 1992 Griffith that I brought here to the US. I had it two years. I used Powers and Racetech for parts that were TVR specific, for the most part. Both equally good with service, price and shipping. I preferred to phone rather than order online as their online ordering wasn't set up for US sales I don't think. Postage costs were acceptable, delivery time good, usually around a week, and never any hold ups through Customs. Your local Autozone etc usually has oil filters, plug leads etc for Range Rovers. I used the US Land Rover/Range Rover specialists for a few bits but they are just buying them from UK suppliers and adding a mark up. Right now the Pound is way down and in our (US) favo(u)r. Definitely get the Rovergauge software and lead a copy of the Steve Heath book. I ran my pre-cat 4.0 on non-ethanol pump gas with no issues. It didn't over-heat in the SC summer where I live. Mind you, the heat soak into the cabin on a hot and humid day is bloody miserable. If you are handy with the spanners they are quite easy to work on.

The 'natives' have no clue what it is, and I suspect that most thought it was an MX5/Miata passing by. Only the real 'gearheads' over here really know what it is. I imported mine myself in a 20ft container with no issues at all, including getting it registered and titled. You might have to get creative with your rear number plate. I got away with getting one from Fancyplates in Ireland who supply the translucent ones. They made one with the digits of my SC plate and I improvised to make it sort of look like the SC one. Never got stopped for it.

Feel free to PM me with any other specific questions.



Congrats on your other Triumphs here. I have a 13/60 convertible, but it needs restoring.

Cheers and thanks for the reply. I have a good ‘team’ of people who I’ve used multiple times prior when importing cars from England to the US and it generally goes swimmingly (course now I’ll have jinxed myself by saying that). In any event, yea, I do a lot of ordering from Rimmers in the UK for my Triumph spares so no stranger to bringing in parts from abroad.

No stranger to spannering. I fix Ferrari and Maserati for a living so the Griff should be a walk in the park comparatively, although some sort of workshop manual might be nice to have.

And indeed, I decided on the Griff over getting a second F355 (was cheap because was in dire need of a major service) or an Aston Vantage because the $ to £ ratio is indeed in our favor right now. Besides, the TVR is way more unique (at least on our shores) than either of those.

Appreciate the offer for me to reach out. I’m in Cincinnati so not terribly far from SC. Believe it or not, this’ll be the THIRD Griff 500 in Cincy!

Cheers,
Aaron