Friday 8th September 2017

TVR Griffith: Pic of the Week

Well if there was a day for celebrating the original TVR Griffith on PH...

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So, the new TVR Griffith has been unveiled at Goodwood Revival and it's getting quite the reception!

To celebrate, our Pic of the Week shows Gerry Marshall, after whom the Goodwood Members' Meeting's Gerry Marshall Trophy is named, flying into a corner at Snetterton in his TVR Griffith V8. Gerry was one of the UK's greatest ever racing drivers winning 623 races, many of them in TVRs, in a career spanning four decades. Having worked as a Sales Manager for the Barnet Motor Company and serving as their director of TVR, he brought invaluable positive publicity to the marque with his performances behind the wheel of his Griffith. With his contribution both in the showroom and on the track, it could be argued that he did more for the brand than almost anyone else.

It's been over a decade since Gerry died, having suffered a heart attack whilst driving Richard Petty's IROC Chevrolet Camaro at Silverstone. Monday, however, will be the 13th anniversary of his final win and, whatever you think of the Griffith's new namesake, we like to think he would be pleased to see the company getting back on its feet.

Traditional (4:3)
Computer widescreen (16:10)
TV widescreen (16:9)
Portrait (mobile)

[Turbobanana]

Legends: car and man.

Nice to see a pic on the old part of Snet as well, although left handers in a RHD car always resulted in a fair degree of body roll with Gerry at the wheel.

His biography "Only here for the beer" is one of my treasured possessions.

[Venisonpie]

Is this turning left into the current bridge from what is now the access road with the revett straight (is it still called that) now entering from the right of the picture?

[FourWheelDrift]

Venisonpie said:

Is this turning left into the current bridge from what is now the access road with the revett straight (is it still called that) now entering from the right of the picture?

He's coming onto what would be the end of the Revett straight from what was the Home Straight, that you still go down when entering the circuit from Heath Rd.

Check out the earlier layouts on here - http://theracingline.net/racingcircuits/UnitedKing...

Ps the bridge has been moved though. Follow the home straight down and you will see where the old bridge was - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Snetterton+Cir...

[dinkel]

2006:

[Jex]

I remember watching Gerry Marshall at Snetterton in the late 70s early 80s when I was a pit marshal. He was a larger than life character in many senses of that expression. He was fantastic in the wet. He always seemed to be enjoying himself and the rumour was that when he went on the track he had drunk enough for him to be over the road drink drive limit - I don't know if that was true.

[Gregor Marshall]

Lovely to see a picture of Dad - he loved Snetterton and driving the TVR, but it was under-powered, under-braked and under-tyred, hence the sideways antics to slow if down and keep up the momentum.
I used this picture in the book I co-wrote with Jeremy Walton (page 48) and there is a great front on shot - copies still available by the way

As an aside, he won 625 races and did not die of a heart attack.

[Landamore]

Gerry is entering the Essex from the home straight. This ran from the hairpin on the 2.71 mile circuit. The bridge is not the current bridge which is in a different location

[dinkel]