500bhp TVR Griffith to be displayed at London motor show

The Griffith is the second front-engined production car to have a flat floor, which TVR claims generates genuine ground effect aerodynamics to improve high-speed stability. The car is 4314mm long, 1850mm wide and 1239mm tall, making it the most compact car in a class. The 911, for example, is 185mm longer, 42mm wider and 55mm taller.

The Griffith has been set up with driving enjoyment as the priority over ultimate lap time, with TVR stating that it uses “intelligent engineering over electronic aids”. The car sits on double wishbone suspension with adjustable coilover dampers at both the front and rear.

Power steering is electrically assisted and braking is handled by six-piston aluminium calipers and two-piece 370mm vented floating discs at the front and four-piston calipers with 350mm vented discs at the rear. The wheels are of 19in diameter and 235mm width at the front, 20in diameter and 235mm width at the back.

Each of the first 500 Launch Edition models can be reserved with a £5000 deposit. These early cars will come painted in bespoke colours and get their own version of the car’s infotainment system.

Although prices for the Launch Edition starts at £90,000, the actual figure is expected to vary substantially depending on trim 
and equipment. TVR bosses have affirmed their intent to retain the company's “a lot of bang for your buck” mentality, as it did under previous leaders.

The Griffith will be the first car to come from TVR’s current owners, a private millionaires’ consortium fronted by computer-gaming magnate Les Edgar that four years ago mounted a successful 
bid to buy the brand from Russian ‘mini oligarch’ Nikolai Smolensky.

Their venture has brought back one of the UK's most famous performance sports car brands, which was born 72 years ago in Blackpool 70 and ceased production in 2006 under Smolensky, who had resisted all attempts at revival until the current owners began a lengthy restoration process in 2013.

The TVR company will get a new-design factory
 that is claimed to provide 
new levels of compactness and efficiency and be constructed to deliver iStream models. With Welsh government financial help, TVR has put around £30 million into re-equipping an existing 184,000sq ft factory in the Rassau Industrial Estate, Ebbw Vale, close to the site of the proposed Circuit of Wales.

Edgar has told Autocar that his company's plans won’t be affected by the uncertainty that shrouds the Circuit of Wales project. TVR expects to generate up to 150 jobs when its production gets into full swing.

Edgar said TVR is on track to take possession of the factory in the second quarter of this year. The company hasn't offered a precise timetable beyond that, but one convincing scenario is that factory preparation will take three to six months, pilot production should start before the end of the year and the first production cars should be on their way to early customers in the first quarter of 2019.

The production aim is to make and sell “the vast majority” of the 500 launch edition cars in 2019, after which annual production will grow to around 1000 cars.

The debut of a second model, probably a convertible, and subsequent higher-performance, lightweight models, reveal a potential annual production of around 2000 to 2200 cars “by about year five”. That number neatly matches current European Small Series type approval regulations for a two-car line-up.

How the best of British compare 

The new TVR, with its front/mid-mounted, normally aspirated V8, could hardly be more different from another recently arrived British GT, the mid-engined turbocharged McLaren 570S,
 yet the two promise very similar performance - a power-to-weight ratio of around 400bhp per tonne and a resulting, impressive 0-100mph time of about 6.4sec. The TVR is taller but narrower and impressively light, one of the virtues of its iStream construction. Here’s how the two cars compare. 

How the new TVR broke cover 

Autocar was first, on 12 June 2013, to break the story that TVR’s old-established name and marque values had been rescued by a group of millionaire enthusiasts who had bought the company’s name and remaining assets from its former owner, Smolenski. 

First details of the car the partners would build emerged from a secret Autocar briefing a fortnight later and resulted in a 26 June cover story that also included the first interview with the new company’s boss, Edgar. 

By April 2014, we were talking about a new R&D centre in southern England, but the real meat of the tale emerged on 3 June 2015, when we revealed the new TVR would be shaped and engineered at Gordon Murray Design (GMD) and powered by a Cosworth-modified Ford Mustang V8. 

After that, details 
came to light slowly. By July 2015, we knew the company had started taking deposits for its first 500 cars. By 7 October, we had visited Cosworth 
in Northamptonshire to see TVR’s bosses start the first Cosworth-modded Ford V8 on the dyno. By January 2016, we knew the chassis would be made using GMD’s iStream Carbon process. By March 2016, we learned that TVR’s new factory would be in Wales.