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TVR is an independent manufacturer of sports cars in Blackpool in Lancashire, England. The company manufactures light-weight sports cars with powerful engines.

TVR comprises TVR Engineering, which manufactures sports cars and grand tourers, and TVR Power, their powertrain operation.

On 18 October 2006 it was announced that, despite previous assurances to the contrary as recently as September, TVR production would be moved abroad. It was later confirmed that TVR production would be moved to Turin, Italy and be conducted by Bertone.The brand will be officially re-launched at the Geneva Motor Show next March.

TVR was founded in 1947 by Trevor Wilkinson, under the name of Trevcar Motors. In 1954, Wilkinson changed the name of the company by taking three consonants of his first name for the company name. The first car was built in 1949. In 1953 the concept of glass-reinforced plastic bodywork over a tubular steel backbone chassis was born, which is continued to this day. Many of the early cars were sold in kit form to avoid a British tax on assembled cars but in the 1970s this option was phased out and only complete cars sold after the tax loophole was closed.

In the late 1950s, TVRs were powered by Coventry Climax engines, MGA 4-Cylinder or 4-cylinder Ford Engines, with performance models having Shorrock superchargers. As with many other British sports cars, engine size remained beneath 2 litres, and all produced less than 100 bhp (75 kW). Most TVRs were sold in the domestic (British) market, although small quantities were exported overseas.

In the 1960s, American motor dealer Jack Griffith decided to insert a 4.7 litre V8 from an AC Cobra he owned into a TVR Grantura, much in the same way that V8s were first transplanted to AC Cobras. (It is in honour of Jack Griffith that the TVR Griffith was named).

Towards the end of the 1960s, TVR returned to Ford for a 2994 cc V6 Zodiac engine for the new Tuscan racer. This produced 128 bhp (95 kW), giving a 0-60 mph (0-97 km/h) time of 8.3 seconds, which was good performance for a 1960s car.

The 1970s saw a number of engines used in TVRs (particularly the 'M Series'), these were mainly Triumph 2500s, Ford Essex V6 and Ford 1600 Crossflow.

Wedge Era and S series came in the 1980's

In the 1980s under the ownership of Peter Wheeler, TVR moved away from naturally aspirated and turbocharged V6s back to large V8s, namely the Rover V8 (to which Rover bought the intellectual property rights from Buick). Capacity grew from 3.5 to 4.5 litres.

In the 1990s, TVR Power (the powertrain producing arm of TVR) had produced a number of modified Rover V8s, but TVR decided to move towards an in-house engine design. The AJP8 engine was developed by Engineering Consultant Al Melling along with Peter Wheeler and John Ravenscroft, hence the AJP initials, and was a lightweight alloy V8 - a notable achievement for such a small company. It was originally destined for the Griffith and Chimaera but development took longer than expected and it finally became available in the Cerbera and Tuscan race cars.

It has been said that TVR's chairman, Peter Wheeler has a passion for traditional straight-six powered British sportscars. Based on this, TVR set about designing a straight six derivative of the AJP8, but engineered to be cheaper to produce and maintain. This engine became known as the Speed 6 and was designed by TVR's head of engineering, John Ravenscroft. This engine now powers current TVR's.


TVR - Sagaris