TVR

Cars of the Peter Wheeler Era

Ralph Dodds

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781847979988
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Automotive Transportation & Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

For nearly sixty years, TVR produced some of the most thrilling, spine-tingling, hand-built sports cars to emerge from any British motor manufacturer. Yet it was the period between 1981 and 2004, under the management of Peter Wheeler, when the company finally shook off its shed-built roots and proved that it could produce cars that could match anything from Maranello or Stuttgart in terms of performance, but at a fraction of their price. Illustrated with over 300 photographs, TVR - Cars of the Peter Wheeler Era tells the story of the design, development and engineering of some of TVR's fastest, outrageous and most successful cars, from the retro-styled S1, to the racing Tuscan, 1000bhp Speed Twelve and the brutal Sagaris.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION – THE WILKINSON AND LILLEY ERAS

Ever since Karl Benz patented the world’s first true automobile in 1886, a relatively small number of car manufacturers have emerged whose products really fire the passions of not only those who are sufficiently privileged to own them but also those who can only gaze from afar. They might not generate envy in quite the way that, say, a Porsche 911 or BMW M3 can, but they can nevertheless cause heads to turn. Almost anything coming from the stables of Enzo Ferrari, Ettore Bugatti or Charles Rolls and Henry Royce would normally fall into that category, as would some specific models such as the classic Jaguar E-Type, the Lamborghini Countach and Maserati Birdcage. And then there are the manufacturers whose cars achieve that same cult status during a particular period, most usually following a change of ownership, such as Aston Martin, whose products since the arrival of David Brown in 1947 are recognizable throughout the world. It is in this latter category that a relatively small Blackpool-based manufacturer of hand-built sports cars falls.

For although TVRs have been produced in Blackpool since that same year that David Brown arrived at Aston Martin, it was from 1981 onwards, after the company was acquired by Peter Wheeler (also known by his initials PRW and referred to as such throughout this book), that they became instantly recognizable, causing young boys’ heads to snap round at a hundred paces. Nowadays, thanks to PRW’s legacy, TVR has a huge worldwide following. PRW produced some of the most iconic cars ever seen, such as the Griffith – for which TVR received the Design Council’s British Design Award in 1993 – and the utterly outrageous Speed Twelve. This is the story of the cars he built.

The most popular TVR – a Chimaera resplendent in Halcyon Midas Pearl, seen here at Beaulieu House. This example has the larger 5-litre engine. TIM WOODCOCK

The ultimate production TVR, the Sagaris. ANDY HILLS

Although the PRW era started in 1981, the TVR story began nearly sixty years earlier on 14 May 1923 with the birth in Blackpool of Trevor Wilkinson. His parents were shopkeepers and young Trevor lived much of his early life above the family shop, but it soon became clear that Trevor, who was academically bright and gifted with his hands, was destined for greater things than merely running the family business.

Trevor loved anything mechanical and as a schoolboy in his spare time he would turn his hand to repairing the prams and buggies into which his parents’ business had expanded. He left school at fourteen to pursue his love of engineering, starting an engineering apprenticeship with a firm close to the family home on Blackpool’s South Shore. Little did he know then, but these early experiences would result in his founding a car company that would, in his lifetime, produce some of the most stunning sports cars ever built; cars to rival iconic marques costing as much as ten times more. It is undoubtedly a great shame that Trevor, a modest, humble, diminutive figure whose vision it was that set the DNA for TVR for years to come, would benefit not a single penny from its later success. Yet without his initial energy, enthusiasm, determination and imagination, none of this would have happened.

In complete contrast, PRW was a tall, confident businessman who, having studied chemical engineering at Birmingham University, entered the burgeoning North Sea oil industry in the early 1970s and had made his first million before he turned thirty in 1974. Like Trevor, he was an engineer at heart and they both shared a deep passion for everything automotive although, perhaps surprisingly for someone with a background in chemical engineering, PRW hated a tidy workshop. ‘He believed if you had enough time to clean the workshop, you weren’t working hard enough!’ recalled PRW’s motor sport chief, John Reid.¹ If Trevor was the inspiration behind TVR and gave the firm its name, it was PRW who turned that inspiration into one of the world’s most desired marques and gave it models that competed bumper to bumper with those from the likes of Ferrari, Porsche and Maserati.

There is something almost unique about TVR. Almost unique, because this special quality is shared with a very select group of other marques, such as Ferrari and Rolls-Royce, whose cars rule not the head but the heart, whose spirit can be traced back through their history. Throughout TVR’s history, but perhaps especially so during the PRW era, as former chief engineer John Ravenscroft observed, ‘TVR were different enough and outrageous enough to command a bit more money.’² This was the DNA that flowed through the marque, linking the early cars with the most recent; a certain something that causes the heartbeat to rise just a little even before one gets into a TVR. It is important to recognize that at the heart of any Chimaera, Cerbera, T350 or indeed any TVR of the PRW era, what really makes them special is that link to Trevor’s earliest specials. To do justice to the cars of the PRW era, one must take a brief look at TVR’s early history.

THE TREVOR WILKINSON ERA (1946–62)

The initial years of TVR are well documented in other books. Students of early TVR history would do well to read Peter Filby’s three volumes, TVR: Success Against The Odds,³ TVR: The Early Years⁴ and TVR: A Passion to Succeed.⁵ But this book is a stand-alone volume so, although it is not the intention to repeat much of what Filby has said, given the importance of understanding how the lineage shaped the later cars, this chapter provides a brief overview.

Trevor celebrated his sixteenth birthday in May 1939 just as Britain was teetering on the abyss of the Second World War. Unlike most of his generation, he was not called up for active service – Filby suggests there may have been a medical issue⁶ – so he was able to complete his apprenticeship and return to work in the family business. However, this did not offer Trevor the engineering challenges that he sought and, once the war was over, his time came. In 1946 the fully apprenticed mechanic persuaded his parents to purchase a half share in a new engineering venture, an old wheelwright’s workshop at 22 Beverley Grove, Blackpool. Trevcar Motors was born.

TVR No.1 and No.2

‘Trevcar’ did not last long. In 1947 Trevor took three letters from his Christian name and renamed the company TVR Engineering Ltd. In the same year he completed work on the rebodying of the stripped-down chassis of his Alvis Firebird. Although he drove it for a short while, he soon sold it to realize capital to fund the build of his first original car, TVR No.1. He was joined by his long-time friend and fellow engineer Jack Pickard to try to grow the business and provide sufficient cashflow to fund this project. Unlike the Firebird project, which retained the Alvis’s chassis and running gear, TVR No.1 incorporated Trevor’s own-design, multi-tubular chassis with running gear derived from a number of different sources including springs from a Blackpool fairground ride. TVR No.1 was sold as soon as it was completed but sadly the new owner promptly crashed the car and it was largely destroyed.

Where it all began. Trevor Wilkinson (right) with Jack Pickard at Beverley Grove in 1999 (the blue door behind Jack is the original entrance to Trevcar Motors). CHRIS WRIGHT

Trevor was determined that this would not be a major setback and set about designing No.2. It was slow work because their time was focused mainly on the light-engineering tasks that provided the finance for car development. Soon, sufficient funds were accrued to enable the build of TVR No.2 to commence. Completed in 1949, it is still in existence today and is the oldest surviving TVR.

Trevor continued to build occasional one-offs and specials for the next few years until 1954 when he started his first series model. Using the same principle of a multi-tubular chassis mated to a lightweight body, the TVR Sports Saloon was launched with a glass reinforced plastic (GRP) body sourced from RGS Atalanta. Trevor supplied purely to customer order and the bespoke nature of TVRs was born. Essentially, he would build as much or as little of the car as the purchaser demanded, from...