Riding The TVR Rollercoaster

As TVR marks its 70th birthday, the green shoots of revival are emerging. Greg MacLeman takes a Griffith on an emotional tour from past to future

- Greg MacLeman

Cruising along the sprawling Blackpool promenade at dusk, with the reflection of a thousand lights from seafront amusements and sweet-shop signs dancing across the drizzle-spattered windscreen, this bleak northern town seems an unlikely home for one of Britain’s most loved low-production car manufacturers. And now the firm so inextricably bound to the seaside resort has found a new base in Wales following its most recent revival, the electric shock to the chest coming courtesy of video games developer and entrepreneur Les Edgar, plus a dozen associates. On an overcast and blustery day, about 50 TVRs have returned to Blackpool for one last hurrah before thundering down to inaugurate the new factory site in Ebbw Vale, Gwent.

Former archivist and now club chairman Richard Sails tickles the throttle of his Griffith – an early 4.0-litre ‘pre-cat’ model later fitted with a 4.5-litre Big Valve engine – and pulls away from the lights. “I’ve only had the car for a couple of days,” he says, “but I’d been trying to buy it for 15 years. We agreed a price a couple of years ago, and now I’ve finally got it.” Another stab of the accelerator sends a deep bellow reverberating across the rain-soaked streets.