The TVR Griffith is back...

...but let's get straight to the point. If you want to buy a new one, you'd better have the thick end of £100,000 to set aside.

That's how much TVR Motors, a company that's recently risen like a phoenix from the ashes, would like to charge you for their reincarnation of Blackpool's most famous automotive export. One of the few cars that - like an E-Type, an F40 or an XJ220 - I would do just anything to get behind the wheel of.

The new logo used by TVR Motors on its cars

The Griffith, I honestly thought, had gone for good in 2001, when TVR replaced it with the equally loud but arguably uglier Tamora, but now both are back thanks to TVR Motors' plans, as are the Tuscan, T350, Sagaris and - for those of who like TVRs a tad older - the Cerbera and Chimaera. But rather than being built by Blackpool by a team of plucky craftsmen in a collection of pre-fabs, they're now made to order in Austria, which is why they now cost Aston Vantage money.

A statement on the company's website - which also gives enthusiasts the chance to rebuild their existing TVRs with 6.2 litre V8 engines - says:

"TVR now offers customers to build the models Sagaris, Tuscan convertible, Tuscan MK II, Cerbera, Chimaera and Griffith to individual specifications.

"All cars feature a new 6.2 litre, 426 bhp, 420 lb/ft V8 engine, and a reinforced 5 gear gearbox at a fixed price."

I can see the logic; if you're a) as passionately in love with TVR's classics as I am and b) rich then you'll happily pay £100,000 for what will be the world's best Griffith, because it'll be faster, newer and better-built than any Griffith that's ever gone before. People will happily pay upwards of £100,000 for a reconditioned Jensen Interceptor, and even though it's barely 20 years old the Griffith arguably has a dedicated enough following to justify a costly reinvention.

It's just a shame the pricetage ruins a bit of the old TVR magic. When it was launched in the early Nineties a Griffith - and it didn't matter whether it was the 4.3 or the later 500 - could embarrass a Ferrari 348 for less than half the price. Price was a big part of the TVR's appeal, because a brand new Cerbera was "the fastest, noisiest thing this side of a Lamborghini Diablo" - as Clarkson put it - despite costing less than £50,000.

Jeremy Clarkson's test of the TVR Cerbera for BBC Top Gear in 1995

Being asked to stump up £100,000 for a car that cost a third of that in its heyday might make sense but it still doesn't seem very 'TVR' in its philosophy.

Would you?

Mini run to Blackpool

FOR the second time in the space of week I've ended up in Blackpool on a classic car run, although the classic car in question couldn't be more different.

Last night I ended up on the seafront in my trusty old Mini on a run through the world famous Blackpool Illuminations, as part of an event organised by Mini Southport and Ormskirk District:



The Blackpool Illuminations, which take place in the Lancashire seaside resort every autumn, are a popular run for north west classic car clubs, including Mini Southport and Ormskirk District.


Have you got an event you'd like Life On Cars to cover? Get in touch by calling 07581 343476 or send an email to david.simister@champnews.com

TVR: Blackpool's tower of sports car strength

THE FORD Capri enthusiast gave the strangely styled creation a slightly quizzical look. "Why would you want to buy one those fibreglass bubbles?"

I was over in Blackpool last weekend covering a Ford Capri gathering for Life On Cars, and one owner I was chatting to seemed genuinely bemused when the one car that town can call its own suddenly thundered onto the seafront. The fibreglass bubble in question was a TVR and I struggled not to defend its honour. I challenge anyone with even the vaguest interest in cars not to love Blackpool's very own sports car.

The thing with TVR is that their products aren't really created in any conventional car industry sense, so I doubt any visiting bigwigs from BMW or Lexus would have been very impressed with the ramshackle sheds it called its factory. Certainly, I can think of no other car which was partly styled by the MD's dog, which after getting a bit peckish, bit a chunk out of the clay styling model for the Chimaera. This being TVR, the MD was pleased by his pooch's efforts and included the bite marks on the production model. That's part of the reason why TVRs are packed full of meaty goodness.

TVR was a slightly bonkers company, which as a treat for my 13th birthday I actually got given the chance to witness first hand on a tour of the Blackpool factory. The Griffith, Chimaera and Cerbera, I discovered, were crafted by hand out of plastic by chaps who'd then equip them with enormously powerful V8 engines, but no traction control, ABS, airbags or door handles. Nor did they think a car should be painted just one colour - as the iridescent and slightly mad TVR Tuscan proved - or have interiors that followed even the vaguest of logic. The styling was best described as surreal. This, I imagined, was how all cars in the future would look.

Unfortunately I'm now a fully grown boy and the cars of the future don't look like TVRs at all. In fact, TVR went bust four years ago just as something called the Credit Crunch happened and the queue of people who wanted to spend £50,000 on a plastic sports car with Star Wars styling dried up. In these recession-ravaged times, new car buyers simply don't want something that's been styled by someone's dog.

After the Capri show had finished, I went back to the old Bristol Avenue factory - the same site I'd toured as a spotty 13-year-old - and was heartbroken by what I saw. Behind the empty building was a yard full of moulds used to make the old TVR models and a Cerbera coupe the company hadn't quite finished, and they were being left outside to rot away, untouched and unappreciated. It was of the saddest sights I've ever seen.

So to conclude TVRs are badly built out of plastic, styled with canine assistance and completely irrelevant to any car that's gone before or since. Which is why, after all these years, I still want one.

Ford Capri Blackpool 2011 show

FANS of the Ford Capri were in for a treat today when dozens of examples headed to Blackpool for a special celebration along the resort's seafront.




Members of Capri owners' clubs from across the north west brought their examples along, with a special section dedicated this year to the Brooklands 280 special edition, which is celebrating its 25th birthday.






The event was also given an unusual feel when enthusiasts of a rather different classic vehicle - Lambretta scooters from the 1960s - took an interest in the Capris, and pulled over on their machines to have a look at the fast Fords!


Have you got an event you'd like Life On Cars to cover? Get in touch by calling 07581 343476 or send an email to david.simister@champnews.com

Blackpool birthday bash for the iconic Ford Capri Brooklands

IT'S as old as me but looks and goes rather better.

Yep, the ultimate Ford Capri - the incredibly rare and sought after Brooklands 280 - is approaching its 25th birthday, and to celebrate connoisseurs of the cult coupe are heading to Blackpool this Sunday (September 25).

The event fires up at the Middle Walk on Blackpool's seafront from 10.30am, where there'll be two displays - one for the regular coupes, and another just for the Brooklands, the 160bhp, 2.8 litre special edition which saw out Capri production back in 1986.


Life On Cars will be there. Will you?

An illuminating experience

TO ANY of you who saw me running like a nutter down Blackpool’s seafront at around 9pm last Wednesday night; I’m sorry.

Members of the Southport and Ormskirk District Mini Club had journeyed up to the see the resort’s world famous illuminations, and because my very own Mini is currently on strike, I was their designated photographer.

The resulting photos are very arty (by which I mean rubbish):







And a few more highlights from a true Mini adventure...









If you would like to see your classic event feature in Life On Cars, get in touch by emailing david.simister@champnews.com.