My Air Force roommate had one in the late '60's that he would let me borrow when my car was down. I don't remember if it had a 260 or a 289. Wicked little car, but lots of fun.
There was also the latter-day Griffith, something of a centrepiece in that sadly brief British spe******t renaissance of the 1990s. That wave also included the revived Ginettas and numerous other interesting things, and to me has come to represent the swansong of the automobile as such. The '90s Griffith was an interesting design in that it incorporated features specifically intended to facilitate small-scale manufacture. For instance, the air outlets at the leading edges of the bonnet and doors meant that those panels only needed to be aligned in one direction, which made quality fit and finish much simpler to achieve.
Ned, I have been a minor fan or the later TVRs but love the earlier ones. The later ones seemed to be quirky for quirk's sake, rather than form over function. They also seemed to be stuck in almost a 1970s timeline. Same tube backbone ch***is, same run of the mill currently certified drivetrain, fairly funky in-house 'gl*** body. All at 70's quality levels. Poor rust protection (in England!?!), odd proportions, not great serviceability. Twenty years on, some lessons should have been learned. Soup Cl***ic Motoring is restoring an Espirit. It has faults that can be found in the 90s TVRs and also refinement that is not in the later TVRs. Those later TVRs also did the same lowest price parts bin ***embly. Not a bad thing, but choose quality, not ugly cheap stuff. Lamborghini used parts bin stuff, but selected and placed at a level that was one step above a teenager trying to make a deadline. From what I understand, the engine program needed more R&D to be great but they didn't have the funds, which is a shame but expected given the health of the company over the years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TVR_Speed_Six_engine Reading this the changes to the engine were after initial design, so they ******ed defeat from victory. So much promise, but the details and refinement let it down. It really is a case study for the first 90 percent takes half the time, the last 10 percent takes the other half. All of this is from the American perspective, where the early ones were rare but seen. The later ones were absent. Exposure to the later ones may soften this.
The Jalopy Journal
