HOW THE NEW TVR BROKE COVER

Autocar was first, on 12 June 2013, to break the story that TVR’S oldestablished name and marque values had been rescued by a group of millionaire enthusiasts who had bought the company’s name and remaining assets from its former owner, Nikolai Smolenski.

First details of the car the partners would build emerged from a secret Autocar briefing a fortnight later and resulted in a 26 June cover story that also included the first interview with the new company’s boss, Les Edgar.

By April 2014, we were talking about a new R&D centre in south England, but the real meat of the tale emerged on 3 June 2015, when we revealed the new TVR would be shaped and engineered at Gordon Murray Design (GMD) and powered by a Cos worth modified Ford Mustang V8.

After that, details came to light slowly. By July 2015, we knew the company had started taking deposits for its first 500 cars. By 7 October, we had visited Cosworth in Northants to see TVR’S bosses start the first Cosworth-modded Ford V8 on the dyno. By January 2016, we knew the chassis would be made using GMD’S istream Carbon process. By March 2016, we learnt that TVR’S new factory would be in Wales.

The most recent big story was TVR’S series of weekend meetings for prospective buyers at GMD in March this year, where a clay model was shown for the first time. It justified another TVR cover story on 22 March and contained the first new TVR blueprint. Now read on…