How to make a small fortune out of building British sports cars.

[anonymouse]

Still other smaller UK marques around

Ginetta Home

http://www.noblecars.com/

[Chuck]

You think the new TVR will be around £30K when a new Fiesta can cost £18K with a 1.0 engine?

In 1995 maybe.

Of course not now. Hence the words "was" and "could". They went all silly with Tuscans and tried to compete out of their comfort zone.

Be interesting to see what they come up with now. I suspect that environmental and H&S issues, like emissions, airbags etc, will make them a completely different beast to what we're used to, both on price and performance.

[Troll]

will make them a completely different beast to what we're used to, both on price and performance.

Will still be plastic clad .. so I'm out

[SunnyInHades]

New TVR sports cars

"while power will come from a naturally aspirated V8 that’s being engineered by motorsport specialists Cosworth"
Old school tech .. first question I'll ask a smug new owner .. can it beat the Tesla S Electric Car 0-60 ?

Love the fact that the 'Vauxhall Insignia lookalike' Tesla S P90D electric car from PayPal founder Elon Musk goes 0-60 in 2.8 secs (in its 'Ludicrous' mode).

Out accelerates any road car 0-60 from Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Aston Martin or anyone else (a few race specials costing seven figures go faster).

A granny with half an hour's training in a Tesla S P90D ludicrous mode ('just press the accelerate pedal, no clutch of course) will beat Lewis Hamilton in a new Porsche 911 Turbo 0-60 !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_BYMorS0KY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDO9blfpCS4

[VectraMan]

Of course not now. Hence the words "was" and "could". They went all silly with Tuscans and tried to compete out of their comfort zone.

Be interesting to see what they come up with now. I suspect that environmental and H&S issues, like emissions, airbags etc, will make them a completely different beast to what we're used to, both on price and performance.

Interesting that Gordon Murray is involved as last I heard he was trying to make some kind of eco-car / invalid carriage. So it could be hi-tech, all ERS and motors, but I think TVR might be better served by going for simple old-fashioned sports cars, which was when they were good.

[DimPrawn]

I wish them well, but they can't compete with Jag and Porsche and Audi R8 in this day and age, and the track day boneshaker market is saturated, and the cheaper end of the sports car market has the Cayman and Boxster, Z4 and Audi TT.

A plastic car with dated technology a big V8 isn't going to cut it anymore and make a profit.

Maybe they can reinvent themselves and make electric cars or something....

[Hobosapien]

I dunno. If they kept it traditional and basically un-mothballed the last gen TVRs but with more reliability (is that an oxymoron?) they may have a niche similar to what Lotus have tried to fill.

I expect price will be the killer. Why pay 50k+ for a glorified hand built kit car where there is a lot more competition. Around 30-40k they made much more sense. Have been looking forward to the new Lotus Esprit for what feels like decades, but now it's likely to be way more expensive than originally planned, so more into footballer bling territory than car enthusiast weekend toy.

Those leccy engines are interesting for the future but while petrol is still cheap I'd prefer a big noisy V8, a car with some 'soul' while they're still available and not regulated/priced out.

All this fad with BMW etc going small block turbo with artificial engine noise is total

We need the likes of TVR to give us a relatively affordable old school experience while all the barges go the way of the google-driver with more and more electronics (did I really see an advert for a Volvo where it assists with steering around a fooking corner ). Just wish the morons would repair the roads properly so we don't need off roaders to drive on the roads these day.

[DimPrawn]

We need the likes of TVR to give us a relatively affordable old school experience while all the barges go the way of the google-driver with more and more electronics (did I really see an advert for a Volvo where it assists with steering around a fooking corner ). Just wish the morons would repair the roads properly so we don't need off roaders to drive on the roads these day.

The roads are like 3rd world in the UK now, full of potholes and if there is a 200 metre stretch that is okay, they will put in speed bumps. Couple with near grid lock, eco loons and speed cameras I think the glory days of V8 sports cars is not a mainstream business.

If they go the V8 route, EU emissions and fuel consumption will kill it for the ordinary person.

[Hobosapien]

The roads are like 3rd world in the UK now, full of potholes and if there is a 200 metre stretch that is okay, they will put in speed bumps. Couple with near grid lock, eco loons and speed cameras I think the glory days of V8 sports cars is not a mainstream business.

If they go the V8 route, EU emissions and fuel consumption will kill it for the ordinary person.

Brexit!?

True that the days of glorious V8s look to be numbered, but that may just mean not mainstream (not sure TVR ever was) and if not going the Porsche way of mass production there may be wider tolerance for emissions for smaller numbers. The new McLarens (of which they seem to be pushing out slight variants of the same model every other week) are V8 based IIRC so there must be a way if worth the effort for the target audience.

Besides I can't see TVR doing their own engines this time so probably a crate from the USA like they still put in the Ford Mustang (new model available in the UK in V8 form) and pickup trucks, or the GM equivalent you can get in the UK in the Vauxhall VXR8.

[DimPrawn]

By ordinary I mean well off middle classes.

The very rich have a raft of exotic hyper cars. The lower rich will buy Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin, etc

The poor will buy an old Ford or a Kia.

The middle classes, after having paid Osborne, their mortgage, private school fees and propped up their BTL portfolio will buy the this:

Sandero – Dacia UK