Smolenski outlines Veyron-beater
TVR owner retains ambitious plans
Veyron: TVR is on your tail...
TVR owner Nikolai Smolenski recently gave an interview to Swiss magazine Automobil Review last week in which he said that the buy-back of Blackpool Automotive after it has been placed into administration was a way of cutting his losses. In other words, he reacquired the company shorn of its debts.
He also said that he retains ownership but the contract with the two US businessmen, Adam Burdette and Jean Michel Santacreu, for which they paid £10 million, contains a management buy-out clause that includes a profit for him. Until cash starts to flow, he remains in charge and will concentrate on finance and contractual matters.
He said he could understand why people who worked there were angry with him but pointed out that he's lost the most money.
For the future, Smolenski opened up the possibility of production remaining in the UK. He said that Lotus had expressed interest but that Bertone was a possibility.
His plans for the cars remain unchanged. As well as retaining the Speed Six-powered Tuscan and Sagaris, a new supercharged Speed Twelve is due in 2009 - and is aimed at the Bugatti Veyron.
Ambitious plans indeed.
why go after a car that lost VW, one of the worlds richest car manufacturers, zillions?
When the market is (comparatively) lapping up the RX-8, 350z, Z4M, Cayman etc?
please TVR, drop the dreamcars and build a new Cerbera. £30k base price, speed six, great looking body, easier to drive than the Sagaris and Tuscan.
Speed Six = entry level & specialist "track" cars (i.e. Sagaris)
V8 for Tuscan and other big GTs.
He may move in social circles where people shell out $1m for a car, but I reckon most of us here are after the £30k-£40k car. Either TVR or whoever find a niche model that is sufficiently differentiated from the likes of the Boxster and the 350Z, or they have no market. There's a risk/reward trade-off whereby we buy exceptional performance for lower quality. That's what small manufacturers are about. Supercars are dreamland.
why go after a car that lost VW, one of the worlds richest car manufacturers, zillions?
When the market is (comparatively) lapping up the RX-8, 350z, Z4M, Cayman etc?
please TVR, drop the dreamcars and build a new Cerbera. £30k base price, speed six, great looking body, easier to drive than the Sagaris and Tuscan.
Speed Six = entry level & specialist "track" cars (i.e. Sagaris)
V8 for Tuscan and other big GTs.
Dont be daft. A speed six costs £15k/engine to make. A decent V8 can be had for £3-8k.
why go after a car that lost VW, one of the worlds richest car manufacturers, zillions?
When the market is (comparatively) lapping up the RX-8, 350z, Z4M, Cayman etc?
please TVR, drop the dreamcars and build a new Cerbera. £30k base price, speed six, great looking body, easier to drive than the Sagaris and Tuscan.
Speed Six = entry level & specialist "track" cars (i.e. Sagaris)
V8 for Tuscan and other big GTs.
Dont be daft. A speed six costs £15k/engine to make. A decent V8 can be had for £3-8k.
For once I agree with you DJC
A V6 a'la Noble should be the entry level with V8 being a natural progression and speed 6/revised AJP8 as the specialist insanity tool!
why go after a car that lost VW, one of the worlds richest car manufacturers, zillions?
When the market is (comparatively) lapping up the RX-8, 350z, Z4M, Cayman etc?
please TVR, drop the dreamcars and build a new Cerbera. £30k base price, speed six, great looking body, easier to drive than the Sagaris and Tuscan.
Speed Six = entry level & specialist "track" cars (i.e. Sagaris)
V8 for Tuscan and other big GTs.
Dont be daft. A speed six costs £15k/engine to make. A decent V8 can be had for £3-8k.
For once I agree with you DJC
A V6 a'la Noble should be the entry level with V8 being a natural progression and speed 6/revised AJP8 as the specialist insanity tool!
Well dont agree with me too much because your route above just added £3k to the price due to development costs and introducing the need for 2 designs and set ups and their associated costs
If you want to do it it is a one engine job, but in differing states of tune. It is pointless using more than one engine when the same result can be achieved using just one, you waste money.
Not that it will ever happen with the knob..sorry, t
t, sorry again Russian...(thats the one) in chargeNo, you dont understand what Im saying. What ppl might think they want is neither here nor there. You only care about a limited number and ensuring they buy it to make your business plan work, if that number is a mere 600, then that is all you care about, if that pisses off 4400 other ppl who would like another engine then you dont care, they are irrelevent. You then concentrate on fulfilling the wishes of those 600. It isnt about the customers or what they want, frankly they will buy what you tell them to buy so long as your product is decent enough and you have an angle that works for enough of them to meet your criteria. It is about meeting the needs of the business plan to make it work. TVR can only be made to work by making ppl buy into your vision, your ideas, your ego, not by pandering to your customers' egos. You want to narrow and focus your ownership base to return it to a solid established baseline again, not expand and fragment it. To make TVR work again in the manner of how it should needs to reinforce the My Way or The Highway cult image, the Them & Us attitude, not encourage others away. Certainly that needs to be case at the start of the project, once you have done so, then you might try changing tack slightly.
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