New TVR built with the same love?
Discussion
m4tti said:
For the love of god let's hope nothing is built like the old ones.
I shouldn't imagine finishing the build yourself on a 90k car will be acceptable to new buyers.
I am not saying all the workers didn't enjoy their job, but.I shouldn't imagine finishing the build yourself on a 90k car will be acceptable to new buyers.
Totally agree, TVR are amongst the most poorly built cars ever, the factory workers from the surrounding areas of cleveleys,Blackpool and Fleetwood didn't give a flying F
k about build quality, just making as much money as possible in their pay packets, so they can keep a roof over their heads and look after their families, building these cars was just a job. Edited by portzi on Thursday 24th August 18:08
Edited by portzi on Thursday 24th August 18:10
m4tti said:
For the love of god let's hope nothing is built like the old ones.
I shouldn't imagine finishing the build yourself on a 90k car will be acceptable to new buyers.
+1I shouldn't imagine finishing the build yourself on a 90k car will be acceptable to new buyers.
You guys can keep looking at them through rose tinted spectacles as much as you like. The reality is, from the factory they were s
te. If the employees had put as much care and attention in to building the cars as they did writing and sketching on the parts they would have been a much better built car.Also these days if someone takes one apart and there's words written like the picture above, there'll be a lawsuit.
Amazes me why some people own TVRs .... They are so clever they could build a car themselves or buy a production line car and comment on other forums rather than here . The very essence of TVR ownership is not being part of the politically correct brigade 
Edited by glow worm on Thursday 24th August 20:16
It's got nothing to do with being politically correct. It's about the fact the cars were shoddily built to a very tight budget and this is reflected in ownership present and past. Most owners realise this and call it part of the 'fun' of owning and driving one.
I moan about mine all the time as barely a weekend goes by when it doesn't need 'tinkering' with. I know I'm not alone just by reading the PH forums. Strangely you get behind the wheel and it all gets forgotten...!
I moan about mine all the time as barely a weekend goes by when it doesn't need 'tinkering' with. I know I'm not alone just by reading the PH forums. Strangely you get behind the wheel and it all gets forgotten...!
You can only surmise they didn't have enough technically qualified staff.
I was lucky enough to help re built a Chimaera so open and bare so to speak, there are some quick fix bodges that then become the norm by the look of it, mostly it's the wiring but you do feel each car was assembled based on what they could find on the floor! No money.
We over estimate Tvr even now, they were a kit car that slowly got better, obviously £40,000 is expensive but plenty of salesmen made a good buck out of them let alone a work force working in a hotch botch of sheds. You can imagine in a GM environment they would have been much better, my car is quite a new one as a 2000 year car, it's nearly 18 years old.
Different times I suppose.
The new Tvr is going to be brilliant by the looks of it's design, and surely it will be reliable.
And who wouldn't love to be building them
I'm sure many of the original workforce shared the passion but they did produce a lot of cars each week considering the chaos they had to work in.
Organisation = success, that's managements job!
It's also true to say Tvr cars hold up well compared to many hand built cars of that era.
Interiors usually hold up well compared to lotus for example, I don't own a proper Tvr as I've got a little Rover engine in mine, maybe that's where Tvr should have stayed until securing a good manufacture engine rather than the dream of their own engine, still what balls for trying
I was lucky enough to help re built a Chimaera so open and bare so to speak, there are some quick fix bodges that then become the norm by the look of it, mostly it's the wiring but you do feel each car was assembled based on what they could find on the floor! No money.
We over estimate Tvr even now, they were a kit car that slowly got better, obviously £40,000 is expensive but plenty of salesmen made a good buck out of them let alone a work force working in a hotch botch of sheds. You can imagine in a GM environment they would have been much better, my car is quite a new one as a 2000 year car, it's nearly 18 years old.
Different times I suppose.
The new Tvr is going to be brilliant by the looks of it's design, and surely it will be reliable.
And who wouldn't love to be building them
I'm sure many of the original workforce shared the passion but they did produce a lot of cars each week considering the chaos they had to work in.
Organisation = success, that's managements job!
It's also true to say Tvr cars hold up well compared to many hand built cars of that era.
Interiors usually hold up well compared to lotus for example, I don't own a proper Tvr as I've got a little Rover engine in mine, maybe that's where Tvr should have stayed until securing a good manufacture engine rather than the dream of their own engine, still what balls for trying
Classic Chim said:
You can only surmise they didn't have enough technically qualified staff.
I was lucky enough to help re built a Chimaera so open and bare so to speak, there are some quick fix bodges that then become the norm by the look of it, mostly it's the wiring but you do feel each car was assembled based on what they could find on the floor! No money.
We over estimate Tvr even now, they were a kit car that slowly got better, obviously £40,000 is expensive but plenty of salesmen made a good buck out of them let alone a work force working in a hotch botch of sheds. You can imagine in a GM environment they would have been much better, my car is quite a new one as a 2000 year car, it's nearly 18 years old.
Different times I suppose.
The new Tvr is going to be brilliant by the looks of it's design, and surely it will be reliable.
And who wouldn't love to be building them
I'm sure many of the original workforce shared the passion but they did produce a lot of cars each week considering the chaos they had to work in.
Organisation = success, that's managements job!
It's also true to say Tvr cars hold up well compared to many hand built cars of that era.
Interiors usually hold up well compared to lotus for example, I don't own a proper Tvr as I've got a little Rover engine in mine, maybe that's where Tvr should have stayed until securing a good manufacture engine rather than the dream of their own engine, still what balls for trying
The interiors are toilet as the carpets were died with a product that wasn't uv stable. I was lucky enough to help re built a Chimaera so open and bare so to speak, there are some quick fix bodges that then become the norm by the look of it, mostly it's the wiring but you do feel each car was assembled based on what they could find on the floor! No money.
We over estimate Tvr even now, they were a kit car that slowly got better, obviously £40,000 is expensive but plenty of salesmen made a good buck out of them let alone a work force working in a hotch botch of sheds. You can imagine in a GM environment they would have been much better, my car is quite a new one as a 2000 year car, it's nearly 18 years old.
Different times I suppose.
The new Tvr is going to be brilliant by the looks of it's design, and surely it will be reliable.
And who wouldn't love to be building them
I'm sure many of the original workforce shared the passion but they did produce a lot of cars each week considering the chaos they had to work in.
Organisation = success, that's managements job!
It's also true to say Tvr cars hold up well compared to many hand built cars of that era.
Interiors usually hold up well compared to lotus for example, I don't own a proper Tvr as I've got a little Rover engine in mine, maybe that's where Tvr should have stayed until securing a good manufacture engine rather than the dream of their own engine, still what balls for trying
m4tti said:
The interiors are toilet as the carpets were died with a product that wasn't uv stable.
The only design part was with the body styling, and some bloke and his missis on a centre lathe , turning bespoke interior parts and cutting the finiest Lancashire cow hides for the interior!
!!! The rest was from skips from Leyland DAF ,and other British car manufacturers of that erra, if you haven't had a body off rebuild by now, l would be getting it done sooner rather than later as the scaffolding tube chassis were probably taken from the builders yards off Bristol Avenue.portzi said:
m4tti said:
The interiors are toilet as the carpets were died with a product that wasn't uv stable.
The only design part was with the body styling, and some bloke and his missis on a centre lathe , turning bespoke interior parts and cutting the finiest Lancashire cow hides for the interior!!!! The rest was from skips from Leyland DAF ,and other British car manufacturers of that erra, if you haven't had a body off rebuild by now, l would be getting it done sooner rather than later as the scaffolding tube chassis were probably taken from the builders yards off Bristol Avenue.
The last run of cars were exiting, fun but sadly, built to a price. Sadly, that's something that was shared that with all the previous models. It could be argued that the reliability of the last run of cars was better than in days gone by.
I believe that the fact that the cars were built to price goes some way to explaining why so many normal folk have had the chance to experience them.
You can argue that it takes the same time to do things correctly as it does to do them badly, but if the time to do it well is not available, something gives.
The same folk many of us choose when it comes to having restoration work done on our cars are the very folk that built our cars less than perfectly when they were new. Some of us now chose to go to these folk when we want to restore our P&Js and we want our restorations done well - not restored to a price.
Looking at some of the cars these folk have worked on post factory, it seems these people have the talent to produce the quality we always wanted in our cars when they were new.
Have they just got more pride in their work now they are in business for themselves, or do they have the time to produce the job they always wanted to but never had time when working on a production line?
Who knows...
I know I am coming to the end of a restoration of an older TVR that has had a fair amount of visual and hidden work very skilfully done by folk that worked at the Factory and all done to a very high standard.
With the possible exception of a 2005 Tamora that will be its neighbour when it takes up residence chez Simpson, the old restored car is better quality than anything I've ever owned that left the factory.
I've always had a reasonable dose of respect for the people that built the cars that shaped my social life, the respect has gone up a level seeing what some of these ex-factory folk really can do.
I believe that the fact that the cars were built to price goes some way to explaining why so many normal folk have had the chance to experience them.
You can argue that it takes the same time to do things correctly as it does to do them badly, but if the time to do it well is not available, something gives.
The same folk many of us choose when it comes to having restoration work done on our cars are the very folk that built our cars less than perfectly when they were new. Some of us now chose to go to these folk when we want to restore our P&Js and we want our restorations done well - not restored to a price.
Looking at some of the cars these folk have worked on post factory, it seems these people have the talent to produce the quality we always wanted in our cars when they were new.
Have they just got more pride in their work now they are in business for themselves, or do they have the time to produce the job they always wanted to but never had time when working on a production line?
Who knows...
I know I am coming to the end of a restoration of an older TVR that has had a fair amount of visual and hidden work very skilfully done by folk that worked at the Factory and all done to a very high standard.
With the possible exception of a 2005 Tamora that will be its neighbour when it takes up residence chez Simpson, the old restored car is better quality than anything I've ever owned that left the factory.
I've always had a reasonable dose of respect for the people that built the cars that shaped my social life, the respect has gone up a level seeing what some of these ex-factory folk really can do.
Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 26th August 09:12
TVRMs said:
Have they just got more pride in their work now they are in business for themselves, or do they have the time to produce the job they always wanted to but never had time when working on a production line?
I suspect the select few who had a real passion for the cars are still in the trade but an awful lot of the production staff were "factory workers" doing a day on day routine assembly job. In this case cars because they had a car factory on their doorstep but had Hotpoint had a factory in Blackpool it would have been washing machines or whatever.m4tti said:
The interiors are toilet as the carpets were died with a product that wasn't uv stable.
Hmmm, I've seen that 
My cars got 70,000 on the clock lives in the sun as much as any car, it's 17 years old with deep navy Blue carpets that are still deep Navy blue. Maybe I'm lucky, the underside of my boot has carpet fitted from factory and is the original colour and the interior that gets the sun, namely behind the seats is almost the same colour really. Better carpets by 2000 maybe, search me
Shameless opportunity to show a 17 year old Tvr with original Capet set
Frayed at the edges but the colouris spot on
Edited by Classic Chim on Saturday 26th August 20:40
Classic Chim said:
Hmmm, I've seen that
My cars got 70,000 on the clock lives in the sun as much as any car, it's 17 years old with deep navy Blue carpets that are still deep Navy blue. Maybe I'm lucky, the underside of my boot has carpet fitted from factory and is the original colour and the interior that gets the sun, namely behind the seats is almost the same colour really. Better carpets by 2000 maybe, search me
Shameless opportunity to show a 17 year old Tvr with original Capet set
Frayed at the edges but the colouris spot on
Probably furniture clinic dye from the previous owner/dealer...My cars got 70,000 on the clock lives in the sun as much as any car, it's 17 years old with deep navy Blue carpets that are still deep Navy blue. Maybe I'm lucky, the underside of my boot has carpet fitted from factory and is the original colour and the interior that gets the sun, namely behind the seats is almost the same colour really. Better carpets by 2000 maybe, search me
Shameless opportunity to show a 17 year old Tvr with original Capet set
Frayed at the edges but the colouris spot on
Edited by Classic Chim on Saturday 26th August 20:40
My Tuscan had dreadful carpet all remade using Bentley Wilton wool. (Shameless plug)
m4tti said:
Probably furniture clinic dye from the previous owner/dealer...
My Tuscan had dreadful carpet all remade using Bentley Wilton wool. (Shameless plug)
I'm the second owner from new, she's been in my ownership since 38,000 miles and 11 years old when I got her, I don't think it's had "furniture Clinic" my Tvr friend My Tuscan had dreadful carpet all remade using Bentley Wilton wool. (Shameless plug)
Bentley Wilton Wool does interest me though
Edited by Classic Chim on Sunday 27th August 00:39
Edited by Classic Chim on Sunday 27th August 00:41
I will volunteer support for the interior too. Not the best but nowhere near the worst. My last Chimaera had black carpets and at 17 yrs old had only just started to fade. My current one had new carpets fitted at David Gerald in 2006 and I'm a bit unsure of the quality.The driver's seat needs a refurb but at 21 yrs old, this would be likely in many cars.
I had two Lotus Excels many yrs ago and in both cases the trim by the rear windows had faded and turned almost to dust. That said, by 1998, Lotus had moved onto the Elise with improved build standards.
If you consider these cars as hand built (glorified kit cars maybe, but you couldn't buy them as a kit), they can be taken apart by hand too. Most low volume cars that involve much welding would have died by now. Many modern cars have panels bonded or 'glued' together which will make home maintenance almost impossible. Over 60% of TVR Chimaeras built are still on the road, although 1200 are SORN, so I expect there are a few hundred that are not roadworthy exactly!
I had two Lotus Excels many yrs ago and in both cases the trim by the rear windows had faded and turned almost to dust. That said, by 1998, Lotus had moved onto the Elise with improved build standards.
If you consider these cars as hand built (glorified kit cars maybe, but you couldn't buy them as a kit), they can be taken apart by hand too. Most low volume cars that involve much welding would have died by now. Many modern cars have panels bonded or 'glued' together which will make home maintenance almost impossible. Over 60% of TVR Chimaeras built are still on the road, although 1200 are SORN, so I expect there are a few hundred that are not roadworthy exactly!
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