Evo TVR Letter
Discussion
touching cloth said:
Nice letter well done, good of Evo to highlight it by making it letter of the month as well, to often you see stuff brushed under the carpet to keep people sweet - shows they are probably in agreement.
Thanks, mind you part of me wishes I had been more scathing about Smolenski, especially after reading the list of creditors yesterday...
I just can't help thinking that despite everything thats happened if they went down the line of a basic open sportscar with a ford V8 that costed around £35K people would still be interested. Who is going to buy a £120,000 TVR when you can have Ferrari/Aston/Bentley/Lambo for the same money?
It's hardly going to save the company is it?
flasher said:
I just can't help thinking that despite everything thats happened if they went down the line of a basic open sportscar with a ford V8 that costed around £35K people would still be interested. Who is going to buy a £120,000 TVR when you can have Ferrari/Aston/Bentley/Lambo for the same money?
It's hardly going to save the company is it?
I'm right behind you there! With everything else on the market for that sort of money TVR haven't got a chance.
flasher in Evo said:
Dear Evo
I feel I had to write in after reading the articles on the TVR Typhoon and the sad demise of the TVR factory and it’s workers.
As someone who has owned 5 TVR’s in the past ,I sold my last one (a T350C) two years ago and have been awaiting something good enough, keenly priced enough and well built enough to tempt me back. The Typhoon is as far from achieving that as is physically possible. Why is it that the current owner doesn’t realise exactly what made TVR such a success in the past and the reason why it’s failing now? The cars are just not affordable any more.
The previous owner Peter Wheeler realised almost immediately when he took over that the then hideously expensive wedges were pricing TVR out of their own market. He introduced the S, which sold amazingly well and followed it with the Chimaera and Griffith priced around £25K at the time, a price which tempted so many people TVR couldn’t build them fast enough, at one point I was quoted 9 months wait for a Griffith! He followed that with the Cerbera, a car which I remember driving home in the day I bought it, literally pinching myself that I had just bought a 180mph plus supercar for under £40K!Your £10K heroes article in the same issue sums the current problem up totally. The appeal of TVR’s was, is and always should be that they are not out of the reach of it’s potential buyers, todays second hand Chimaera owner should be tomorrows potential new TVR buyer.
The Typhoon (if it’s ever built) is going to be pitched up against cars such as the Lamborghini Gallardo, 911 RS, Aston Vantage and Ferrari F430. With competition like that, basically, its dead before it’s born. What a shame that TVR has ended up like this, and what a waste of a talented workforce that produced some of the best looking and most thrilling cars of the last decade.
I feel I had to write in after reading the articles on the TVR Typhoon and the sad demise of the TVR factory and it’s workers.
As someone who has owned 5 TVR’s in the past ,I sold my last one (a T350C) two years ago and have been awaiting something good enough, keenly priced enough and well built enough to tempt me back. The Typhoon is as far from achieving that as is physically possible. Why is it that the current owner doesn’t realise exactly what made TVR such a success in the past and the reason why it’s failing now? The cars are just not affordable any more.
The previous owner Peter Wheeler realised almost immediately when he took over that the then hideously expensive wedges were pricing TVR out of their own market. He introduced the S, which sold amazingly well and followed it with the Chimaera and Griffith priced around £25K at the time, a price which tempted so many people TVR couldn’t build them fast enough, at one point I was quoted 9 months wait for a Griffith! He followed that with the Cerbera, a car which I remember driving home in the day I bought it, literally pinching myself that I had just bought a 180mph plus supercar for under £40K!Your £10K heroes article in the same issue sums the current problem up totally. The appeal of TVR’s was, is and always should be that they are not out of the reach of it’s potential buyers, todays second hand Chimaera owner should be tomorrows potential new TVR buyer.
The Typhoon (if it’s ever built) is going to be pitched up against cars such as the Lamborghini Gallardo, 911 RS, Aston Vantage and Ferrari F430. With competition like that, basically, its dead before it’s born. What a shame that TVR has ended up like this, and what a waste of a talented workforce that produced some of the best looking and most thrilling cars of the last decade.
flasher said:
Well, I think back to the halcyon days (2 years!!) when me, Bennno, Mr Fish and quite a few others all had new TVR's. Guess how many own one now...
And that is a fair indication of where they have gone wrong.
And that is a fair indication of where they have gone wrong.
Well yeah but...
The reverse is also true. I know quite a few people who had older TVR's or no TVR at all 2 years ago who have new ones now. And Daftlad has had 3 new ones since then and has kept them all...
Whilst I agree with you totally about the Typhoon and ridiculous notions of selling TVR's at Ferrari money I think the final line up of Sag, T2 and T vert was a good one.
The bottom line is like I said on a different thread yesterday. Much of the damage was done before Smolenski arrived, but the callous way he got rid of all the debts and workers, then bought it all back for a Million quid by using a quirk in British Law is disgusting to anyone with any morals. It may turn out to be the next Pagani, but that will leave a void for those of us who either can't or don't want to spend £100K plus on what is basically, a weekend plaything.
I wrote after I was incensed by the article in Evo 101 which didn't touch on the real issues but wrote of how this wonderful new £120K Typhoon thing (in reality just a rather shit CAD drawing) was going to drag the Phoenix TVR back from the flames.
To be fair to EVO they put the record straight in the next issue (102) with the bigger article. I don't think any of realise yet just how sad it really is that we have lost one of the last truly original British car makers.
I wrote after I was incensed by the article in Evo 101 which didn't touch on the real issues but wrote of how this wonderful new £120K Typhoon thing (in reality just a rather shit CAD drawing) was going to drag the Phoenix TVR back from the flames.
To be fair to EVO they put the record straight in the next issue (102) with the bigger article. I don't think any of realise yet just how sad it really is that we have lost one of the last truly original British car makers.
unrepentant said:
flasher said:
Well, I think back to the halcyon days (2 years!!) when me, Bennno, Mr Fish and quite a few others all had new TVR's. Guess how many own one now...
And that is a fair indication of where they have gone wrong.
And that is a fair indication of where they have gone wrong.
Well yeah but...
The reverse is also true. I know quite a few people who had older TVR's or no TVR at all 2 years ago who have new ones now. And Daftlad has had 3 new ones since then and has kept them all...
Whilst I agree with you totally about the Typhoon and ridiculous notions of selling TVR's at Ferrari money I think the final line up of Sag, T2 and T vert was a good one.
It obviously wasn't good enough as they went bust because no-one was buying them!
And they were all about £50K which is ridiculous for something thats made from plastic in Blackpool.....
People like Daftlad are few and far between, it's the likes of the average bloke at the TVRCC meetings that saves like f*** for his pride and joy and changes it every 2 years that kept TVR going. WHen he goes back to the dealer to find that his rattly speed six is worth bugger all, but the new model is £15K more than the one he bought 2 years back he keeps it or sells it privatley and TVR loses another sale....thats why they went bust in my humble opinion.
flasher said:
People like Daftlad are few and far between, it's the likes of the average bloke at the TVRCC meetings that saves like f*** for his pride and joy and changes it every 2 years that kept TVR going. WHen he goes back to the dealer to find that his rattly speed six is worth bugger all, but the new model is £15K more than the one he bought 2 years back he keeps it or sells it privatley and TVR loses another sale....thats why they went bust in my humble opinion.
Yeah but that wasnt the case until last year when things went seriously tits up. I changed my "rattly speed 6"
in 2005 for another and I got over 80% of what I'd paid 2 years earlier. And the new one cost no more. And I know my dealer moved my previous Tuscan on with a small profit. And every time I went to a TVRCC meet last year there were plenty of new cars...
Gassing Station | General TVR Stuff & Gossip | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff