TVR Griffith
The TVR Griffith is both a name from British sports car history and the vehicle that was supposed to resurrect one of the most characterful performance car brands ever to emerge from the United Kingdom. Revealed at the 2017 Goodwood Revival, it combined a Gordon Murray-designed chassis, a Cosworth-prepared Ford V8, and a sub-1,250 kg body to promise 200 mph performance at under £90,000.
The Rise and Fall of TVR: From Glory to Closure
TVR was founded in Blackpool in 1947 and grew into one of Britain's most individual sports car manufacturers, known for raw, lightweight, front-engine rear-wheel-drive cars that asked a great deal of their drivers and delivered thrills few rivals could match. The brand reached peak production in the 1990s under owner Peter Wheeler, with the Griffith 500 and its sister car, the Chimaera, forming the core of the range.
Wheeler sold his majority stake in 2004 to the young Russian businessman Nikolai Smolensky. By 2006, with sales collapsing and the product range aging, TVR had closed its Blackpool factory and made almost 400 staff redundant. One of Britain's most loved car makers had gone silent.
The Return Under Les Edgar
In 2013, Smolensky sold TVR to Les Edgar, an entrepreneur from the videogame industry. Edgar spent five years working on a genuinely new car rather than reviving any existing model. The result, revealed in September 2017 at the Goodwood Revival, was the new TVR Griffith, named after both the historic 1960s model and the 1990s Griffith 500.
The original Griffith name dates to 1963, when American racer Jack Griffith had TVR's Grantura chassis fitted with Ford 4.7-litre V8 engines, with the sole ambition of beating Carroll Shelby's Cobra in FIA competition. The Cobra won that fight and became a legend. The Griffith remained a rare, anonymous classic. The Griffith 500 of the 1990s was TVR's mainstream model, complemented by the more affordable Chimaera.
Specifications: Gordon Murray, Cosworth, and 500 BHP
The 2017 Griffith's chassis and body were designed by Gordon Murray Design using Murray's iStream carbon composite construction process, which builds complex structures from a bonded and riveted carbon and glass fibre matrix rather than full carbon prepregs, reducing cost without sacrificing stiffness. The result was a car weighing under 1,250 kg with a 50:50 front-to-rear weight distribution.
Power comes from a naturally aspirated 5.0-litre Ford-derived V8 prepared by Cosworth, producing 500 hp and mated to a six-speed manual Tremec gearbox sending drive to the rear wheels. The Griffith reaches 60 mph in under four seconds and has a top speed exceeding 200 mph (322 km/h). For the first time in TVR's history, the car features ABS, ESP, traction control, and a digital instrument cluster, technology the original TVR range famously (and deliberately) avoided.
The launch edition run was capped at 500 cars, priced at £89,995, all of which were sold quickly. TVR's official Griffith V8 page documents the specification. Top Gear covered the reveal as one of the most exciting British car stories in a decade.
Extraordinary British Sports Cars at TheArsenale
The TVR Griffith represents a tradition of lightweight, powerful, driver-focused British sports cars that TheArsenale celebrates. Browse the luxury and specialist car collection for some of the most extraordinary machines available, from coachbuilt one-offs to limited-edition supercars. For those drawn to the Griffith's desert-bred, V8-powered performance ethos, the Zarooq Sandracer 500 GT offers a similarly raw but different take on purpose-built performance.
