Dark Days -- TVR Is Dead!
http://www.autoblog.com/media/2006/04/tvrsagaris.jpg
Say it ain't so! This is terrible news, and a truly dark day for sports car fanactics world-wide. :(
Well, it looks like Friday's "temporary layoffs" at TVR's Blackpool plant are going to be permanent. Labor union representatives said Monday that they have been told by TVR management that the factory will be shut down in six months, with a permanent loss of 260 jobs.
The British manufacturer of quirky, handbuilt, high performance sports cars will be closing its factory just shy of the 60th anniversary of its founding in 1947. In what may prove to be the marque's swan song, its top of the line Sagaris coupe (pictured above) is currently starring in Pirelli Film's new internet movie "The Call."
For most of its history, TVR built its cars around powerplants sourced from mainstream manufacturers, but in later years it began to manufacture its own engines, beginning with a V8 (now discontinued), and all of its current models are powered by the company's Speed Six, an inline, normally-aspirated six capable of 380 hp in the 4-liter version.
No word yet from TVR on the company's future plans, or the role of its young Russian CEO, Nikolai Smolensky.
I hope this report is inaccurate, but it comes from Reuters...
TVR we hardly knew ye, but I always wanted to own one of your cars.
S.
