I find that among car enthusiasts, there are two groups: Those who barely know about TVR, and those who know absolutely everything about TVR. The small British sports car manufacturer has been around, in one form or another, since 1946, but is currently dead.
So why is a company in America opening a TVR showroom in 2025? Well, it turns out the thrill and passion forged by the company’s cars is far from dead. In fact, it’s alive enough to inspire the in-the-know crowd to launch such a strange venture.
Before getting into why someone would launch a dealership for a dead car brand, it’s important to understand TVR’s origins. Despite its current status, this is a well-loved marque that’s built some truly legendary cars over the years. So how did it end up here?
TVR’s Humble Beginnings
Like most iconic carmakers, TVR started in a shed. Its founder, Trevor Wilkinson, began building cars in 1949 out of a workshop in Blackpool, England, under the name Trevcar Motors. Wilkinson’s first car used a tubular chassis powered by a Ford Flathead four-cylinder lifted from a Prefect, a Ford-badged family sedan sold in the UK in the ’50s.
That car was lost to time, but Wilkinson’s second car, TVR No.2, still exists. It shares much of its design with the first car, according to the TVR Car Club, save for a bigger radiator and hub caps. The company’s name was eventually shortened from Trevcar Motors to TVR, adopting letters from Wilkinson’s first name (TreVoR).
TVR’s first few cars used metal body panels, with the company buying bodies from RGS Atalanta, another obscure English brand, to sit atop an in-house designed semi-spaceframe chassis. Wilkinson quickly realized using glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) (also known as fiberglass) for the body was a more cost-effective solution, so he switched to making his own panels in 1958, leading to the introduction of the Grantura.
As is the case with most British sports car makers, TVR quickly fell into hard times. From the company’s website:
[W]ith financial difficulties being experienced, and relationships fracturing, new management, new investors and new approaches were added to the TVR script. In 1960 the controlling interest had passed from Trevor Wilkinson to Keith Aitchison and Bryan Hopton, who managed to increase the order book and who took up an interest in international motorsport with the TVR brand.
Bringing TVR Back To Life
Wilkinson left the brand he founded in 1962, but Aitchison and Hopton didn’t hold onto TVR for long. It changed hands several times until 1965, when the company, known at the time as Grantura Engineering, was acquired by the father-son team of Arthur and Martin Lilley. The story of how it came into their possession was seemingly a case of good timing. From the TVR Car Club:
It wasn’t quite a classic case of “I liked the product so I bought the company”, but it was close. Martin had spent his spare time while studying automotive engineering at college building and preparing cars for racing, predominantly Lotus. But a friend ran Barnet Motor Company, soon to become the TVR Centre and after some successes with the Lotus and then an E Type which apparently he spectacularly put into the Armco on the final bend while leading a race at Silverstone, Martin ended up buying his first TVR, a Griffith 400.
This also suffered damage whilst racing and was returned to Blackpool for repair, just at the time that Grantura Engineering went into liquidation. Martin’s father, Arthur, had just prior to that been left some shares in Grantura so partly to get his son’s car back but also to ensure that he didn’t entirely lose the value of these shares, the pair of them bought the company in November 1965.
The Lilley family would run the company for 16 years, introducing legendary models like the Tuscan, the Vixen, and the M Series. It was during this time that TVR introduced the UK’s first production turbocharged car, the 3000 M Turbo, according to the TVR Car Club. The Lillies were also responsible for famously having nude models pose on the TVR’s stand at the 1971 British International Motor Show to generate publicity.
Things were going sort of well, thanks to US exports bolstering sales, but a fire at the factory in 1975 greatly reduced output. Later in the decade, TVR launched the Tasmin, a wedge-shaped car that departed greatly from the company’s usual design, to mixed reviews. A combination of that, a recession in the UK, and stricter emissions controls meant TVR was again in dire straits. So it was sold to Peter Wheeler, a chemical engineer and a Taimar Turbo owner who had a close relationship with the factory.
TVR’s Golden Age
Wheeler, who helmed the company until 2004, led TVR through what I consider the company’s golden age. In addition to making the Tasmin popular with the addition of a Rover V8, he also introduced a number of legendary TVR models, including the reborn Griffith, the immensely popular Chimaera, the four-seater Cerbera, and the stunning Tuscan, which John Travolta famously drove in the 2001 hacker movie Swordfish.
It was during this time that TVR came out with my favorite car from the brand: The Cerbera Speed 12. Unlike the road cars, which used V8s or straight-sixes, the Speed 12 used a—you guessed it—V12 made from two of the company’s straight-sixes mushed together, according to Hagerty. Just one road-going version exists, a result of homologation rules of the early 2000s. It makes over 900 horsepower, and looks absolutely awesome:
Wheeler spent 22 years honing the TVR brand before selling it to a Russian investor named Nicolai Smolenski. Shortly after, sales fell off, with Smolenski eventually breaking the company up to components. That didn’t really help, according to the company’s official site:
Even with difficulties all around, TVR was able to announce the next model would be a 600 bhp supercar called the Typhoon, to be launched in 2007, but in late December 2006 it was announced that TVR had gone into receivership. Nicolai was able to buy back the company from the receivers, and whilst he made another attempt to keep TVR going with a reveal of the Sagaris 2 in 2008, nothing further happened.
A Modern Revival Attempt
In 2013, a video game tycoon named Les Edgar gathered a group of investors and acquired the brand and its remaining assets, with the goal of bringing TVR back from the dead. It wouldn’t be until 2017 that the company would reveal its first product, which it called the Griffith.
The new TVR Griffith was a front-engine, rear-drive coupe with a design by David Seesing and a 5.0-liter Coyote engine lifted from the modern Ford Mustang, tuned to make 500 horsepower. It also used a carbon fiber chassis that promised ground effect aerodynamics to produce downforce.
Except, 12 years after Edgar’s move to purchase the brand, TVR has yet to build a single car. While the company is still listed as active by the UK’s official tracking service, EVO Magazine reported back in July that the company’s CEO, Jim Berriman, quit back in May. Since then, no one’s heard much about the brand.
So, Why Is There A Dealer Opening In America?
TVR stopped selling cars in America in the 1980s, dropping the once-lucrative market over rising emissions and crash requirements. But those Wheeler-era cars have proven so influential that they now have a dedicated following worldwide—even in places where they were never sold new.
This dealer, TVR Garage, isn’t selling new TVRs, of course. Instead, it plans to be the go-to importer for buyers looking to get quality used TVRs from overseas. TVR Garage has existed for years, working with a company in the UK called Str8six to procure cars. But it’s just now partnering with a broker called CarWiz to open a 15,000 square-foot showroom in Las Vegas, Nevada to keep the TVR legacy alive.
Gavin Bristow, Co-founder of TVR Garage said “Our mission is to ignite a lasting passion for TVR in the U.S. by importing only the finest examples, building a strong enthusiast community, and laying the foundation for future expansion into restoration and customization —ensuring the legacy of TVR thrives for generations to come.
While my real wish is to see TVR rise from the dead and build new cars, having a dealer in the U.S. to bring its best models Stateside is a pretty good outcome, too. Sure, you could hire an importer and bring them in yourself, but if you’re not terribly familiar with TVRs, it’s nice to know there’s a company that’ll pick out an example that isn’t falling apart. Now I just have to start saving up for a Cerbera.
Top graphic images: TVR Garage; stock.adobe.com
Will they be importing the TR Motors Speed 12? It’s not a TVR, technically, but I think the fans would like it…
In my early driving years I had an Austin Healey Sprite and loved British sports cars. About a mile away from me was a gas station with a couple service bays. There was a TVR Griffith in more or less permanent residence on top of the lift in one of the bays. Drove by it dozens of times, never saw it running, don’t think I even saw it off the lift, but I kept looking and hoping.
Back in the late 80’s a Nissan dealer had a used 280i on his used car lot that I test drove and it remains one of the most entertaining cars I’ve ever driven. It had a Ford 2.8 L V6 and a 4 speed that I’m sure would have gotten tiresome on interstates with no 5th gear but the car was just so much fun to toss around corners. It wasn’t priced terribly high–low teens if I remember correctly–but that was more than I could pay for a car at the time.
There was a Pontiac-GMC dealer somewhat near me who dabbled in used imports and became a TVR dealer around ’85 or ’86. It took him years to finally sell off all the new stock he had and I heard some horror stories about how poorly the cars were built but none of that keeps me from wanting one.
I did know a guy who owned a Cerebra, and far from being a terrifying deathtrap, it was pretty much his daily driver.
Technically he was working as a bartender, although that was because he’d made his money in the City (of London, ie as a stockbroker), and retired in his thirties to the countryside, to help his fiance’s parents run a little Cotswolds pub.
I remember that despite the pub having walls that were about a meter thick, you could still feel the five litre engine throbbing as he pulled in.
It was a good pub for gearheads, because it was on a main road with good parking, so it was a stop for several different car clubs when they did a summer drive. Some days I’d come in to find the entire car park full of Austin-Healy Sprites, always a good day 🙂
This article inspired me to go look at TVR listings and holy shit am I shocked at how affordable they are. Someone needs to explain why it’s an awful idea to me, and fast…
Just buy a Sagaris. You know you want to. Clear rear spoiler! Sideways exhausts! Incomprehensible ergonomic decisions! Big straight six energy!
I’d be dead within a matter of days, but damn it I’d have shit eating grin on my face. Just gotta wait 5 more years to import one…
It’s the closest thing we will ever have to a more-modern Triumph GT6. And it’s an amazing car as a result. 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 190 mph in a car that can get into the low-30 mpg range on the highway is nothing to scoff at.
I wish it had less drag. While its small frontal area helps it, its Cd value of 0.40 is even worse than the GT6, which had a 0.32. The GT6, being lighter and more aerodynamic, if it had the Sagaris’ 4.0L inline-6 swapped in, would be even faster than the Sagaris AND would probably exceed 40 mpg on the highway.
Once I get some land, I’m very tempted myself.
You can find a TVR Griffith in good running condition for $20k-30k.
I’m not exactly great at driving stick right handed so I’m sure having to do it with my left in a car that’s basically the same power to weight ratio of strapping a model rocket engine to a cracker would be quite an adventure….but that’s also exactly the type of good time I’m trying to have
Get one with a right-side steering wheel, and you’ll be shifting with your left hand.
I’ve never driven a TVR, but I adored how uncontrollable the Griffith was in Gran Turismo. Go-fast death traps are my favorite kind of car.
Fast cars should demand respect and it’s a real problem that the new ones don’t in 2025
New cars are built specifically for people who don’t know how to drive. Too many electronic aides and nannys, coupled with a lack of driver feedback. This allows stupid people to do stupid things, with reduced risk of consequence and reduced indicators with regard to whether they even screwed up at all. Your average normie has no knowledge of basic physics, and often drives accordingly.
If you want a REAL butt-puckering experience that demands respect, try operating an over-powered RWD tadpole-layout trike in the snow, in traffic, with zero tangible crash safety features, and most of the mass distributed over the non-drive wheels. THAT will teach you to respect the laws of physics right quick, because they are not in the least bit forgiving or merciful. Every time that rear wheel loses traction, you feel it, and you KNOW that until you regain traction, you are not in control.
While I haven’t driven a TVR, I imagine it is much less crazy than my trike is. At least it has four wheels and can’t flip over as easily. I have driven a 302 V8-swapped Miata, and while it was very much more than a handful(as I imagine/expect a TVR to be), it was less scary than my trike by a wide margin in spite of being objectively a much faster accelerating vehicle than my trike.
That said, on a smooth road in fair/dry weather, that trike does corner like a proper lightweight sports car. If I didn’t know what I was doing, I could have killed myself many times over while riding it. I already had plenty of close calls as it is, most of them being from other vehicle operators not paying attention to the road and looking at their damned phones.
Like Saab, it’s a long dead brand with no surviving siblings. The recent EV1 story is an example of a car where many parts are non-existent.
Let’s say the air-filter is a particular shape unique to the TVR Sagaris. How are you going to acquire this part? Again, assuming this shape was made only for the Sagaris, and the supplier is long gone.
I got a track ride in a Tuscan going full-out once and it was a face melting experience. Very cool car. Until the owner couldn’t get the bonnet to shut after showing me the engine.
The kicker to that is, the opening hood was an aftermarket modification. As delivered, you could only open a small service hatch for the fluids and that’s it. The hood was bolted down.
IIRC it was that service hatch that was the problem. It was that front flap thing that I believe was front-hinged.
My hero.
I just hope that TVR stays away from any more trypophobia-inducing styling elements like that Tuscon in the header image.
And yes, trypophobia is a real affliction. There are dozens of us!
For purely selfish reasons, I’m disappointed they don’t have a large parts selection or mention models of an older vintage. But I am glad that there is a growing fanbase of these.
Because as we all know, the best British things were built by a couple of blokes in a shed.
There used to be a TVR dealer in my last town that became a mechanic shop, but they had the sign still up outside. I tried to buy it off them, but he said he was still hoping they’d come back to the US. Now it’s some scumbag weed shop and the sign disappeared.
I love TVR. Came close to buying a restored 2500M ages ago, but it was just too expensive for me at the time factoring in expected running costs and storage, but the Wheeler cars are my favorite. I love the weirdness, the light weight philosophy, and the lack of safety BS.
TVR is the very, very best, and a brand that shouldn’t be dead just because A, Peter Wheeler died, B, Blackpool practices, C, Russian golden boy was just a Russian golden boy, and D, Video game dude has no idea about car business, nor does the Welsh government.
So, be happy, and long live the TVRs that made it to this planet, and then to America. Oh, and send me a Sagaris, which I know is ironic, since that’s a Russian golden boy era product.
Is it just me, or is the use of the word “dealership” a bit of a stretch here? If I opened a shop that sourced, reconditioned, and sold Hornets, I would not claim to have opened an AMC dealership.
Laws differ from state to state, but generally if you sell over 5 cars per year you are legally required to get a dealers license and set up a dealership that is not located on your residence. So legally they have to be a dealership (assuming they’re not content with one sale every 3 months).
There have been a few years that I was worried the DMV would come after me.
Your point is legally valid, but my question was more about semantics. To be a “car dealer” simply implies that you have a dealer license, but to be a “car dealership” implies that you are contracted by the manufacturer to sell and service their cars.
If I open a shop that fixes and sells old Fords, Ford Motor Company is gonna get awful mad if I advertise my business as a “Ford dealership”.
“ I … have opened an AMC dealership.”
WHO HOOO!!!! AMC IS MAKING A COMEBACK AND YOU OPENED THE FIRST NEW DEALER???
I KNEW THE ‘DODGE HORNET’ WOULD BECOME THE AMC HORNET AGAIN!!!!
I’m an Old Skool guy. Let me have a Griffith 400 and I’ll be happy.
Yes, some of the newer cars are swoopier, faster and probably not quite as gut-clenching to drive, but everyone needs a little brutality and unrefined excess in their life.
By all accounts the later cars were worse for puckering. Peter Wheeler didn’t like fripperies like ABS or traction control, and as the power of the cars went up the weight didn’t.
I think it’s fair to say they were crude and overpowered, and this was why people bought them.
The Sagaris and the Cerbera Speed 12 is the perfect 2 car solution.
I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t like TVR. Does that mean there’s a business case to open up a TVR dealer with no new models coming off the line? Doubtful. Gotta imagine that this is going to be difficult to be profitable and stick around as a going concern. Best of luck to him though as I think we can all agree he’s doing God’s work here.
I don’t like TVR. They seem to be a sort of anti-Lotus, using light weight and big engines to make cars that are crude and terrifying. I say this as a former semi-pro drifter who loves oversteer.
I think the car world was better with them though. They certainly had drama.
I sold off my Chimera to import an S1 Elise, so I see where you’re coming from. The Chim chassis was just… not good for hard driving. I’m hoping the T cars are an improvement, because I’d like to bring over a Tuscan or T350 soon.
One of those cars has a big engine and a chassis made from welded box section steel tube, the other has an extruded and bonded aluminium chassis, extruded suspension uprights and metal matrix brake discs. Wildly different priorities, and the cheaper one to make sold for more money.
I suspect the TVR approach is closer to being a viable business plan. It’s the one that loses the personal fortune of a single person, every few years, rather than losing hundreds of millions from a series of international corporate holding companies.
I had a TVR stateside, very few people have awareness of the brand honestly.
No mention of the Sagaris, which has possibly the best exhaust setup on a ‘factory’ car?
One of my favorite Jeremy Clarkson reviews
TVRs are these delightful little hoonables built by these psychopathic clowns out of a shed in Blackpool, UK. That has a whole lot of appeal to my sensibilities.
I must make a pilgrimage to the TVR Garage in Arizona some day. Most of TVR’s lineup are among my list of dream cars.
Indeed, almost all of them that I have seen online or rarely, but occasionally in person are very intriguing. though I am not sure if it because they are so rare statesdie or the styling is the reason. I Know that the Cerbera Speed 12 is not that handsome, in fact most of the ones I have seen are kind of hideous, but once I knew what it was, I kind of wanted to let it be what it is and like it for all it’s warts and all. I prefer the more subdued basic Cerbera styling and it’s just an opinion, which obviously differs between humans.
For me, it’s the fact that these are lightweight machines with comparatively massive engines that are constantly trying to kill the operator and any passenger they may have. They’ll also blow the doors off of much more expensive and powerful cars.
I really wanted the lightweight EV sports car equivalent, but that doesn’t exist in the USA unless you convert an old car. My electric Triumph GT6 is close enough, although needs more power.
Based on that description, are you also a fan of the original Dodge Viper and Shelby Cobra as they’re basically America’s TVR?
To a lesser extent the Viper, but yes. The Viper is just too damned big. A 1st gen Viper is still a bucket list car.
I like ’em primitive, petite, narrow, aerodynamically slippery, and nimble. With regard to engine, the bigger the better, keeping weight distribution in mind.
The Shelby Cobra ticks all of the boxes except for being aerodynamically efficient. I’m much more a fan of the Daytona Coupe, as it has a 0.29 Cd value which is a massive improvement over the Cobra; same engine, same horsepower, but tops out at 197 mph instead of 165 mph. Give up stupid useless aesthetics and that Cd value for the Daytona could further be cut in half.
I’d LOVE my V8 race car to get 40+ mpg @ 70 mph and only need 110 horsepower to hold 150 mph on flat ground, except it instead has 500+ horsepower available, without all of this air drag to slow down acceleration at higher speeds.
That said, I do prefer electric to gasoline. But I also prefer analogue to digital, and no one is making a mostly-analogue EV.
TVR Garage was recently featured on that other garage (Jay Leno)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnWOF84v2jI
I am a bit surprised that there are enough TVR fans, with enough money, to make a business case for a TVR shop/importer in the US but the Vegas location is not surprising.
It’s a bit of a strategic play – the 25 year rule means that the next five or six years are going to allow the final (and most extreme) years of TVR into the US. That should mean they’ll have a steady stream of customers as the Tuscan, Tamora, T350, Sagaris and Typhon become available.
I don’t think there is, honestly. I imported a Chimera a couple years ago myself, and when I went to sell it, essentially broke even. I didn’t import it to make a profit, just have something unique and fun. That Tuscan that was just on BaT and failed to make reserve also isn’t a great sign. I imported an S1 Elise after that, a car that I would say in much more in the mainstream American zeitgeist, and values in the UK haven’t really gone up as they became import eligible. They seem to be trying to sell at about a 3x markup from UK prices, which seems tough, but best of luck to them.