Last Classic Car Blast before the Winter

One thing we, central European Classic Car drivers, share is the winter issue. At the end of every good classic car season there's the day where you take your car out for a blast the last time before you prepare it for the sleeping period over the winter. The last drive is always a great experience even if there's also some sadness combined with it. Why can't the Autumn just last forever, why can't we have more days like the ones we just experienced? Ten to fifteen degrees of Celsius, dry condition, wonderful Indian summer colors, that's a great combination for the last drive. Well, soon we'll see snow, salt on the streets and limited daylight conditions. That will be the time when you read all the old motor magazines, new books and test your reflexes on the Playstation 3.
Well, at least I had the opportunity to take out my cars once more. And they all seemed to respond to that last drive very well.

TVR Grantura Restoration - Stage Four - more difficulties!

Since the last post on this very topic almost 10 months have passed. Initially my dear TVR Grantura should have been restored and back on the road by now, but as always, things didn't develop as planned.
At least, in the meantime we have been able to separate the chassis from the body. Before we were able to do so the body had to be stabilized and partially fixed. What we found when we were able to look at the chassis the first time without fiberglass around it, was quite shocking! Longitudinal tubes were missing or totally rusted away! Others were not where they should be and some were repaired in a fairly bad way. So there's quite a bit of work that has to go into the chassis, we even have to consider a replacement item, if we can find one. But, the good news is, there can't be many more bad messages coming from now on. So, next stage will be all about fixing the chassis and in parallel, fixing the body as well. Only then we can start to reassembling the car. And hopefully it will go back on the road in 2011 still!

TVR 2500M in time warped condition

We don't see many TVR 2500M in Europe, as most of the roughly 950 cars were exported to the US and Canada. Probably 400 of them still exist, a couple of handfuls in Europe. Here's one, that is almost a sensation. It has covered a bit more than 15000 miles during its 36 years and is almost untouched. It still stands on the original Pirelli Cinturato CN32 tires and everything is as it was when the car was imported into the USA. You see this very rarely, as most of these cars have been modified and "improved". The 2500M wasn't a particularly fast car with 106 HP from 2500 ccm. But it has a nice sound track and the engine is strong enough to make the car fun to drive. The car is for sale in Switzerland, but needs a bit of work to be concours. It should get into the hands of a real TVR fan and not end as race car or be modified or so. If you want more, just contact me.

One that you can buy - TVR Griffith 500

Here's again a classic car that you actually can buy. You don't find a TVR Griffith often for sale on the market in Switzerland and Central Europe, here's one from 1998 with 49'000 km for CHF 54'000, approximately £ 28'000 or € 40'000.- (bad exchange rate, huh!). It's the model you want to have, as compared to the 430/400 it's vastly refined and the Rover 5 liter engine in its TVR Power tune is an all time great. The color scheme (blue, red interior) might not be your first preference though. TVR Griffith models can suffer from not being driven frequently, but with this mileage that should be okay. On the other side the larger bills come usually with 70'000+ kms. Mind that in the UK these cars go for £ 10'000 to 20'000, but in RHD disguise, which is not really an option for Central Europe. Importing one into Switzerland is very difficult and I wouldn't suggest to do this.

Which is the best 911 or the best TVR?

Very fashionable topics for articles in car magazines seem to be "best of" of specific car marques or even series produced. Octane is doing exactly that in its new issue. They ask, what the best Porsche 911 is and also drive every TVR. That's certainly worthwhile to read, even if you don't agree with the findings. Obviously the Octane editor likes the Porsche 993, and I agree that it's a great car. They also prefer modern TVRs (like the Griffith or the Sag), but appreciate the older cars as well. So it's something for everybody. I certainly appreciate the fact that the covered TVR on so many pages, being a TVR addict myself!

British Car Meeting in Mollis - Riley, Connaught and many others

One of the biggest car meetings in Switzerland every year is the British Car Meeting in Mollis (Glarus). Situated at an airport it offers both the drivers/owners and the spectators an overview on basically any car ever produced in Britain. This years guest of honor was Riley and it was quite a gathering of (mostly post war) Rileys, rarely seen here. But whatever you are interested in concerning British cars, you probably would have been able to spot one - Lotus, TVR, Nash, Hillman, Vauxhall, Triumph, MG, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston-Martin, Rover, Land-Rover, Jaguar, Morris, etc. they all were there, about 1'300-1'500 of them. And, probably for the first time ever, the brand new Connaught V10 GT was shown in Switzerland, as a protoype. The weather was perfect, not too warm so that most cars even survived some queuing at the entrance, sunny and dry. See you again, next year, same time!

British classic sportscars in TopGear

Last Sunday's TopGear episode showed Jeremy, James and Richard buying three British classic sportscars and prove that they are better than the hot hatchbacks that basically replaced them on British roads. With £5'000 each they bought a Jensen-Healey with the Lotus Twincam engine, a TVR S with a Ford V6 2.8 liter engine and the front wheel driven Lotus Elan (M100) from the 90ies with the Isuzu 1.6 l engine. As usual nothing can be taken too serious and the "challenges" presented rather proved the contrary of what the three chaps said. But of course it was highly entertaining and the three cars, often neglected by collectors and mainstream fans, were mostly shown in the best light. None of the cars severely broke down and all of them were able to get from London to Blackpool. Which brings us to another interesting element of the film. The three TopGear presenters visited both the former Jensen factory as well as the Blackpool TVR factory. Both seem to be unused today and around the TVR factory you can even still find body parts from a 3000M and other models. It's so sad! But anyway, if you have access to TopGear 6/15 then it's a must for fans of British classic sportscars.
Now, here's a question: Which one of the three cars would you take? For me, this is not 100% clear. I love the twin cam Lotus engine of the Jensen and I like the fact that it's already 30+ years old. But I am also a TVR fan, so the S might be the car to pick for me. Clearly the Lotus Elan isn't my preferred choice. But, again, what's yours?

TVR 3000 S - how is it to drive one?

I have been writing about the TVR 3000 S before. Playing around with my toys, i.e. computer, camera and so on, I created a little movie to highlight why I like this car and how it is to drive it. Have a look yourself! There's a bit of German involved, but most of the content is understandable for non-German speakers as well.

Picture of the Week - TVR Griffith 500

The shape of the TVR Griffith 500 is a master piece. Few people however know that many of the design elements are caused by simple needs. As for example TVR knew that it would be difficult to create perfectly fitting doors, the designed the car in a way that you can't see whether the door really fits in size. Same thing for the bonnet. The result however is marvelous. It was strikingly modern when presented at the end of the 80ies and it still looks modern today.

Is TVR coming back? Yes, PLEASE!

I may have be a bit early with announcing the end of TVR in a recent blog entry of mine. New rumours indicate that TVR might be coming back, with an uprated or new car powered by a US sourced V8 engine. Well these ingredients would bring us back to the Griffith/Chimaera times and these were good times for TVR. So let's hope that the announced new website actually will pop up soon and TVR is really able to present a new car for the Goodwood Festival. Actually this all feels like a "deja vue". TVR has gone lost and came back so many time that it shouldn't surprise us if it happened again. And I am sure many of my readers would be more than happy if this works out.
If I may add some wishes: I would love to see a new Sagaris with the 7 liter Corvette power plant under the bonnet. Not sure it fits, but it certainly would deliver acurate power.

How many car manufacturers have disappeared since 1977

33 years ago the group "Vereinigte Motorverlage" published their "auto katalog 1977", listing all (in Germany?) available cars on the market. When you look at the roughly 185 car manufacturers in the catalogue you find actually many that have disappeared. Let me give you a selection:
AC, Acadian, Albany, Alpine, American Motors Corporation (AMC), Anadol, Autobianchi, Avanti, Bricklin, British Leyland, Checker, Coriasco, Crayford, Crespi, Custoka, Davrian, Dino, Dutton, Elegant, Eliette, Excalibur, Fairthorpe, Felber, Fiberfab, Giannini, Ginetta, Glassic, Gremlin, Hillman, Hongki, Hornet, Humber, Innocenti, Jensen, Leontina, Matador, Matra-Simca, Melkus, Monteverdi, Moretti, MP Lafer, Murat, NSU, Pacer, Panther, Peykan, Princess, Puma, Ranger, Reliant, Saporoshez, Sbarro, Scaldia, Shanghai, Scorpion, Shekate Sahami, Shiguli, Simca, Strato, Sunbeam, Syrena, Tatra, Technical Exponents, Tiffany, Tofas, De Tomaso, Toro, Trabant, Triumph, TVR, Valiant, Vanden Plas, Wartburg, Wolga, Wolseley, YLN, Zastava, ZAZ, ZIL. I may have hit some that are actually still alive, others just have changed their names. Many though have been acquired and integrated (e.g. AMC), others just have stopped to produce cars, but still do some business (e.g. Sbarro). Many of the brands we probably don't even remember and the probability that they pop up at an oldtimer event are minimal. Others though we really do miss, i.e. AC, Bricklin, Matra-Simca, Monteverdi, Simca, Triumph, TVR, etc. to name a few. What we tend to forget is that there are new manufacturers around that didn't exist in 1977, i.e. Aptera, Artega, Fisker, Gumpert, Pagani, Tesla and many others, for example from China. And to be fair, we can't really say that there's is not enough choice today, can we?

Best 10 car investment opportunities for 2010

In their current issue Octane proposed "The Smart Buys of 2010". There list includes the following ten cars that they expect to rise in value: Ferrari 550, Porsche 911 Turbo, Aston Martin DB7, Jaguar Mk1 3.4, Jaguar E-Type S1/S2 FHC, Lotus Elan, Aston Martin V8 Zagato, Aston Martin V8 Virage, Ferrari 308 GT/4 and Mercedes-Benz SL (R107). While I do agree with some of these cars as good candidates to gain in value, I think the list is very "UK focused" and misses a couple of exciting investment opportunities. So here's my list as an alternative:

(1) BMW M3 (E30) - great car for everyday and exciting track cars for the special occasions, not too many were built and there's lots of racing pedigree
(2) Porsche 924 Carrera GT - I wrote about this car before, it's clearly undervalued, was produced in very little numbers and has more racing pedigree than any Ferrari since the GTO
(3) Ferrari 308 GTB/GTS - I consider these cars as still undervalued especially in comparison with some of the 12 cylinders. These cars are great to drive and less expensive to own than the bigger cars and the design is just magnificent
(4) Mercedes SL (R07) - great classics, were built over 17 years, the last ones are not only reliable but also inexpensive to own. They are not rare in comparison, but they even have catalyst converters and therefore can be driven even in protective cities
(5) Alfa-Romeo GTV 6 - again an instant classic with an unbelievable soundtrack. Not that expensive to buy, but some money is needed for maintenance. Many have disappeared appreciating the value of the remaining cars.
(6) Lotus Esprit S2, S2.2, S3 - great and fairly revolutionary shape in the 70ies, thanks to Giugiaro. S2.2 very rare, but even S2 and S3 reached small numbers in comparison to other classics. Inexpensive to own if it's a well sorted one.
(7) BMW M1 - as close to a race car as you can get. It was developed to win in racing, the road going sportscar was sort of a by-product, less than 500 cars produced make it very rare. Prices are climbing quickly though. A few years ago I was offered a M1 for less than € 50'000, now they are twice to three times this price level
(8) TVR 3000M/Taimar/3000 S - easy to own and maintain british sportscar, low number produced, especially in LHD. You can't go wrong if you buy a well sorted one
(9) Lotus Elite - less popular than the ever loved Lotus Elan, but actually much more nimble, exclusive and much closer to racing than its successor. The Elite competed in Le Mans successfully and the road car was fairly close to what the guys were using there. Prices are not too much higher than for good Elans but you get a Climax engine and lots of engineering ideas from Colin Chapman. Not a car for everybody though. But the shape is just exquisite, especially for a car of its size
(10) Aston Martin DB7 - okay, I had to take one of these onto the list. Not that it's really a great car in terms of technology and engineering, but the design is so much better than most alternatives you can buy for the same money that it's worth being considered.

So, that's the list, and of course there are many that could be added. And remember: if bought only for making money, probably none of them will bring enough interests due to all the cost that come with owning an exclusive car. But if you include your passion and pleasure in the equation, then you can forget oil, gold, platinum or any other investment ....

Picture of the Week - starting base of a TVR 3000 M restoration

This must look familiar to many who have started a TVR restoration project. A car that at least partially looks complete and like not too much work. This particular car, an early TVR 3000 M (or potentially a 2500 M) was shown at the probably largest TVR exhibition in Germany last winter. But doesn't the car even in half disassembled state look good?

TVR Taimar - rare but easy to own sportscar

The TVR Taimar was built between 1976 and 1980, a total of 395 cars were produced and sold mainly in the UK. The Taimar was part of the M series TVR and shared the same chassis as well as the same engine (Ford Essex 3 litre). The main difference to the TVR 3000 M was the hatchback door that finally prevented the owners from having to put big luggage through the passenger door. So compared to its brother it was pretty convenient. With its strong chassis, the fiberglass body and all the mass production mechanical components (mainly from Ford and Triumph) it's a really simple car to own and maintain.
Reliability is good especially compared to other British cars of the period. Electrical faults may be something to worry about. And yes, the Taimar tends to suck the exhaust fumes into the car. It makes dogs go sick and passengers too.
Performance is okay with roughly 140 HP and less than 1'000 kg, but not staggering. It was faster than a 3 liter Ford Capri at least. And it could outperform most Limousines from the period.
Mine was a 1978 model in burgundy red. It had been restored once before I took it over and behaved really well under my ownership. It had been equipped with Holley carburetors by one of the previous owners and had a bit of extra power. It was the first TVR I owned, but not the first one I wanted to buy. Actually, I was 16 when I spotted "my" first TVR at a nearby garage, but my father didn't consider a sportscar as a good investment and didn't aprove (and support) the purchase. So I had to wait until I found the burgundy Taimar pictured here. After the Taimar a number of other TVRs followed and I never stopped to appreciate the make.

Being brave in car design doesn't (always) pay off!

Many people have been criticizing that each new Porsche looks like the model before. And they are right. But Porsche learned the hard way that it doesn't always pay off to be brave in designing cars. When they launched the Porsche 928 it was very different to anything they had done before. It had an 8 cylinder engine in the front, four seats, was wide and big and it really looked very different to even any other car on the road, maybe with the exception of the AMC Pacer. And you don't want to see this as a design icon. Well the car also suffered from some weaknesses including being very thirsty and having the aerodynamics of a Volkswagen Beetle. But most of these things got sorted out over time and the car actually became quite good. But not good enough to no being successful enough. And never since Porsche announced any radical car like the 928 any more.
Other examples needed? Look at the Bangle effect at BMW. Or look at the TVR Tasmin (called the Wedge). Or what about Pininfarina? Most if not all of his cars were more evolutions than revolutions and he know quite well why he worked like this. Beauty has to be accepted by the buyers and you can't stretch it too far.

TVR Grantura Brochure and Price List 1961 - all the things you could have had

What you see here is a small budget brochure and price list for a TVR Grantura Mk2a of around 1961. £795 was the price to pay for a Grantura with Ford engine, £93 more you handed over for the MG A engine version and if you wanted the Coventry Climax version you the uplift was roughly 30% compared to the Ford version. That probably explains why so few Climax cars were shipped and why most of them received an MG engine during their life. It's also notable that only the MG version was homologated for racing. But even if you paid the £1045 for the Climax car, that wasn't the end. A full stage 3 race tune would add another £105 to the bill, but even the more moderate stage 2 engine conversion was £63. In comparison to this any other option you could order, like a heater/demister unit fresh air type (£15), windows screen washers (£2), leather upholstery (£10-12) or adjustable Koni shock absobers (£10) were quite affordable in comparison. Many people say the Germans have invented the car you can configure, but the TVR guys already had assembled quite a list of stuff to increase the price of your car. Interesting the fact that you could order a lightweight chassis/body combination, only the lightweight chassis or the lightweight body individually. But similar as today it was more expensive to get less. Adding all the bits you may have wanted together you easily could have ended up with a £1200 or 1300 Grantura, a car probably 5-8 times as expensive as a Volkswagen beetle.

Buying a British Sportcar in the early 60ties ...

Buying cars in the form of a kit was very popular in the early 60ies. Not only TVR, but also Lotus and many other manufacturers shipped their cars a kits and were avoiding some taxes this way. This made a huge difference for the buyers, but also offered them the challenge to finish the manufacturer's job.

Well, this meant a lot of things. First, of course, you had to check whether the kit delivered to your home was complete. On the first picture you see the parts list and the attempt of the buyer to tick off the parts actually delivered.

But even if everything was delivered this didn't mean completing the car was a simple task. Obviously this owner of a TVR Grantura had to "reinvent" the wiring diagram (by hand, see second picture) to make sure everything was correctly connected. In other cases a serious amount of adjustments or welding may have been needed. Especially as many cars were delivered without the gearbox and engine.

The good thing though was that the owner really know what he was driving and probably was able to fix things better than people buying finished cars. A bad aspect may have been on the other side that unskilled owners made a lot of shortcuts or mistakes that had caused bad consequences later during the life of the car.

TVR Grantura Restauration - stage three - one step forward two steps backwards

Here's another update from the TVR Grantura Restauration. In November it looked like we made progress quickly. Now things have become more difficult. To set the context it needs to be understood that this is a fiberglass car where body and chassis are bonded together. Over fifty years many things have happened and it's not that clear whether you can just cut off the body from the chassis without totally braking it. So, to give the body more strength we added a number of support tubes. While doing this, it became more and more clear that a few things are terribly wrong here. The right side of the car suffers from serious stress.
Sometimes during its "career" the body must have "fallen down" a bit and since then it's not symmetrical any more. Many stress cracks clearly indicate that this has been a problem for quite some time. Also we found out that some fairly important pieces were missing, for example the rear end of the chassis and part of the rear end of the body as well, not to forget quite a few of the chassis tubes.
Other things were just not placed correctly or not really mounted. Looking back I have been really lucky to not having driven the car before taking it apart.
With all of these things missing and that many things being wrong there was an additional need to find information on how it should have been.
Luckily enough we were given access to a sister car, neither in pristine order nor "concours", but highly original. So, using this other car, we are able to "reconstruct" the missing pieces and making sure that at the end our car will look right. So quite some time was spent analyzing the sister car with a yard stick and a digital camera.
With all this experience we have now much better chances to rebuild our car correctly. So the next step now is to partially "reconstruct" the rear end of the body. After this finally we should be able to cut off the body from the frame. But this is another story and will most probably be told in January I hope.

TVR Grantura Restauration - stage two - some progress

A few weeks have passed since I wrote last time about the TVR Grantura. In the meantime the car was taken apart, the engine has left the engine bay, the transmission was taken apart. The interior has been removed also. So there's not too much left, but the body is still bonded to the chassis. This will be the next step, to actually "divorce" chassis and body. That's going to be a painful process with lots of dust and dirt.
The engine already has been checked and partially repainted to make a good impression.
As always there are many strange things to be discovered, many mechanical issues to overcome. People in the past have removed parts that seemed not to be needed, but actually they are important. The most funny thing though was the "material" the initial assembler of the kit used to protect the body from the exhaust heat. To build the heat shield he obviously stole a parking sign! According to some English blokes it's really an original English parking sign. Well it did the job for almost 50 years and I hope people still were able to park their cars.

Reasons to get rid of your current car and buy another one

There are (at least) two different kind of people, people who own very few cars during their live and only swap them if they really have to, and people who always find a reason to sell a car and buy another one. I am clearly fitting into the second group, having owned quite a number of cars during my life (yet). When I investigate the reasons why I decided to sell one car and go for a new one, then some returning patterns pop up:
1) Change of requirements - new requirements need to be fulfilled, i.e. the ability to pull a trailer or to fit three kids and friends including luggage into the car. Or the need to have an automatic transmission for other people to operate the car
2) Economical reasons - sell a car now, as the successor model is not yet announced to get a higher price. Sell a car now while it's still under warranty compared to selling it later. Get rid of a car before big repair jobs need to happen
3) Lack of space in the garage - to buy a new car, you need to have space first. When you have the space, it would be unwise to not use it and therefore buy a new car
4) Being bored, having seen it - some cars just can't keep up the excitement after months or years of ownership
5) Better technology available - the successor car is just too much better than what you have
6) Features you are eagerly missing - if you want a headup display you need to buy one of the few cars that have one
7) Collecting - there are many reasons to change the nature of your car collection
And of course there are many other reasons. Basically, there's always a good reason to sell a car and find a new one, as the buying process is just too much fun to stick with your existing car.