2018 TVR Griffith Prototype Sounds Like A WWII Fighter Plane During Testing

The Smolensky era saw TVR hit a new low, though the Sagaris still is one of the most beautiful TVRs of the modern era. After a few years of downtime, the automaker was acquired by a group of businessmen led by Les Edgar, men driven by the ambition to make TVR great again. Like world-class great.

Development on the Griffith started in 2014, with the real deal going official in September 2017 at the Goodwood Revival. The recipe, as you may already know, is classically British: long hood, engine at the front (but behind the front axle), stick shift, seating for two, short deck. The Griffith is no grand tourer, though, for its performance specs make it a super sports car.

The fury hiding under the hood is a Coyote V8 sourced from the Ford Mustang, a 5.0-liter tower-of-power modified by engine specialist Cosworth to develop 500 free-breathing ponies. In a vehicle that weighs 1,250 kilograms, which also happens to benefit from 50:50 weight distribution. “Very, very tempting to drive hard” is the right choice of words, I'd say.

And as opposed to the bassy burble of the stock Coyote, the Cosworth-tuned V8 sounds like the mother and father of naturally aspirated V8s, as you’ll find out from the latest video starring the Griffith. TVR is currently testing the newcomer in Dunsfold, UK, and TVR hopes to wrap things up and start deliveries of the production-ready model no later than Q1 2019.

The first 500 examples of the bred are Launch Edition models, and despite the £90,000-a-pop price, all of them are sold. In other words, good luck getting your Griffith by the end of 2019 if you’re dropping a deposit today.