What a time to be a car enthusiast! Not only is Mazda on the brink of making the compression-ignition gasoline engine viable for commercial production, but TVR is back in business. The British automaker will take the wraps off its all-new sports car in September 2017, and boy, look at that no-nonsense gear lever!
Connected to a six-speed manual, the short-throw lever is located within a thin transmission tunnel/center console. Next to the tranny, there’s a panel containing five toggle switches, with the center unit painted in red. Now, where have I seen such a thing? Why yes, in every modern MINI, from the Hatch to the Countryman, with the toggle acting as the engine start/stop.
There’s a chance the red toggle may be there for the hazard lights in this application, but the angle at which the teaser photo was taken doesn’t help with solving this mystery. Also located next to the gear lever are three HVAC controls, two of them for temperature control and the speed of the air con.
Moving on to the business end of the 2018 Griffith or whatever it will be called, brace yourself for a naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V8 of Ford origin. In essence, it’s the Coyote found in the Mustang GT pony car and F-150 pickup truck, but with a performance-oriented twist. More to the point, Cosworth had its way with it, translating to an intoxicating exhaust sound, some 500 horsepower, and a power-to-weight ratio of 400 ponies per tonne.
Led Edgar, the man who manages TVR these days, let it slip that zero to 60 miles per hour should be doable in less than four seconds. Top speed? 200 mph or thereabout, thank you! The best thing about the all-new sports cars (codenamed T37) is the pricing. At approximately £90,000, the Griffith slots right between the Porsche 911 Carrera S and Porsche 911 Carrera GTS. And that’s peanuts considering the TVR talks about the newcomer in pretentious terms that include “unique, hand-crafted, and genuinely bespoke.”
Gordon Murray, moustache bearer and the guy who made the McLaren F1 a reality, is fairly excited about the newest contender on the sports car scene. "We developed the new TVR as a product that builds on all the magic and excitement of our hand-crafted British motor cars of yesteryear,” he said. “We combined this with a most rigorous engineering and assembly process design to ensure outstanding consistency, build quality and reliability."
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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