revival of TVR

TVR is making a come back. The company is set to restart operations in September 2018 and likely to produce their first car in 2019. The company's directly has changed slightly to comply with strict safety regulations which were absent previously. The earlier models which were produced did not have airbags or ABS or traction control. This meant that the cars were tricky to drive and many owners crashed the cars. The simple formula of big power with a light weight body was a recipe for fun but also a recipe for disaster. In the hands of the unskilled driver the car was a handful to drive in the wet and also tested the skills of skilled drivers.

All this was possible in the past but with increasingly stringent safety requirements from Government bodies in Europe and US, TVR have no choice but to comply if it were to sell any of their cars. TVR has a strong following among previous owners and also fan boys who like the TVR concept of big engine with light weight body. The quality of the cars were questionable in the past and it is hoped that TVR is able to improve on its quality and also durability. The previous build quality meant that the cars had a tendency to break down due to part failures which were a result of inadequate durability tests. TVR did not have a big budget like the big car makers that could spend months to conduct climate / weather testing and durability tests of components used.

TVR is a niche sports car maker that will happily sit between a Lotus and an Aston Martin. The key is the fun factor and how the car makes the driver feel. Improvements in the refinement department would definitely help it open up to a wider range of buyers. Lets hope the new TVR will be able to achieve this.

TVR is an English as you can get when it comes to building cars. It is similar to Caterham, Noble and Ariel or Radical. These niche market car makers are still in demand but building the business case is not as easy since they need sufficient sales to stay afloat and they also need to develop new products to keep the customers coming back to buy their cars. Without the big budget it is a tall order. So far only a few niche market car makers are able to survive but that reason is solely down to exclusivity. Companies like Koenigsegg and Pagani are as exclusive as they come. Each car easily costing US$700,000 onwards allow these companies to have sufficient profits to stay afloat and building only a limited number of cars per year keeps them very exclusive.

TVR's model of being more affordable and less exclusive means that the profit they make from selling each car will be far less than Koenigsegg or Pagani and TVR would require to sell many more cars to survive. TVR has gone under more than once and this is the 3rd time it is starting up again. I hope that they will be able to make a serious come back and be a permanent fixture in the global automotive industry.