Order books for new TVR open on July 7
Resurrected sportscar company TVR is being forced to start taking deposits for its first new car since 2006 much sooner than planned simply because of the strength of demand.
"We've been totally blown away by the reaction to the new car," said John Chasey, Operations Director of TVR, on Wednesday. "Our phone lines and online enquiry system went into meltdown when the news was announced, and we decided that we must begin to bring a structure to the enquiries and build a delivery pipeline well in advance of production."
Following 59 often eccentric but always exciting years in business, the British sportscar company was forced to close the doors to its Blackpool factory once and for all in 2006.
Though there had been whispers that individuals were planning to bring back the brand to do battle once more with Porsches, when the marque's new owners announced their intentions to build an entirely new, Gordon Murray-designed V8 powered two-seater coupe on June 3, TVR fans went into overdrive.
The company has been fielding enquires form all corners of the globe since sportscar lovers discovered that the man responsible for creating the McLaren F1 was also going to be sketching the first new TVR in a decade.
From July 7, TVR will be taking a £5,000 (€7050/$7825) deposit towards the new car -- due for launch in 2017 -- even though detailed specification lists are not yet ready. And, as a big ‘thank you' to the TVR owners club, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2015 and has been singlehandedly keeping the marque alive over the best part of the decade, any existing member need only pay a £2,500 deposit to secure a future new TVR.
Les Edgar, Chairman of TVR, says: "We feel it is important to reward those people who have been such enthusiastic ambassadors for the TVR brand. The club is a wonderfully active and loyal community of people who simply love the cars, so it seems fitting that they should be offered a reduced deposit and a promise of some of the early production units. With initial production in 2017 to be in the low hundreds, the early units are likely to be much coveted."
As well as a design penned by Gordon Murray, the new car will be getting a specially developed V8 engine courtesy of Cosworth and is expected to be followed quickly by a convertible model.
