Short and Sweet - The TVR Grantura

 

Trevor Wilkinson built the first Morris-based, Ford side valve engined TVR in 1949.  Second and third development vehicles were completed early in the new, following decade, driven in motorsport events by Wilkinson himself.  By ’54 a further development, named as ‘TVR Sports Saloon,’ was marketed in kit form.  The TVR-designed/built chassis which underpinned these early cars was a significantly upgraded partial spaceframe affair.  This attracted the attention of an American racer, Ray Saidel, who enquired if TVR could supply a chassis with a Coventry Climax FWA engine.  The answer was ‘yes,’ and the rolling chassis was duly delivered the following year.  Saidel organised the fabrication of a lightweight (alloy) body and named the resulting car, ‘Jomar II.’  As Saidel swiftly ordered two more examples, Wilkinson became sanguine about the potential of his business and relocated it to premises more suited to vehicle production and took on additional employees to support an increase in volume.  At this point, ’57-‘58, some interim cars emerged, clothed for the first time with TVR-designed bodies mounted on ‘Jomar’ chassis.  Initially a spider, there was soon a coupe in addition.  Saidel further developed advocacy for Wilkinson’s products and began to order more cars, adopting the role of importer for the U.S.  Responding to Saidel’s activities and ideas about what would sell best in the U.S., Wilkinson came up with an evolution of the Jomar Coupe which was marketed by Saidel as the Jomar GT Coupe, but named Grantura as available in the U.K.  This car was fundamental to TVR’s establishment as a manufacturer of substance and one with appropriate focus on meeting the desires of its customers by offering bodies in either aluminium or glass-fibre and a choice of six differing engine options.

Despite Saidel’s enthusiasm and efforts, sales failed to really take off in the U.S. and ’58 for a while looked likely to see the business’s collapse into bankruptcy.  However, a reorganisation and renaming – to Layton Sports Cars Ltd -  was implemented and a delicate viability was in place as ’59 dawned.  Nevertheless, inadequate distribution arrangements, poor production capacity and lax general management led to another crisis later in the year.  Fortunately, the problems were well-addressed by the arrival from Rolls Royce of John Thurner, who quickly effected a major change in culture and working practices.  The personality that enabled Thurner to do this made him someone Wilkinson could not get along with and their awkward relationship was the beginning of Wilkinson’s alienation, leading two years later to his departure.  Thus, in the early stages of the Grantura's production run, it often seemed likely that it would not be a very long-lived one.  The Mk.1 had problems, notably ride quality, but it was light, (711 Kg quoted by the factory, though other sources often suggest 660 Kg), and quick, so there were plenty of orders – too many in fact, given the factory’s productivity.  Over the course of ’58 and ’59, only 100 Granturas were built, the first bearing chassis #101.  The earliest survivor of which I have a photograph is #7/FS/112, seen below.

#7/FS/112  Courtesy Classic.Com

This is a ’58 car.  It was offered in the Historics 1^st September 2012 Brooklands Museum sale with an estimate of £14-18,000 but was not bid to the reserve value.  It was originally equipped with the 1172 cc Ford side valve engine, capable of 36 bhp, (or 56 bhp supercharged).  The good handling of the Grantura was from the outset largely due to the incorporation of independent suspension on both the front and rear axles.  Specification – with the MGA engine option – was summarised:

Such a car – though with the slightly larger 1622 cc MGA engine - was the next Grantura produced, #7/B/113. 59.  This was entered in the H & H auction, Duxford, October ’24 with an estimate of £18-22,000 but did not sell.  H & H’s lot details include: ‘Thought to have begun life as a race car, the two-seater sports an early front disc upgrade and was seemingly not registered for road use until 1975.’

#7/B/113  Courtesy H & H

Just five chassis numbers on, #7/C/118 was a Coventry Climax-engined car, sold in recent times for £29, 950.  The Climax FW (‘Featherweight’) engine had originated as an alloy fire-pump unit in ’51 and was subsequently developed for automotive applications.  First seen in ’53, with a 1098 cc capacity, the FWA’s 75 bhp was highly attractive to racing and sports car constructors.  Colin Chapman was very keen on the Climax engine and in ‘58 specified it in 72 bhp, 1216 cc form, designated FWE, for his Lotus Elite project.  Coventry Climax agreed to make a small number of units available to TVR for original equipment use in the Grantura.  The FWE engine installation (in #7/C/238) is seen below:

FWE (#7/C/238) Courtesy Pendine

#7/C/118  Courtesy Race Cars Direct

Detail bonnet differences are noticeable across these three early cars – whilst all three feature a wide horizontal intake aperture below the bumper line, #112 and #113 have a similar, though less wide opening between the bumper line and the lower edge of the headlamp fairing.  The indicator lamps are mounted above and at either end of this aperture, whereas they are just below the headlamp units on #113 and #118.  Only #113 has bumpers – of the quarter type.  Also of note is the TVR Grantura script badge (see below) on the lower right hand side of the rear panel, and the fuel filler cap on the right hand rear wing on #113.  The filler on #118 is central and just below the lower rear window aperture edge.

Courtesy Simon GP Geoghegan

Some Mk.1s wear a ‘TVR’ badge mounted centrally in line with the top of the headlamp units.  It is as seen below, chassis # unknown:

Courtesy Car & Classic

Views of the same car seen below show, left, the position of the front badge, above the number plate, and, right, the low hinge location for the bonnet.

Courtesy Car & Classic

The last Mk.1 survivor of which I have a recent image is said to have been originally Climax-engined, but subsequently fitted with an 1850 cc B Series unit as used in the MGB and Triumph Dolomite.  In recent times no chassis number could be found on the vehicle – UK licencing authority has issued a VIN: DVLASWA3972003803   The car was offered at a price of £22,695.

Courtesy AmoreAutos

The most noticeable revised external feature of the Mk.2 Grantura was the car’s rear end, incorporating relocated lamp units, mounted on the rear face of vestigial fins, as can be seen in the photographs below, the Mk1 on the left, the Mk.2 right:

Courtesy H & H; Iconicauctioneers

At the front of the car, the indicators were relocated from the headlamps level to the outer ends of the intake aperture:

Courtesy AmoreAutos; Car&Classic

Engine options for the Mk.2 included: Coventry Climax 1216 cc FWE, B Series 1850 cc (MGB), B Series 1489 cc/1588 cc (MGA) and Ford 100E (supercharged) – soon superseded by the 105E 997 cc unit.  The Climax engine enabled a 0-60 mph time of 10.8 secs, whereas 12 secs was the comparison time for an MGA-engined Grantura. 

Having been initially preoccupied with the required organisational changes when he had first arrived at TVR, John Thurner found time to design/specify some detail chassis improvements for the MK.2’s chassis in early ‘61, including a Triumph steering rack, (although some sources suggest that the Ford-sourced worm/peg box was also sometimes installed until the advent of the Grantura Mk.3), and the introduction of Girling front brake discs – cars thus equipped being designated Mk.2A.  An example of a Mk.2A is seen below – it was, in October 2024, offered for sale on Racecarsdirect.com for £55,000.  It is a competition car now MGA engine-powered and with FIA Historics papers:

Courtesy Racecarsdirect.com

The kit to assemble a Mk.2A Grantura was priced at £1,045, whereas a factory-built car was £1,544.  Production of this model continued through to late summer ’62, (by when sales of Mk.2/2As amounted to around 400), and included some competition versions, including four lightweights. 

The Mk.3 Grantura was introduced in September ’62.  Significantly, TVR’s founder, Trevor Wilkinson, left the business at this juncture, whilst the new car further reflected the influence of Thurner since he had designed a fully revised, slightly longer wheelbase chassis.  This was an improvement over the Mk.2/2A in many respects, especially in terms of structural integrity and suspension characteristics.  However, whilst Thurner’s technical focus had resulted in this major product enhancement, organisational performance had suffered, resulting in poor productivity and limping cashflow.  Thus, while on product attractiveness grounds the Mk.3 should have sold even better than the Mk.2/2A, output was less than 100 units, (some say only 60).

#8/564 is a ’63 example of a Mk.3, seen below:

#8/564 Courtesy 63grantura (BaT)

This car had the fairly common option of the 1622 cc MGA engine.  Its chassis number plate is branded with ‘Grantura Plastics Ltd’  Blackpool.  This reflects the vulnerability of the company’s finances at the time, leading to sub-businesses being created to insulate the company accounts.  Aside from accounting documentation, ‘Grantura Plastics’ and ‘Grantura Engineering’ were one and the same thing  The car was in Ohio, U.S. in ’19 when it was offered on Bring a Trailer, failing to sell with a highest bid of $17,000. 

In November ’65 the company was bought by Arthur Lilley.  He and his son, Martin, sought to run the business more profitably – with mixed success – renaming it ‘TVR Engineering’ and implementing a progressive programme of new model introductions and design/quality developments.  However, their initial focus was on the Mk.3 Grantura, which remained in production until ’67.  It was successively redesignated, Mk.3-1800, Mk.3-1800S, with about 128 made in total, (though an alternative count suggests 150).  The 1800 appeared in ’64, powered by the 95 bhp B Series engine used in the MGB.  The 1800S was most obviously differentiated externally by a new truncated tail which featured Ford Cortina rear lamp units and a bigger rear window. 

The 1800S’s interior and trim – including a wood-face dashboard - was further revised in ’66 to become a Mk.4 Grantura.  This final version, made also in ’67, is said to have had a ‘slightly longer’ wheelbase, but I have been unable to find mention of a specific metric for this.  This may be accounted for as a simple misunderstanding – the Mk.3 had featured a wheelbase of 2172 mm, whereas the original model’s was 2121 mm.  Where the Mk.4 differed in longitudinal dimension terms was in its overall length – 3594 mm against the Mk.3’s 3505 mm.

Mk.4 #18/001 Courtesy Motoriginals

Mk.4 #18/050 Courtesy Criley (BaT)

As with most car manufacturers, especially in regard to operations prior to the introduction of Enterprise Management Systems, errors/uncertainties/variations are evident in the figures cited by TVR as production volumes of the various Grantura model variants.  Given its access to close-to-source data, the TVR Car Club’s summary provides a very good guideline: Mk.I - approx 100; Mk.2 - approx 400; Mk.3 - approx 60; 1800 – 30; 1800S – 128; Mk4 – 78; Total: 796.

 

The Grantura story comes full circle in the sense that it was American, Ray Saidel, who provided the initial impetus for the model’s establishment and development.  It was his compatriot, Jack Griffith, who created its spiritual successor, the Griffth Series 200 – followed by the Griffith 400, and, finally, the Griffith 600.  Meanwhile, back in North West England, TVR launched the Grantura’s replacement later in ’67, naming it the Vixen.

Left to right, Series 200, Courtesy Bonhams; Series 400, Courtesy Historics Auctioneers; Series 600, Courtesy Bonhams

TVR Vixen Series 1 Courtesy Robert Knight (Flikr)