TVR Griffith: First look inside

TVR has released the first interior image of its born-again sports coupe, which is expected to be called the Griffith when it makes its world debut at the Goodwood Revival September 8.

Providing a glimpse at what the rejuvenated British sports car maker claims will be “uncompromised quality”, the image shows the car will feature a prominent centre console turret wrapped in double-stitched leather.

Behind what appears to be a manual transmission shifter are a row of toggle switches, while ahead of it are three rotary dials.

Set to be released in TVR’s 70th anniversary year, the company says its all-new rival for the Porsche 911 will be “precisely engineered for performance, safety, reliability and efficient manufacturing”.

Promising an “all-British design with outstanding integrity, rigidity, reliability and quality”, it says all cars will be assembled by hand with “exacting quality standards”.

"On the 70th birthday of our marque, we are entering a new era with a precisely engineered car that delivers exhilarating performance on road and track, as well as everything discerning customers expect of a car intended for everyday use,” said TVR chairman Les Edgar.

"Even some of the most sophisticated supercars end up with the look and feel of homogeneous, industrial, mass-produced vehicles. Here at TVR, we chose to take a route that allows us to deliver a unique, hand-crafted and genuinely bespoke car."

The first new TVR in more than a decade will come with an advanced aero package partly designed and engineered by F1 and supercar legend Gordon Murray.

"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,” said Murray.

“We combined this with a most rigorous engineering and assembly process design to ensure outstanding consistency, build quality and reliability."

Claimed to smallest in its class, the new TVR Griffith is said to measure 4300mm in length and stand 1271mm tall — 228mm shorter and 13mm lower than the current Porsche 911 GTS. From earlier teases, we know the new Brit will weigh just 1200kg — more than 300kg lighter than the 911 GTS.

Expect the born-again TVR to bring supercar performance from a Cosworth-developed 5.0-litre V8 that provides enough punch for a power-to-weight ratio of 298kW (400bhp) per tonne. Even the entry-level model coupe will deliver at least 357kW.

That will see it hit 100km/h in less than four seconds and top out at more than 200mph (322km/h).

TVR has announced it will build 500 ‘Launch Edition’ cars, each priced at £90,000 ($A155,000), and now says almost all of them have been sold.

“The new car will be revealed in September with only a limited number of the Launch Edition vehicles still available for purchase,” it said in a press release overnight.

“Existing customers who have already ordered the Launch Edition participated in a series of private previews earlier in the year, where the response was nothing less than rapturous.”

More powerful version of the new TVR are expected to follow and the Cosworth-tuned Ford ‘Coyote’ V8 will eventually be available in five states of tune — standard, ‘big power’, ’track day-spec’ and two further versions for racing which include a full-blown GT3-specification engine for a Le Mans racer.

TVR was founded in 1947 by Trevor Wilkinson and developed its own chassis in 1949, after which various model launches followed, including the Grantura and the V8 Griffith of the 1950s and 1960s. Its current management team acquired the brand in 2013.