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Comment by tibbydudeza | Hacker News Reader

Bespoke British sportscars built on small scale in an industrial park selling less than 100 a year to British old money who think owning a Porsche, Rolls Royce Maybach,BMW,Mercedes is too mundane or a Ferrari or Lamborghini is too garish.

Lot's of them faded over the years such as Bristol Cars and TVR.

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I really don't think "British old money" was the target market for TVR?

"Oligarch's rotten 20 year old sons" seems more accurate.

I remember a time where I was looking for a sensible family car and almost bought a Cerbera 4.5. I ended up buying a BMW that I hated...

I would guess you'd hate the Cerbera for different reasons. Much more exciting to drive undoubtedly, but also exciting because you never know if you're going to make it to your destination on time.

That was the joke about TVR's repeated on Top Gear anyways.

But James May said on the Top Gear British Sports car segment that there had been no reported cases of a TVR ever breaking down!

I hated the BMW - in and out of the dealers getting fixed and very uncomfortable.

I might be thinking of the couple TVR Tuscan segments they did.

All the articles on british motoring sites make specific reference to reliability problems:

https://www.evo.co.uk/tvr/tuscan/22788/tvr-tuscan-1999-2006-...

"TVRs have always been love-or-hate cars and the lack of safety features such as ABS or traction control will immediately deter some, as will stories of endless breakdowns."

https://archive.is/VylZ5

That whole article, lol.

I recall from Evo Magazine where they did a European press tour with AMG and TVR and the AMG technicians at one factory stop had a look under the hood of the TVR - they just laughed at how badly it was put together and see if they could help fix it when it inevitably something on it broke.

I reckon most owners considered it a quirk of owning one and besides they always had the Aston Martin on those off days.

Wrong. Just plain wrong.

TVR back in the day was literally for British hooligans. The car was built on a small scale in Blackpool of all places to compete with much higher-end manufacturers.

The fact that the end game for TVR was handled so poorly doesn't and should never retroactively change what the company's mission was, which was to build powerful British-style sports cars for enthusiasts.

Being a Blackpool lad myself - the first day I saw a TVR Tuscan roll out of the Bispham factory will be something I never forget.

They were working class heroes back in the day. They were approaching affordable for a lot of people, raw, powerful and styled in an otherworldly way.

The loss of TVR is a loss for all car enthusiasts. I don't think we'll see another manufacturer like them.

Same could be said of the Bristol Fighter - a Dodge Viper with better road manners in disguise.

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