Ahh! I watched my Griff 500 (Terry) being built in the factory and did 30k pretty trouble-free miles in him before he had a bit of bad luck...All that now remains is the Griffith 500 badge on the wall above my desk. It wasn't the car's fault, I was going quickly & someone pulled out in front of me on a dual carriageway. I spun & wiped out front & back on the central reservation, but the doors opened & I climbed out with just a bump on the head from the roof panel, which ended up on the other side of a roundabout. The insurance assessor was very impressed with the way the car's passenger space had kept its shape, the fibreglass body absorbing a good dose of the impact. The only mistake I made was not ordering him with power steering, mostly for my wife's benefit. He did 25 mpg on a decent run & would pull in 5th from under 20 mph. A great car (sob..)
I own a Griffith 500HC. Some engine upgrades. Yep, can be beyond bonkers. Also, after having a major engine ECU upgrade with now no dizzy etc. Drives super smooth and all the 'unreliable' parts gone. I love driving it.
@@TheFatAndTheFurious I paid £12,500 for mine not long ago. (August 2023). I've spent near that again on it. Now, it's as it should be. (And as I wanted it to be).. Have I spent as much as it would have cost to go out and buy a real good one? Yes and no. Yes= still probably needs work. No = all the niggles on my car done and sorted. ALL of them..
@@TheFatAndTheFuriousI paid (100% true) £12.5k for mine. It had a new chassis, paint job and all new suspension 1 year before I bought it. Then, it went to TVR power for the ECU work, had a new clutch, updated intake trumpets, decatted exhaust manifolds and decatted Y pipe. Large intake plenum. All that was near £12k on top of the purchase cost. Worth every penny!!!
You can take your 300 mile range, 0-60 in 3 seconds and auto driving function. There is NO electric car that can make me smile like listening to that gruff, animal like V8! Every journey would be a stereo off, window ajar affair! It’s one area an EV won’t EVER trump an ICE.
They were certainly a bit raw, and even when they were new the build quality was a bit casual. But fantastic fun. The steering was very quick for the day, although it would be familiar to someone used to a modern Ferrari. Traction control was provided by amazingly long throttle travel, just as well when on a damp road you could get wheel spin in most gears. And the scary reputation was backed up by the insurance industry, which found that 70% of Griff 500 write-offs were single-vehicle accidents. But treated with respect, such as making sure all the wheels are pointing the same way before giving it the beans, my main memory is of grinning so much my mouth hurt!
I did treasure hunt in a Griff 500 in the rain. Huge fun keeps you on your toes. Probably one of the most exciting cars I've ever driven. Amazing value still
I had a Lotus Esprit SE Turbo, my girlfriend had a Griffith 500: we both loved to drive each other's car. If only the two could have been married into one, how amazing that would have been (the cars, I mean). The Grif was wonderful in the dry, but I will never forget going to overtake a tanker on a damp evening and wondering if I was going to go out in a fireball of fibreglass as the thing just decided to drift toward the petrol tanker!
Back in the 90's my boss had on of these...and very generously let me take it out for the day numerous times. As the owner of a superbike both now and then...the TVR was still able to grab my attention especially on a damp road 😲😲 Great video as always, cheers Alistair 👍
@@WainwrightWalksWiaLocalLad had a colleague called Alastair Morel , not sure if spellings who, like me worked for Booths the Grocers in Preston. Edwin Booth followed me into TVR ownership by getting an ash? Cureton green (?) 4.3 Griffith new from the factory.... I had a white S1.5 at the time, G923GRP
@@rainbowcampers Ahhh... I know Booths well but in the South Lakes! I worked all my life in Kendal... I worked for a guy at that time who had many different, interesting car's. Because we shared an interest in ICE's he would let me have them for the day if he didn't need them 👌 Seems a long time ago now! ATB Alistair 👍
Hello Jack! That TreVoR is truely a "British Brute" of a sportscar. And your enthusiasm shine's through to me - I'm sure to all viewers too - on that drive. Yet... it's flaw is summed up by your headline: Widowmaker! Having said that, what a car!! Thank you - and Nick - for puting us viewers in that driving seat...
The Griffith is far better looking than the TVR's which followed it. Simple clean lines, light weight, BIG power, no nanny state interference 'driver aid' BS. A PROPER driver's car. I visited the factory back in 1997, what a fascinating place, a crying shame that TVR went to the wall. Whilst TVR didn't have a reputation for build quality, or reliability, you can never accuse TVR of building a dull car! 30 years on, the Griffith is still savagely quick.
…dates back to the Buick 215ci small block V8 of 1961… It produced 150 bhp SAE, later 155. When introduced in the P5B (and later P6B) it still produced 155bhp but now “British” horsepower. When it was shoehorned into the MG MGB, the convoluted intake resulted in a drop to 137bhp. The first versions in the Range Rover were even more detuned (improving torque) I believe to around 93bhp. The most powerful Rover version was the 218bhp 4.6 in the P38a Range Rover.
What a fantastic car. I have a 2500M with a Corvette LT1 engine in it which is probably similar in feel. Too bad we cannot buy cars like this today, this is the type of car that made us enthusiasts, made us turn our heads when we heard one or saw one, and the dream of ownership was possible. Keep up the great work.
As a young guy many decades ago I owned 3 big healys when they cost next to nothing used in poor condition. Surely i love those cars forever, but you cannot compare what a healy to any tvr. I owned a1972 tvr 2500m in the 1980s back when us poorer folk could get thier hands on something so wonderful. Even with the triumph 6 that car was no slouch, especially when at a cruising speed an up shifting an nailing it! Of all the cars i owned including chevy, mopar and my healys the only car i still regret having to sell off to support my young family....damn i wish i never sold tha tvr!
I remember test driving the 500 20 years ago in Germany. It has been my dream car ever since I sat in it at the ‘93 Geneva motor show. Even though I am driving a Model 3 today some pistonheadishness seemed to have remained in my brain and I am still contemplating getting one today as a weekend warrior. The biggest issue is that LHD models are significantly more expensive than RHDs. I survived the test drive as a much younger lad, I reckon I will be able to tame it today. It is the Cobra of the 90s.
I’ve owned a Griff for 5 years before swapping for a T350. Griff was such a B road monster. And a fantastic GT car. TVR Car Club members can be found driving all around Europe in them.
Apparently Gordon Murray had one and wanted to improve the handling. He put it on a chassis rig and found it to have such poor chassis torsional rigidity he just got rid of it! I suspect that, because it has a separate backbone chassis, you don't get scuttle shake because the body is separate and isn't actually the thing that's responsible for providing the rigidity, so that gives a false impression of the true rigidity of the car.
Thank an engineer for the styling. One of the clever features is the front of the door is curved to remove the gap and allows the rear to be finished easily.
Got the chance to have a drive in one of these when I was 18, the best part was probably when the owner floored it on a dual carriageway, the grin was stretching off on my face, didn’t know where to look 😂 was quite an experience considering I owned a brown 1.3 HLE Metro at the time.
Thanks Jack, another car that I think never made it to Oz. Great video, and the smile on your face says a lot too. I think you really enjoyed the drive.
I wish I still had mine, it was a Metallic red1997 Griffith 500 reg number P6 TVR, and it was featured in the 1998 TVR calender and other promotional material.
I remember driving my dads Griffith 500 around Croft a few times on TVR track days. Driving it anywhere between 7/10ths and 9/10ths was amazing, start really pushing it and it got a bit twitchy.
Wet road, pulling out of a garage after getting fuel, with the slightest push on the accelerator, the back decided it would prefer to be the front. Absolutely scared me to death.
Gosh the 21st Century of the austin Healy 3000! The griffin TVR brings back a true British thug with DM boots! Love these underrated machines! Long live TVR! Thanks Jack! 👍🏽
I would love to see a review on a Donkervoort, which is a dutch version of the Lotus 7, but much modernised, which makes it like a road going race car.
In 1995 when I first qualified as a Doctor, a colleague in a similar position spunked his inheritance off his Grandmother on one of the first one of these ‘off plan’. Within 500 miles of delivery, whilst going over a Sleeping Policeman speed bump, in London, at about 15 mph (apparently. I wasn’t there), it punched its rear suspension strut through the area rear of the seats. This was in a car that you were supposed to be able to do 150 mph in! 😮 The thing was…it wasn’t an isolated case! There were letters in the Telegraph and lawsuits with owners wanting their money back etc.
The first thing that stands out is the tuck in door and fender/wing. The original Dodge Viper would be the closest car by design here in the US. What a fun package.😊 Looks like a football player bought a suit off the rack on the way to a wedding, and it seems appropriate. 😊
Thank you for this video. Brings back memories of playing Gran Turismo 2 in my room at university. Won the GT300 in a self built car Blackpool car, using tall high gear ratios to control it during cornering effectively making it a four speed. Not that I urge you to do so lol.
I've enjoyed quite a few. From a the original 350i wedge bought from Haughin's, Barrow in furness who kindly flew me there in a small plane (I did nearly puke over everything...it was close!) , 400i wedge, 450SE wedge which my good friend still has and was on 5th Gear with Vikki. '91 430i non cat Giff .. the one I should have kept. Two more 500's, one for many years. Fuck, I'm quite old now but a TVR still does it for me! Mid 30's as far as I can remember.
I really think you should spend more time by showing us the cars around, especially the details of the interior. Most of us won't see any of these cars in the flesh so it'd be nice to know how it is to just be inside besides of how it is to drive them.
What's the TVR model that Edd China worked on when he was with W.D.? It was runnin a pumped up Ford v6, I really like that car but can't find the W.D. episode anywhere.... 🤘🏻🇺🇸
The UK doesn't allow retired people to immigrate (no income tax). Otherwise I'd be there now, living on a canal boat and checking out all the cars we can't get in the states...
Same weight as a Mazda MX-5/Miata with an extra 200 horsepower, I guess it would be fast. Could they have thought of an odder place for the door handles though? No bumpers, any minor ding involves major percentages of the car, that can't help with insurance. But yes, really nice car!
Would really like one of these in my garage, have always had a soft spot for them. Looks great And have a more reasonable engine than the later ones :)
I really don't think you'll find a better sounding car. I think a lot of people look at these the wrong way. Its not a sports car in the modern sense, Its much more of an homage to the Healy, E Type, TR or even the MGB, I found mine to drive a lot more like one of them. This may explain why the suspension feels the way it does?
I had a Chimaera for 12 years, but had to sell it, my wife is only 5'3 and she couldn't reach the pedals........I told her these cars don't sell well, that's why it took 12 years! Jack, I have to ask, was the targa in place without the roof panel and windows up, just to prevent wind noise for filming? I ask, because its not advisable to drive a 'terry' with the targa up at full tilt....tends to blow out the back window panel!
@@nickfiore1743 Yeah, tends to tighten everything up. I also ended up with the windscreen rubber detaching in the wind when the roof panel wasn't in place! Car was 18 years old by then though! I enjoyed the driving, didn't so much enjoy the keeping. Managed to stay on top of everything when there were just a few jobs each time, even the outriggers, but once the number of things grew it kind of got away from me, I sold before I cried!
Had a V8s for over 8 years before trading it for my first Griffith 500... Didover 100, 000 miles in it commuting in all weathers alk year round. Wish I could have kept both 😢
Lovely looking thing, and seems to be a "pleasant handful". I was not aware of these until today. Somehow you never got around to talking about prices. I'm curious. And how old are these (at least 15 years, I hope, as that makes them admissable to Canada. Asking for a friend....😁 )
yes, exhaust manifolds go forward from the block and duck under the car in front of the engine. it had to be engineered this way due to space limitations. inadvertently doing this they created this deep v8 rumble and burble that is so distinctive to Buick (rover) v8 powered TVR s. The decibels that resonate from a Tvr v8 are so enjoyable to anyone's ears. I own a Griff 500 and its just the best feeling driving her.
I've driven one, I call it the "oh shitohshitoooshiiiiitttt" car. It is even more tricky than my hotted up Ford Capri was. I'm going to remedy that by hotting the Capri up more. BTW warning: any bigger smile you might lose the lower jaw.
abit of a funny thing with these, the electronics are from a mercedes C class and can go abit wrong, as I spotted one where I lived, pulled in and asked about it as the whole damn dash was pulled apart as the cluster had gone wrong, a 98/99 model, dont know if it was this as it didnt have anything but the TVR and Griffith thing on it
Love that car. A sort of BMW Z1 on steroids. Weighs like an EG Honda Civic with a V8 and it will attempt at your life at every corner. Only a British could come up with such a weapon. ❤
The chassis is probably rotten underneath the body they had a problem with water getting under the powdercoat on the chassis and rotting it underneath the powder coating
