Reading the Rob Sass article on TVR last weekend, I was sad to see it end with TVR’s 1987 departure from America, which meant no mention of the Peter Wheeler-era Griffith, possibly the most important TVR of my lifetime.
But before we get to the Griffith, we need to talk about Giles Cooper, who until recently owned the TVR Centre on the outskirts of London and sold more TVRs than anyone else in the world. Mr. Cooper had such a close relationship to Mr. Wheeler, who ran TVR from 1981 to 2004, that his critiques affected the design of every car. I spoke to him a few times while I was working on an article on the revival of Marcos Cars two years ago and found him to be one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever met. And it was inside the TVR Centre that I learned the importance of the Griffith.
I think you can still find the TVR Centre next to a nursery in a suburban neighborhood of large houses. I remember walking past BMWs, Porsches, and Mercedes-Benzes parked in the driveways. I walked more than 30 minutes from the High Barnet tube station, and I did not see a single TVR.
“It was a lot easier to sell TVRs 25 years ago than it is today,” Mr. Cooper said.
No comments:
Post a Comment