TVR Griffith Series 200/400

In 1964, Jack Griffith, a New York (USA) car dealer and entrepreneur, sallied forth into the muscle car arena by fitting a Ford 4.7 liter engine into a TVR Grantura Mk. 3. For the true race driver the car was perfect. It had great weight distribution, a lightweight chassis, glass fiber body and larger tyres than it's relatively underpowered brother sported.

Weighing in at just a shadow over 1,500 lbs and sporting 300 hp under the bonnet, the Griffith could take you into the next postal code in a heartbeat, but with an inexperienced shoe feeding the petrol to the huge carburettor the car would find its way to the nearest recovery vehicle equally as fast.

Pre- and post-production evaluation were not a part of the manufacturing equation.

The years were not kind to the marque as early on chassis components embedded within the glass fiber body gathered moisture and and reduced the steel frame to rust leaving the hapless owner with a virtual air chassis.

A 30 ampere hour rate generator was too weak to handle the electrics and the 4-cylinder style radiator did not provide enough heat transfer to cool the mighty beast.

Overall, the car did provide sone daredevil thrills for the experienced driver who was seeking them, some unexpected off-road surprises for the inexperienced driver who had no idea what he or she was piloting and set the stage for all of the future high performance models that have been or are being produced by Peter Wheeler at the TVR works in Blackpool.

See a complete story in "The Griffith Years", a history of the marque.