For all things Rover V8, the TVR Griffith and Chimaera and TVR T-Cars
No book or article on the Griffith and Chimaera could be complete without a picture of Peter Wheeler. Here he is at the 2004 Le Mans, TVR’s best showing.
Post race he came to the East Sussex TVRCC Regional encampment where this picture was taken. He was relaxed and happy although, as ever, a little uncomfortable in a crowd.
What was quite remarkable was that, despite him being the hero of the weekend, the TVR enthusiasts allowed him his privacy.
It wasn’t long after this that TVR went from his hands into those of N. Smolenski and then into terminal decline.
I only saw him once more. He drove his Tuscan at Brands around September of that year and I found him in the paddock on his return. He seemed reluctant to leave his car and we had a few words about Le Mans and his hopes for TVR. He seemed contented. It is how I like to remember him.
A remarkable man who produced remarkable cars.
Peter Wheeler
No publication on the Rover V8 or on TVRs would be complete without some reference to Peter Wheeler, who died in 2009. He took over the company when it was struggling with a product that was reluctant to sell. The new Wedge chassis was in many ways inferior to that which it replaced and there was limited support for the move away from traditional TVR shapes.
Peter Wheeler changed the company fundamentally, moving it away from middle of the road sportscars to out and out supercar performance at a bargain price.
The choice of the Rover V8 engine was inspired, giving the opportunity for lots of power with little weight penalty. And, as importantly, without the complexity of so many of the competing engines.
The original Griffith was a styling exercise on the S-type chassis to gauge public response. It was overwhelming. The following year a modified racing Tuscan chassis underpinned what was to become the TVR icon.
The Tuscan Challenge was the premier one-make racing series of the late 80s and 90s and it did no harm to the Griffith’s image to be associated with it.
Production doubled and the Chimaera, Griffith and Cerbera, the last originally intended to be fitted with the RV8, pushed annual figures towards the 2000s.
The Chimaera outsold the Griffith at a ratio of 4.5:2, a fact which has hurt its
The iconic Griffith, albeit in yellow
resale value of the former more than a little because of its lack of rarity. In essence, though, the cars are identical under the body.
Performance is all that anyone with any sense would need regardless of engine size.
PW’s years were tremendously exciting with the T400Rs running at Le Mans and various GT series. But most of all it has to the the Tuscan Challenge that sticks in the mind. And Chims and Griffs can trace their ancestry to these fabulous cars.
To date all the cars produced by TVR after PW sold the company were his designs.
Peter Wheeler’s final TVR: the Sagaris.
I was taken out for a ride in a Sagaris by Phil Keene of Racing Green Cars. I asked him his opinion of it.
“Too good for the road. To lose this one or to get the car to break away you have to be driving like an idiot.”
Too good for the road. Not a bad criticism.
This press image of an early Sagaris 1 copyright of TVR Cars
