Russian billionaire, Nikolay Smolenski was the talk of the town when he took the reins of TVR in 2004. He was 24 years old, filthy rich and full of swanky ideas on how to keep TVR viable. The result of the takeover: production dropped, workers were laid off, leaving the original factory and TVR bodies being made in, of all places….ITALY! TVR loyalists took to the streets and by December 2006, it emerged that Smolenski had split TVR into at least three different companies. Finally, Smolenski had to wave the white flag and on June 6th, 2013 he sold his entire ownership of TVR to a British buyer.
The buyer is known as TVR Automotive and the director, Les Edgar, is the front man for the company. Not a bad job at all when you are the mouthpiece for a company that is resurrecting a brand beloved by so many.
Mr. Edgar (a racer himself) was responsible for getting Aston Martin back into GT Racing and is well aware of how the British value their historic automotive brands.
Due to non-disclosure agreements, Edgar could not reveal any more information, but does stress that he and his associates will respect TVR’s heritage… and Britishness (and yes, for our purposes, that is a legitimate word). All we have is the company’s website, which has given us a series of optimistic one-liners like: “Never Say Never” and “Roaring Back” in the past few weeks.
There’s no word yet on when we will see a new TVR. There are, and have been, many suggestions across the message boards, blogs and mainstream media pages, but we do know that the company is making every effort to keep TVR in British hands and maintain the company’s heritage.
“You can’t let these great brands disappear or go abroad,” says Edgar. “Let them go abroad for sale, but let them forever be hammered together in Blackpool.” Let’s hope they are for sale on U.S. shores too!
TVR Gallery
Are you excited for the return of TVR?
