New Owner Announces Return Of TVR

TVR, maker of some of the most outrageous sports cars in the world, appears to be back from the dead. You’ll recall that the Blackpool, UK, manufacturer was purchased by Russian oligarch Nikolai Somlenski back in 2004. Smolenski helped run the brand into the ground, completing a slow process that had been going on for decades.

 

Smolenski has now sold TVR, and it’s back in the hands of the British. Led by a man named Les Edgar, the new TVR Automotive acquired the TVR name from Smolenski for an undisclosed sum, and is planning to kick production back off.

 

Information is limited this early in proceedings, and according to an interview in Top Gear, Edgar is subject to non-disclosure agreements. That said, we hear that the new TVR will respect its heritage.

 

The real question is, though, whether the relaunched brand will stick around long enough to do that. After all, launching boutique sports car manufacturers is a trecherous business with a high degree of failure. TVR may be a known quantity in the British Isles, but most Americans only know the brand from random episodes of Top Gear and that really bad John Travolta movie, Swordfish. Hopefully TVR has a successful relaunch and brings some of its manic cars to the US. We’ll be waiting.