The Griffith V8 will be sold in near-identical specification to the car first revealed at the Goodwood Revival in 2017, powered by a naturally aspirated 5.0-litre Ford V8, dry-sumped by Cosworth and producing 450-500bhp. It will be available with a six-speed manual gearbox. Edgar says the firm still has “several hundred” deposits from “engaged, excited and ready” customers for the car, although he admits some may switch their orders to the EV, the performance statistics for which have yet to be revealed.
The lease for the Ebbw Vale production plant – potentially the first to utilise Murray’s iStream production process outside of his own company – is not yet finalised, but TVR has long had close ties to the Welsh government, which has a 3% stake in the firm having invested in it in 2016. As part of that deal, TVR was loaned £2 million, although the company repaid that, along with accrued interest, earlier this year, potentially leaving it free to explore other manufacturing sites.
“We will make a decision very soon,” said Berriman. “The key to our assembly process is that it can be set up very quickly, but all our decisions have to be taken with the longer-term plans for the firm in mind. The UK will always be the centre of this brand, but we expect to be agile enough to look at production in other locations as we seek to expand our plans globally.”