No car brand has ever been named after the founder’s christian name. Except one. TVR. The tiny British car maker started as a workshop in Blackpool, Lancashire, in 1947 and made its first car sale in 1949 with the TVR badge, named after its founder Trevor (TreVoR) Wilkinson.

TVR has become an important, if not periodic, player in the British sports-car industry and, like AC, Bristol and Ginetta, have had their flash-in-the-pan moments. In TVR’s case, it’s a case of repeated attempts to rekindle its past and more recently, announced that a new owner was again aiming to have another shot.

Early cars made by TVR were open-top sports cars with a heavy weighting to competition – Mr Wilkinson was a regular competitor – but in 1958 a semi space-frame coupe set the scene for the company’s future in road cars and became the forerunner to the car featured here, the Grantura.

The Grantura Mk I was a fast-back coupe over the space frame, first using Volkswagen Beetle-derived independent front and rear suspension and a choice of side-valve Ford (with optional supercharger), Coventry-Climax or the MGA’s BMC B-Series engines. It also borrowed hardware from other manufacturers, including the Ford Cortina tail-lights on this 1966 example.

When the Mk I was launched, reviews centred on its size and referred to its tiny doors, cramped interior and large steering wheel that made the cabin hard to enter and exit. Many cars were sent to the US as the Jomar in a flow repeated by the AC company when its small-engined Ace became the V8-engined Cobra.

The Mk I evolved into the II and III, Mr Wilkinson left the company in 1962, and the company continued with the Grantura Mk IV appearing in 1966 in much the same condition as it appears on this page today.

The Perth owner of this car has owned it for 15 years, 10 years after it was first imported into Western Australia as a competition car. In its original state, it had no interior trim, door frames and all glass except the windscreen, and minor items including door hardware.

“The car was in good mechanical condition when I bought it because of its use on the race track,” the owner said.

“The body was straight but the rest of the car was in poor condition. It took four years of restoration to get it to this stage.”

The restoration by Paradise Garage was highly detailed and involved hand making many body and drivetrain parts.

A consideration was given to deviating slightly from the original design – for example, turning the curved glass rear window into a lift-up hatch to give easy access to the boot and spare wheel – but it was decided to keep the car original.

It wasn’t a bad idea – the spare wheel has to be dragged out from its underfloor position via the doors.

Now that it’s finished, the owner said “this car is definitely a keeper.”

“I have had a number of classic British cars over the years including Austin Healy Sprites and Triumphs, but always wanted an old TVR,” he said.

“This is the only classic car I have at the moment. I intend to use the car on weekends and to show at classic-car events and perhaps some competitions in the future.”

The TVR Grantura matured in size and power over the years, moving away from the Ford 100E engine to the MGA’s 1.5-litre and then to the Ford Kent or Coventry-Climax unit before settling with MGB drivetrains in 1.6 and 1.8-litre forms.

This Grantura 1800S Mk IV has the MGB running gear and was appealing in its day against the donor car because it was faster because the TVR weighed 816kg compared with the 1966 MGB at 920kg.

In the flesh, it is a very small car despite the Mk IV being longer than the earlier versions. It is less than 3.6m long, smaller than a Hyundai Getz in length (3.8m) and wheelbase (2.46m vs the TVR at 2.17m).

Those dimensions are complicated for the occupants by very short doors and a low roof line, a large centre console above the gearbox and, for the driver, a narrow footwell with right-bias pedals.

Earlier TVRs had a large-diameter steering wheel that would have further made entry and egress difficult for the driver. This examples has a smaller after-market wheel.

In its renovation, there were some changes made to the car to accommodate the larger frames of current car owners. The seat runners were lowered and the fore-aft adjustment was extended slightly with the benefit of both being to avoid drivers rubbing their scalp on the headliner.

The work is a success. Once in the driver’s seat, it’s actually sufficient. Snug, particularly in width, but adequate. Visibility is plentiful, primarily because the car is so small, the rear axle is a few millimetres behind the seat and the large rear glass window amplifies the landscape.

Ahead is six glass-faced Smith gauges on a flat timber dashboard, press-button starter, tiny gearshifter and handbrake levers sprouting from the wide console, and twist switches for ventilation controls.

It starts and sounds like an MGB – no surprise there – and has the same torquey deliver, smooth and even through the rev range as the 1.8-litre engine increases its feed from the Weber side-draft carburettor.

The gearshift is excellent, with crisp changes and the short motion well matched to the characteristics of the engine. It’s not particularly fast but it is very responsive and superbly balanced through the corners. From the driver’s seat you can feel the axle’s motion and every stone in the road ahead trembles through the steering wheel.

The Grantura 1800S Mk IV is reflective of the era of the car and the ability for TVR to create a car with high competitive potential and yet a degree of civility to suit weekend racers. The same philosophy remains today and for aficionados, the TVR is a hard brand to beat for history and an unflinching desire for maximum driving enjoyment.

Specifications
Make: TVR
Model: Grantura Mk IV
Model code: 1800 S
Year: 1966
Price new ($A): $2500

• Engine: 1.8-litre 4-cyl
• Valves: OHV, 8-valve
• Bore/stroke: 80.26 mm x 88.9 mm
• Comp. ratio: 8.8:1
• Aspiration: normal
• Power: 71 kW @ 5400 rpm
• Torque: 150 Nm @ 3000 rpm
• Power-to-weight: 95.5 kW/tonne
• Fuel: Weber side-draft (Std: 2 x SU) carburettor
• Fuel tank: 45.5 litres
• Fuel thirst: 10.5 litres/100 km
• Transmission: 4-speed manual
• Drive: Rear
• 0-100km/h: 10.9 sec
• Top speed: 179 km/h

Dimensions:

• Length: 3594 mm
• Width: 1664 mm
• Height: 1219 mm
• Wheelbase: 2172 mm
• Track (ft/rr): 1321 mm/1346 mm
• Weight: 816 kg

Chassis:

• Suspension (ft/rr): independent, unequal-length wishbones, coils
• Brakes: (ft/rr): disc/drum
• Steering:  Rack & pinion
• Wheels: wire, 15-inch
• Tyres: 560 x 15