TVR Chimaera - Classic cars at Dowleys

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TVR

The Marque

With a name derived from that of its founder, Trevor Wilkinson, TVR is a British automotive marque known for its lightweight sportscars equipped with powerful engines. The company was established as Trevcar Motors, a general engineering firm in Blackpool. Gradually Wilkinson began to develop original chassis and then cars, first one-off specials and then, as the firm changed name to TVR, to production models, the Sports and Grantura in the mid-late 1950s. By this stage the pattern of changing ownership, financial struggles and recovery from liquidations was already starting to become evident, and Wilkinson left the company in 1962.

TVR, despite its travails in business, continued to produce sportscars through the 1960s and 1970s, among them the Griffin, Tuscan, Vixen, M Series, up to the TVR Tasmin in 1980. Into the 1980s, another change of ownership saw a move towards the use of Rover V8s, away from naturally aspirated V6s, and the introduction of a number of bold designs with some fearsome reputations, stemming from the TVR S Series, namely the Griffith, Cerbera, Tuscan, Tamora, T350, Typhon, Sagaris and, of course, the Chimaera. TVR is now in the hands of TVR Electric Vehicles Limited, and the TVR website currently promotes a new Griffith EV model. However, there is a distinct lack of certainty or clarity as to when this model will reach production, if at all.

Chimaera

The Model

The TVR Chimaera was launched at the Earl's Court Motorshow in 1992 and remained in production until 2003. It is a 2-door roadster style sports car, originally planned as a replacement for the Griffith, with which it shares backbone and Rover V8 engine derivatives. The Chimaera is more spacious and slightly softer sprung, evidently suiting its purported positioning as more of a long-distance tourer. It was, however, equipped with increasingly larger and more powerful V8 engines throughout its lifetime.

Despite TVR's intention to position the Chimaera in the tourer bracket, and although a variety of additional options were offered by the manufacturer, the balance of the Chimaera still leaned firmly toward performance over refinement. This has led to some colourful metaphors being conjured to describe the Chimaera's characteristics - one YouTube channel refers to it as an "elegant monster". This is no doubt in reference to the car's name, derived from that of a fire-breathing, hybrid creature of Greek mythology, which many TVR owners will doubtless consider highly apt in the context of the car's power and the "lively" handling for which TVR cars are known.

TVR Chimaera at Dowleys

Current Stock

We are currently offering for sale* a blue 1998 TVR Chimaera 4.0 at £14,995. This is a stunning example in fantastic condition, sporting a 4.0 litre Rover V8, 63,200 miles on the clock, and coming complete with extensive TVR dealer service records detailing the history of a very well maintained car.

TVR Chimaera - view now

_{* in stock at time of writing, subject to availability. Please see our used cars page for all current stock.}

_{^ the vehicle image accompanying this article is purely for illustration and is not indicative of current stock. Source: Shutterstock. Licenced on editorial use only.}