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The Land Rover Writer

Saturday, April 21, 2012

My Next Car?

While covering the New York International Auto Show for Rovers Magazine I stopped by the Classic Car Gallery in Southport, CT.

Land Rover friends Tim Smith and Kevin Murphy handle the mechanical and technical end of the shop while the owners happily buy and sell classic cars of all sorts and display them on their Rte. 1 Main St. location.

That's where I saw my first TVR in years, this white early-70's 2500 M. It has the quirky styling that went with all TVR's, a Triumph TR-6 engine and 4-speed transmission, a TR-6 IRS rear end, and lots of pieces from other British cars of its era. 

TVR's, made in Blackpool, UK, used steel tubes welded together to form a space frame, to which they bolted on a fiberglass body. The hood lifts from the rear to rise forward, pivoting on its bumper. The rear has no trunk or hatch so everything had to be shoved through the small aperture of the doors. 

You sit very low in the car; the center console rises high, like the sides of a bathtub. It's an ergonomic disaster in many ways but that just adds to its charm. This model has a Webasto sunroof and roll down windows but I'm confident the car must be like a furnace inside on a hot sunny day.

Owning an obsolete British car, comprised of parts made by car companies no longer in existence - what could be better? Especially when I will have to rely on the car for work!

I don't know where I'll find the funds but I really, really want a TVR - ideally, this one.