Engine designer Al Melling plans to buy TVR -- and bring back the Griffith.
Melling has entered the bidding process for TVR and reckons that it will take some £10 million, including the purchase price, to get the Blackpool car company back on its feet again.
Melling has made millions designing engines all over the world -- he said a number of the top mechanics in the world's racing teams started at Melling's shop. He also co-designed the AJP engine that appeared first in the Cerbera and then, after the demise of the Rover V8-engined cars, every TVR from the Tuscan onwards.
He recently made headlines with the concept of his new, stripped-out road racer, the £185,000 Hellcat, whose 1,200bhp quad-turbo 6-litre V10 is aiming to strip the 252mph Bugatti Veyron of its 'world's fastest road car' epithet. But although he plans only to build 20 Hellcats a year, he needs premises and people to build it. Enter TVR.
Melling outlined his plans for TVR to PistonHeads yesterday. After the three to four months he said it would take to clear up the mess the factory has become, TVR could start producing cars again out of the Bristol Avenue premises in Blackpool.
Melling said that one of the biggest problems he's had when planning production of the Hellcat was finding the right kind of experience to build the car. With only about 50 miles and an hour's drive from his base in Rochdale to Blackpool, he believes that the right experience exists within TVR's ex-workforce who, if his bid succeeds, will be re-employed to build it.
"I want to take the people who used to work at TVR and have them continue at the Bristol Avenue factory," he said. "If I can't deal with Peter Wheeler to buy the plant, then I'll talk to Blackpool Corporation about other premises."
He also plans to revive the TVR Griffith, which kick-started the glory years for TVR in the 1990s, when its curvy, retro-look and gloriously burbling cars turned the company into a big profit generator. The new Griff will be powered by a V8 -- either a Melling designed motor or an AJP8. "It was a lovely car", he said. "It should never have been dropped."
But there's a lot to do before that. It will take time to clear up the factory and get it into a state where it's possible to work and make cars, said Melling. "I went to look at it yesterday, and it's a mess. There's all sorts of stuff lying around, with cars half-built with no components to build them."
Melling plans to export most of the cars he'd build, with most exports going to the USA. He said he has dealers in Florida and Silicon Valley lined up, and knows how to get the cars through California's stringent crash tests.
On the back of that, he plans to enter the Wildcat -- a racing version of the Hellcat powered by a 5-litre Melling V8 -- into US race series such as American Le Mans, as well as starting a US version of the Tuscan Challenge using the new Griff as a base.
On his plans for the UK, Melling was less forthcoming, and wouldn't discuss plans for rebuilding TVR's UK dealer network, for example.
The bidding is a closed envelope process -- a process that Melling said ought to be open -- and the highest bidder, and presumably the winner, will be revealed on 23 February.
