TVR Grantura, I'm I mad?

[alfacat]

Hi All
Not in the slightest bit Porsche related but I've a question for the great DDK hive mind (if that's OK?).
Does anyone have experance of owning or driving a Grantura?
Don't get me wrong my 997 is a wonderful car (and it's staying put) but given the speed limits and it's enormous ability it never really comes alive on a 'fun Sunday' cross country run, its just to good! So with this in mind I'm looking for something thats fun, handles nicely and feels like your really driving it at around legal limits.
I considered another Caterham 7 but from experience I'll end up playing with it to the point where it will defeat the object of buying it.
Sadly I can run to the price of an early 911 which would be the ideal choice. Now someone once told me Granturas are small, light, loud, uncomfortable, hard riding and not very fast but handle well and are lots of fun, this sounds just what I'm after!
Anyway, any info stories or experances both good or bad would be greatly appreciated also if this reads like 'self-isolation' induced psychosis please feel free to point that out as well!

All the best
Ian F.

[jonno1]

No, you are not mad. I know nothing of them. But. Life is short. Buy one.

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1175915

[Lightweight_911]

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I owned one & used it as my everyday car for ~ 6yrs but it was a long time ago - as did Vic (Slope330) around the same time.

Have a read through this recent thread if you haven't already:

https://www.ddk-online.com/phpBB2/viewt ... =1&t=66383

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[one-two]

Grantura is an interesting choice. The early ones look lovely. Finding one that hasn't been messed about won't be easy, though maybe that doesn't matter too much. Also consider Lotus 7 and Elan for the same "it feels as if we are going a bit faster than we actually are" mood. In the interests of full disclosure, I have a couple of the latter to sell!

[inaglasshouse]

If you do get one, don't forget to post a photo. In the approved standard DDK format, obviously:

[BILLY BEAN]

No you are not mad. I had one for around 18 months in the late 1960's as everyday transport. Time has dimmed my memory but recall it was noisy and pretty crude but I enjoyed it. Road holding in period felt pretty good but by today's standards it was probably not at all good.

[Dougieboy1]

I had a vixen for several years. Great fun, highly recommended. Driving it always felt like a special occasion and those early TVR's look very different to anything else on the road

One thing to consider is the vixen had a slightly longer wheelbase principally to enable the doors to be lengthened. The Grantura has the short wheelbase and smaller doors so if you are generously proportioned, shall we say, or tall, then trying it beforehand would be essential. I think i would struggle to get in my old vixen these days due to increased girth!

[911hillclimber]

I looked at early TVR's over the many years, all versions up to the Wedge (but not including it)

On a long visit to David Gerrald's about 20 years ago he put me off the early ones, ie the VW suspended ones but the Vixen's were just right.
At that time there were many early ones with rusty chassis tubes where the body is bonded to the rails and all that body-off stuff just put me off.

I love them though and would love a V8 Vixen.

There are many books about them, some better than others, but I would get a ref book and read it well.
Today, many have been restored so some nice cars around.
Body can earn some stress cracks over the years and can be badly repaired, but you just need to take car.

Finally, the small doors are..small.. and makes the cars harder to use unless you are agile! Note the length of the side glass in the Vixen v Grantura below.

[Dougieboy1]

I looked at early TVR's over the many years, all versions up to the Wedge (but not including it)

On a long visit to David Gerrald's about 20 years ago he put me off the early ones, ie the VW suspended ones but the Vixen's were just right.
At that time there were many early ones with rusty chassis tubes where the body is bonded to the rails and all that body-off stuff just put me off.

I love them though and would love a V8 Vixen.

There are many books about them, some better than others, but I would get a ref book and read it well.
Today, many have been restored so some nice cars around.
Body can earn some stress cracks over the years and can be badly repaired, but you just need to take car.

Finally, the small doors are..small.. and makes the cars harder to use unless you are agile! Note the length of the side glass in the Vixen v Grantura below.

The silver vixen looks fantastic. Mine was a J plate White one. Never looked that nice.....

[911hillclimber]

The one I saw closely at D Gerrald's those years ago looked like the silver one. I loved it, but the 911 felt better!
Did not drive it, but several hill climb often and one owner of a nice Vixen offered his car for my Lola one meeting, but was not tempted.

I like the struggle story of the TVR company as a whole too, you would feel you 'belong' to something special.

This is the chassis, and it is the outrigger tubes that are bonded to the body, bare steel tubes I think?

I love this kind of chassis car.
There are 2 people in the village here with 2 cars on the go, bodies on the garage roof, rest under tarp covers, waste!

WHO started this flippin' thread!

[dogbower]

No experience of TVR, but for something that’s fun at or around legal limits, got to be an original mini?

[camperco]

Love the early cars. The chassis was made out of half-decent steel too unlike the eighties/nineties cars.

They pop up on Bring-a-trailer occasionally. Often projects but original and cheapish too.

[911hillclimber]

£17.4K:



£24K

[KS]

I could be sorely tempted...

914? TVR? 914? TVR?... Hmmmm.

[Lightweight_911]

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Incidentally, TVR switched from a bonded-on body to bolted-on at (I think) the same time that they increased the wheelbase - around '68 I seem to remember with the introduction of the Vixen S2 (ie when the rear lamps went from the Mk 1 Cortina 'ban the bomb' style to the rectangular Cortina Mk II lamps) ...

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