in June 2008, the Club were approached by David Oxley of TVR and invited to attend an exclusive preview of the new Sagaris 2. The Club was extremely fortunate to have been invited to this as the only other attendees were Dealer Principals; no other members of the press or representatives from other websites were present. From an overwhelming number of applicants who wanted to attend this event, some 60 Club members' names were drawn out of a hat and these then met on 10 July 2008 at the new TVR development facility in Wesham near to Blackpool from where they drove in convoy to the Great Hall at Mains where they had the opportunity at first hand to view the new car. Members will recall that following the February sale of Blackpool Automaotive by the administrators PKF Ltd, back to Nikolai Smolenski, the Transport & General Workers Union, in conjunction with the Member of Parliament for Blackpool North & Fleetwood, Joan Humble MP, called on the DTI for a Government investigation into the sale. The T&GWU; claimed that Mr Smolenski's position as TVR's main creditor gave him an unfair advantage over other bidders. The TVRCC has this afternoon received confirmation from two independent sources, one of which is the T&GWU; itself, that a DTI minister has indeed agreed to this investigation. Since this news first broke earlier today we have now received the full press release which reads: The following press release has been received today from PKF (UK) Ltd, the Administrators of Blackpool Automotive: Blackpool Automotive Limited in Administration PKF Partners and Joint Administrators of Blackpool Automotive Limited yesterday evening completed the sale of the main assets of the company for an undisclosed sum to a company controlled by Nikolai Smolensky. The sale included the TVR trademarks, certain vehicle stock, work-in-progress, and the manufacturing plant and equipment. In a statement, joint administrators Philip Long, Kerry Bailey and Matthew Gibson said: "Having advertised the assets of the company to the open market, we are confident we have achieved the best possible price in the circumstances and we are now looking to return money to the creditors as quickly as possible. While we had a significant number of companies expressing an interest, four demonstrated they had the funds required to enter a bidding process. Ultimately, Mr Smolensky's company came in with the highest offer."
Following last Friday's sad news from Bristol Avenue, we have today received the following update from Mr Tony Hodson, the Transport and General Workers' Union convener at Blackpool.
It is with deep regret that the Club has to report this evening that we have heard from several uncorroborated sources that TVR's manufacturing company, Blackpool Automotive, have today gone into receivership. There are reports that there will be a meeting on 2 Jan 07 to seek a way ahead.
We hope to have more information over this weekend and as soon as we hear anything more or are able to corroborate this information, we will let members know. Our thoughts and best wishes go out to the workforce. TVR have confirm to the TVRCC that, at the invitation of Blackpool Council, it has taken part in discussions with a number of parties who expressed an interest to the Council in starting a new automotive business at the company's Blackpool factory. Unfortunately none of these plans has come to fruition. As a result, the company will now be concluding discussions with the Transport and General Workers Union on redundancy terms for TVR staff. It is anticipated that these proceedings will be completed by the end of the year. Dom Trickett, Managing Director of TVR Power last night successfully concluded the purchase of the Coventry based company from TVR owner Nikolai Smolenski. Included in the management buy-out deal are all the existing factory body moulds up to Tuscan and Sagaris Mk1, along with the exclusive UK rights to all genuine TVR parts for all current and future models for the next 10 years. Accidents do happen, and when they do, it is reassuring to be in the best possible hands. Being involved in an accident can be very distressing and hugely time-consuming to resolve.
TVR Accident Management has been established to provide a complete specialist service that ensures TVR owners involved in an accident will be back on the road with the minimum of inconvenience. The team can arrange a replacement vehicle and repair of the damaged vehicle, and can act in pursuing reimbursement from a third-party insurer. Members will have seen the discussions in our discussion forum about London Thunder and the news itembelow announcing the rally. One of the aims of the rally is to deliver a petition to the House of Commons to highlight the plight of those workers who are losing their jobs in Blackpool and to call on the Government to do everything possible to retain manufacture of TVRs in Britain. Therefore, we need YOUR signature. The TVR Car Club has been informed this morning that staff at TVR's Blackpool factory have been informed today (Wednesday) that the company is planning to outsource all production. Agreements are being finalised for the 2007 run of Tuscan, Tuscan Convertible and Sagaris to be produced in Europe while fully built powertrains - straight six, four-litre TVR engines including clutch and gearbox - are due to be produced in the UK. We have also received an update from the Transport and General Workers' Union, representing the staff, the contents of which are reproduced below. Despite plans to move to their interim factory in Squires Gate Blackpool starting this month, TVR have today confirmed that has been called off at the last minute. TVR have said that they will now stay at Bristol Avenue until the permanent factory at Blackpool Business Park was up and running in 2008.
As announced by TVR a few weeks ago, the fearsome TVR Cerbera 4.5 is making a one-off comeback in a live online auction of the last ever example of the car. The auction was launched today and will close at midnight on 31 August 2006. All proceeds that exceed the reserve price will be donated to a charity, to be named in due course. Okay, I know this is a bit belated but that's becauee my PC went down and I couldn';t get the information posted in the timely manner that I would have liked. Still, better late than never...The headlline news is that there is no new car (yet) but that there have been a number of styling changes to the Sagaris and Tuscan while the T350, Tamora and 3.6 litre version of the Speed Six engine have been dropped from the line up. The TVRCC is delighted to announce that TVR has finalised the first stage of its relocation plans and is can confirm to our members that the company will be remaining in Lancashire. TVR have announced that: "For the foreseeable future, TVR will operate from a new international headquarters in Lancaster, where the management, sales and marketing teams, as well as research and development, will all be based. There will also be a TVR museum and an archive library at the headquarters, to which press, visitors, customers and enthusiasts will be warmly welcomed. Despite the obvious disappointment of not seeing the Stig putting the Tuscan Convertible through its paces on the BBC2 Top Gear test track this evening, perhaps we were treated to an even better spectacle of seeing the master himself, Sir Jackie Stewart, pushing the car close to its limits at Oulton Park. In a motor sport master class, he promised to coach one of the Top Gear prsenters, James May, to take 20 seconds of a track time and the Tuscan 2 was chosen as being an ideal car in which to do this. After setting his own time of 1.58 mins in the Tuscan, Sir Jackie then proceeded to coach Mr May until at the end of the day, his original time of 2.26 mins had indeed been reduced down to 2.06, simply by increasing confidence in the car's abilty and carrying increasing speed into each corner. Afterwards, James May commented that he liked the Tuscan and thought that it handled well; it was reported that Sir Jackie also liked the TVR and said "the Tuscan handled really well". It has now been confirmed that the a TVR Sagaris, driven by expert stunt driver Terry Grant, has made it into the Guinness Book of Records. TVR have confirmed that the popular international stunt driving ace used his new Sagaris to break the Guinness World Record for consecutive and uninterrupted doughnuts (360 on-the-spot spins in a car), previously set by Dale Morrison in 2005. Grant coaxed the standard road-going Sagaris and its Yokohama tyres to a superb count of 71 doughnuts to snatch the record.
Despite rumours that you may have read elsewhere about TVR moving abroad, the TVRCC can confirm that company bosses, including Nikolai Smolenski, have held extensive talks with Blackpool council chiefs over a new site in the town, believed to be on south shore close to both the M55 and the airport. It is believed to be a council owned site with room for expansion. Alan Cavill, Blackpool's head of corporate policy and development, reported in Blackpool Today earlier this week: "The company has been very clear in what it wanted and we think we can get somewhere near to that. The feeling remains the same. We think it's a pretty good offer, but it's a commercial decision for a commercial company. We're selling the benefits of the town to them as best we can and stressing the benefits of having a skilled workforce already available". As soon as we have confirmation of any of these proposals, we will let members know both here and in Sprint. |
Categories
All
News Archives
March 2024
|