TVR Founder Trevor Wilkinson Dies at 85

TVR founder Trevor Wilkinson has passed away at the age of 85 after battling illness. The sportcar creator spent his last few weeks in hospital “but took it in stoical fashion that was typical of the man.”

Trevor Wilkinson first established TVR in 1947, the name derived from his first name TreVoR. The first TVR model to make an appearance was back in 1949 when he presented a 2 seater coupe - an alloy 2-seater body on a multi-tubular steel chassis with springs in the front suspension that were derived from the supports of the bumper of a Brighton fairground car. The model was soon sold for £325 before he built a second version which is believed to still exist today.

Soon after this the first “production” TVR Mark 1 was produced which would later carry the label Grantura (pictured above). Trevor later left the company in 1962 to set up his own engineering company before he retired to sunny Minorca where he would spend his final days.

As we know TVR has been in turmoil over the last few years, which saw the company go into administration costing 300 jobs before it was sold back to previous owner Nikolai Smolenski and we are now waiting to see what the future may bring for the British marque.