On Sun, 26 Oct 1997, p.bird wrote:
> hello
>
> I agree that the corvette has finally come of age and is a decent car
> now. Still not very popular over here though. Why buy a corvette when
> for less money you can have a 5.0 TVR Griffith that covers 0-60 half a
> second quicker than the Dodge viper and is quicker on top speed?
>
> How much is a TVR over in the states? Things are usually cheaper over
> there even when they are made over here.
>
> Don't judge the british car industry by the most expensive of it's
> models. The fastest accelerating british car can be bought for less than
> 30,000 pounds. 0-60 under 3.5 secs anyone?
> birdy
Well, you must not realize that manufacturers so insignificant as TVR etc.
are not imported into the U.S. because they do not meet either our safety
or emissions requirements (or both). It is very expensive for auto
manufacturers outside the U.S. to certify their cars for this market so
many have just stopped doing so. We lost Alfa Romeo just recently, and
I'm not sure that Lotus is going to get the Elise certified for
here either.
TVR really brings up a sore point with me because I've always been
interested in them. I just finished reading a book about the history of
TVR and they really make some fantastic cars. But they stopped marketing
in the U.S. sometime in the 70's (I think it was before the 80's), so all
of the later more exotic models are completely lost on us. Judging from
what I read in that book and what I see on the Web (non-U.S. sites) it
seems that TVR has just gotten better and better.
Sigh... You're really lucky you can get a recent TVR!
Steve
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