I gathered up my camera, camcorder, and other related paraphernalia in my rucksack and started the trek towards the grandstand area to see what was going on.   As I was walking along, here came a Vixen-bodied TVR with a very nice sounding V8, and there was a beautiful Grantura Mk. III parked there and a few of the newer model TVRs already in attendance.   It didn’t take long before TVRs of practically every description started pulling into the racetrack parking lot.

I saw Steve Heath and his wife setting up their display for all his parts and visited with him briefly, then over to the guys at TVRCarParts.com who own the rights to all the TVR wedge parts.  Then I walked over to the TVRCC club headquarters to check in as I was one of the four judges for Saturday’s Concours event.

Then,  it was just a matter of walking around to start taking in everything.   There was an access tunnel that took you under the racetrack to the infield where probably a couple of hundred TVRs were already parked and where the ‘TVR Timeline’ was set up.  This was an array of TVR models starting with a Grantura Mk. II going through the Sagaris.   Then, I toured the racing paddock to see all the different TVR racecars being prepared for the weekend’s races.   Along the way I saw TVR No. 2, Richard Wright’s restored second TVR built.   

Although the day started off cool, breezy and overcast, by mid day, the skies had cleared and the sun was out and temperatures rising.   Soon I had run across TVRCCNA member Tony Blevins from California (who owns my old 1983 Tasmin), and club member Randy Rex and his wife from Colorado.   And later in the afternoon, Brian O’Hare from Toronto, Canada showed up so that gave us a decent North American showing at the 60th Anniversary.

Some of the examples of cars on display in addition to those previously mentioned, included Ian Massey-Crosse’s beautiful Grantura, a very nice Tuscan SE LWB V8,  John Simpson’s burgundy 3000S Turbo which Martin Lilley later drove around the track on a parade lap, Pietro Abate’s 3000M known as “Silver Dove”, and had the opportunity to meet Norman Hawkes, who brought his beautiful red Trident Coupe, one of the original four Trident prototypes.    There was also an incredible green Jomar notchback coupe with the spare tire mounted on the trunk, a TVR S1 which you could have served lunch off of it was so surgically clean, and so many others it precludes me from going into lengthy detail.   It was truly an array of TVRs worthy of the 60th anniversary of the marque.  I even got to go out on the track with Pietro Abate in the “Silver Dove” followed closely behind by Martin Lilley in the 3000S Turbo during the parade lap time. 

In the early afternoon, it was time to join the other Concours judges to examine each of the over 100 cars competing in the Concours competition.   It was an interesting array of cars from old Granturas up through new models such as Tuscans and Sagaris.   Some of the cars were beautifully restored, others had a wonderful patina showing off the years of driving and love showered on them by their owners, and there were cars that were simply driven there and parked, like you would your daily driver.  But they covered the wide cross-section of TVR models over the last 40 years, at least.   It took about four hours out in the hot sun for all of us to look at the cars, make notes and tally up the results.   When it was all said and done,  top honors went to Roger Coulsey with his two-tone Taimar Turbo SE which was an impeccably prepared and presented example of TVR.    Second place went to a beautiful red Vixen S2 and third place went to the phenomenally prepared V8S of Andy Hills.    There were several other cars close on their heels with only a couple of votes to separate them so the competition, as you can tell, was very tight.  It was a special opportunity to be asked to participate in the judging a great chance to see so many cars “up close and personal”.

That evening, the club held a dinner in a very large tent on the raceway grounds.   They had provided a wonderful buffet for us and some musical entertainment for the evening.    We Americans occupied a table and were joined by Colin Lyons and a few others for a nice evening.   Later they auctioned off a few items to raise money for a charity and some awards were announced as well.     Club Chairman Jeremy Blandford made the announcement that I had gotten the Long Distance award, but I told him later on that I was beaten out by both Tony Blevins and Randy Rex so that our table would share that distinction.   But I was really caught off guard when club Vice Chairman and Publicity Chairman Ralph Dodds invited me up to the stage to present the Mervyn Larner Trophy for the winner of the Concours competition.  It was certainly an honor to be asked not only to judge the competition but particularly to present the trophy.

After a night’s worth of celebration, I headed back to my hotel for a little rest before Sunday started things all over again, including assembling enough TVRs to try and beat Ferrari’s Guinness Book of World Records for the most cars of a single marque assembled together.    Ferrari’s record was something like 384 cars so Sunday afternoon, they started lining up to go out onto the raceway nose-to-tail, single file, to contest the record.  When it was all said and done,  they amassed 551 TVRs  to shatter the previous record and now the club is awaiting verification from Guinness that the record now belongs to TVR!!!!  Well Done!    You can’t begin to imagine the sight of that many TVRs strung out all around the track and infield road course with still more coming through the tunnel and still out on the parking lot waiting to get in.

Absolutely mind-boggling!!!

One thing that struck me about the whole weekend was the friendliness of all the TVR people there, all the old acquaintances that were rekindled, and new ones that were made and the opportunity to simply absorb all that TVR culture in one place for a weekend.   For those of you who didn’t go, you missed a fabulous time.  Hopefully, the photos that accompany this article will help some.

                                                                                                  Marshall Moore