TVR Vixen 2500

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TVR
TVR Tuscan V6 (externally identical)
TVR Tuscan V6
(externally identical)
Vixen 2500
2500
Production period: 1970-1972
Class : Sports car
Body versions : Coupe
Engines: Otto engine :
2.5 liters (79 kW)
Length: 3683 mm
Width: 1626 mm
Height: 1220 mm
Wheelbase : 2286 mm
Empty weight : 890 kg
Previous model TVR Tuscan V6
successor TVR 2500M

The TVR Vixen 2500 is a sports car from the British car manufacturer TVR , which belongs to the TVR Vixen model family , but has a special position in it. TVR combined the Vixen chassis with a six-cylinder British Leyland engine . The Vixen 2500 was designed primarily for the North American market, where it revitalized interest in the TVR brand. Only a few copies remained in Great Britain, where they were sold as the TVR 2500 - without the Vixen suffix . The Vixen 2500 was at times TVR's most successful model.

History of origin

From 1959 to 1965, between 700 and 800 coupés of the Grantura series were built in Blackpool, UK, and were sold under the TVR brand. The only 3.4 m long sports cars had lattice frames made of steel tubes and bodies made of glass fiber reinforced plastic . They were powered by four-cylinder engines from BMC , Coventry Climax or Ford of Britain , which developed up to 98 bhp (73 kW). From 1963 Griffith Motors in New York also built American eight-cylinder engines from the Ford Windsor series into the Granturas. These cars, marketed in the USA as Griffith 200 and 400 as competing products of the AC Cobra , were overpowered and were considered "dangerous". Few of them were sold in the UK (under the designation TVR Griffith 200 ).

After TVR was taken over by Martin Lilley in November 1965 , some new models appeared, with which TVR turned away from the previous technology supplier BMC - later British Leyland - and turned to Ford of Britain. The main reason for the change was cost: the Ford components were cheaper than parts from BMC. The Vixen with Ford technology replaced the Grantura in 1967, and the Griffith 400 was replaced by the externally and technically very similar Tuscan V8 , which still had an American Windsor eight-cylinder engine with up to 271 bhp (202 kW) . It found few buyers in the US and largely went unnoticed in Europe. For the British market, TVR provided him with the Tuscan V6 in 1969 , which was located between the Vixen with four cylinders and the Tuscan V8 with eight cylinders. The Tuscan V6 has a British Ford Essex six-cylinder V-engine with a displacement of 3.0 liters. With an engine output of 136 bhp (101 kW), it reached a top speed of almost 200 km / h. 101 units of the Tuscan V6 had been built by 1971, all but seven of which remained in Great Britain. An export of the Tuscan V6 to the USA was ruled out because the Ford Essex engine did not meet American emissions regulations.

With the North American market in mind, TVR developed the Vixen 2500 in 1970, which was sold there in place of the Tuscan V6. With it, TVR temporarily returned to British Leyland engines and transmissions, which also applied to the basic Vixen 1300 model presented in 1971. With the introduction of the Vixen 2500, the production of the Tuscan V6 ended. In 1972 the 2500M replaced the Vixen 2500. It had the same engine as the Vixen 2500, but the chassis and body of the M-series .

Model description

In the Vixen 2500, TVR combined the technology and the body of the Vixen S3 with a six-cylinder engine from Triumph. The additional designation 2500 refers to the engine's displacement, which is approximately 2500 cm³.

Body and chassis

Stylistically the same base vehicle: TVR Vixen S3

Most Vixen 2500s have the tubular frame of the Vixen S3, which was introduced in the S2 in 1968 and is 11.5 cm longer than the S1 (and Grantura). However, in 1972, the last year of production, TVR changed the technology. The Vixen 2500 manufactured this year sit on the newly developed chassis of the TVR-M series, but are otherwise unchanged.

The plastic body of the Vixen 2500 corresponds almost completely to that of the Vixen S3. TVR only adopted the slightly differently shaped bonnet for the Vixen 2500 from the TVR Tuscan V6. It has a noticeable bulge above the engine. The change to the M-Series chassis in 1972 had no impact on the design of the Vixen 2500: its body remained unchanged.

drive

In the Vixen 2500, TVR used an in-line six-cylinder engine from the manufacturer Triumph, which belongs to British-Leyland, instead of the Ford drive technology that has been common at TVR since 1967. The 2498 cc engine with electronic fuel injection from Lucas appeared in the European version of the Triumph TR5 in 1967 and was also found in its successor, the TR6 , from 1968 onwards . Since the injection engines did not meet the US emissions regulations, there was a detoxified version for the overseas market with two Stromberg carburetors , which was significantly weaker. The carburettor engine was installed in the Triumph TR250 and the US version of the TR6. TVR adopted this version for the Vixen 2500.

The carburettor version in the Vixen 2500 (as in the TR6) delivers 106 bhp (79 kW) and is thus a third weaker than the injection version. The increase in performance compared to the Vixen S3 with the 1.6 liter Ford four-cylinder engine is only about 18 bhp (13 kW). The Tuscan V6 with the Ford Essex engine was significantly more powerful with 136 bhp (101 kW). Many American customers therefore converted the engine of the Vixen 2500 to injection. Instead of the four-speed gearbox from Ford that is common in the regular Vixen models, the Vixen 2500 has a manual Triumph gearbox which - unlike the Ford gearbox - is equipped with overdrive . The limited-slip differential also comes from Triumph.

Performance

The performance of the Vixen 2500 is well below that of the Tuscan V6; the Vixen was considered "not particularly fast". The top speed is 179 or 190 km / h, depending on the source, and the car took either 10.6 seconds or 9.0 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 96 km / h in contemporary tests. The Vixen 2500 is sometimes described as a “comfortable tourer for long distances”.

production

The Vixen 2500 was presented at the Earls Court Motor Show in London in the autumn of 1970 .

From 1970 to 1972 a total of around 385 copies of the car were made, the last 96 of them with the M-series chassis. TVR built eight cars in 1970, then 237 in 1971, and another 127 in 1972. In 1971 the Vixen 2500 was TVR's most successful single model. The smaller Vixen S3 was only manufactured 93 times this year.

Most of the cars were exported to the United States. Here the Vixen 2500 helped popularize the TVR brand again. TVR also offered the car as TVR 2500 (without the Vixen model name) in Great Britain. Here, too, there was only the exhaust-gas-cleaned engine version with 105 bhp (78 kW), but not the variant with gasoline injection.

In 1972 the model got the chassis and body of the M series and was marketed as the TVR 2500M .

literature

  • David Culshaw, Peter Horrobin: The Complete Catalog of British Cars 1895-1975. Veloce Publishing plc., Dorchester 1997, ISBN 1-874105-93-6 .
  • Ralph Dodds: TVR. Cars Of The Peter Wheeler Era , The Crowood Press, Ramsburg 2015, ISBN 978-1847979971
  • John Tipler: TVR , Sutton Publishing Ltd., Strout, 1998, ISBN 0-7509-1766-0
  • Matthew Vale: TVR 1946-1982. The Trevor Wilkinson and Martin Lilley Years , The Crowood Press, Ramsbury 2017, ISBN 978-1785003516

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mark Hughes: TVR Grantura, Griffith, Vixen & Tuscan . Classic & Sportscar, issue 1271989, p. 43.
  2. ↑ Rich Taylor: Modern Classics , Beekman House, 1988, ISBN 9780517660942 .
  3. ↑ a b c Ralph Dodds: TVR. Cars Of The Peter Wheeler Era , The Crowood Press, Ramsburg 2015, ISBN 978-1847979971S. 15th
  4. ↑ From 1967 to 1970 TVR built 58 Tuscan V8s in three different versions; only a few of them were sold in the UK.
  5. ^ History of the TVR Tuscan V6 on the website of the TVR Car Club Germany (accessed on April 26, 2019).
  6. ^ John Tipler: TVR , Sutton Publishing Ltd., Strout, 1998, ISBN 0-7509-1766-0 , p. 44.
  7. ^ A b Mark Hughes: TVR Grantura, Griffith, Vixen & Tuscan . Classic & Sportscar, issue 12/1989, p. 46.
  8. ^ A b Matthew Vale: TVR 1946−1982. The Trevor Wilkinson and Martin Lilley Years , The Crowood Press, Ramsbury 2017, ISBN 978-1785003516 , p. 104.
  9. ^ A b Matthew Vale: TVR 1946−1982. The Trevor Wilkinson and Martin Lilley Years , The Crowood Press, Ramsbury 2017, ISBN 978-1785003516 , p. 80.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f Matthew Vale: TVR 1946−1982. The Trevor Wilkinson and Martin Lilley Years , The Crowood Press, Ramsbury 2017, ISBN 978-1785003516 , p. 81.
  11. ^ A b John Tipler: TVR , Sutton Publishing Ltd., Strout, 1998, ISBN 0-7509-1766-0 , p. 48.
  12. ^ History of the TVR Vixen on the website of the TVR Car Club Germany (accessed on April 24, 2019).
  13. ↑ Description and images of the TVR Vixen 2500 on the website www.silodrome.com (accessed on April 24, 2019).
  14. ^ A b Matthew Vale: TVR 1946−1982. The Trevor Wilkinson and Martin Lilley Years , The Crowood Press, Ramsbury 2017, ISBN 978-1785003516 , p. 105.
  15. ^ John Tipler: TVR , Sutton Publishing Ltd., Strout, 1998, ISBN 0-7509-1766-0 , s. 15th