The Yellow 1965, TVR Griffith, of Charles Allison and Peter Thompson, in the International Pit Lane, during the 2022 Silverstone Classic.
1964 - The story of the Griffith is now stuff of legend. Supposedly, or so the story goes, North American racing driver and TVR USA importer Gerry Sagerman was having his personal race car, a MkIII Grantura, fettled in the workshop run by Jack Griffith at the same time as former TVR racer Mark Donohue was having his AC Cobra serviced there. Allegedly, Griffith’s mechanics swapped the engines “because they could” and although the transplant didn’t quite work, Griffith liked the idea. With a lot of help from Blackpool particularly David Hives who redesigned the chassis so the V8 engine would fit, they made it work with a fully engineered version. The original Griffith was born. The Griffiths were built in two variants, the earlier Griffith 200 with the Mk III Grantura rear end and the later Griffith 400 with the 1800S based “Manx” tail. The cars were shipped, minus engine and gearbox, to Jack Griffith's factory in Syosset New York where the cars were finish assembled. A Griffith Motors chassis number was given to all cars. In January 1965 the Griffith was launched in the UK at the Racing Car Show at Olympia in London. Although this was a 400 Manx tail shape car it was called a TVR Griffith 200. The UK cars were given a GB chassis number and were sold in Europe, Canada, Australia and of course the UK. A dock strike on the east coast of the USA in January 1965 cut off the supply of cars to Jack Griffith and this resulted in the eventual collapse of both companies.
Size: 5616px × 3744px
Location: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 200, 289, 1965, 2022, 4700cc, allison, car., cars, charles, classic, classic., fibreglass-body, ford, griffith, gtr, international, lane, legendary, lightweight, marshals, peter, pit, racing, series, silverstone, sports, thompson, trophy, tvr, v8, yellow
