TVR Gone; Russian Owner Bends To The Winds Of Change

Russian billionaire Nikolai Smolensky has decided the car business is no longer suited to TVR, the niche British carmaker he purchased in 2004.

TVR stopped production of its wild sportscar line in 2006 and went into hibernation, resurfacing later to give fans hope with news that new models were on the way.

Earlier this year, the company's logo was reworked, its website was relaunched, and a return to the road looked to be on the cards. Then it all went quiet again.

In a recent interview with Britain's Autocar, however, Smolensky said that the company, now based in Austria, had built three evaluation cars: a Tuscan with the LS3, a Cerbera with a twin-turbo BMW V8 diesel, and a GT350 with a 100kW electric motor.

Smolensky said that the purchase price of each would be too high, with a base price of around A$160,000-$300,000 in Europe making the business unviable.

So instead of making cars, Smolensky said that the company is going into portable wind turbines. He says he has no plans to sell the name, but is open to offers.

As with this week's report on De Tomaso, this looks to be the end of the line for a carmaker that has provided drivers with some enormously potent cars over the years.