THE WAY WE WERE
SEPTEMBER 1978
It’s a big day for TVR owners as a new club rally revs up for the first time – but there are plenty of other classics gate-crashing the celebrations, too
NOT-SO-FULL THROTTLE
3000M sponsored by The Observer was used on this autotest course laid out across the hotel’s car park. Its throttle limiter became less effective as the day went on!
SIZE MATTERS
Initial advertising for the Escort MkI highlighted how it was more substantial than the outgoing Anglia, not to mention many of its BLMC rivals.
ALL IN A NAME
The Taimar hatchback was named not after the river in the West Country but one of Martin Lilley’s friend’s girlfriends, who was called Tayma.
THE PRICE ISN’T RIGHT
Period road-testers pointed out that the Rapier cost £22 more than an Opel Manta, despite the price of the GM rival including import duty.
SUPPORT ACT
This wasn’t the only Ford Transit making an appearance at the event – TVR brought along its own MkII as a support vehicle.
Big congratulations to former TVR chief, Martin Lilley, who’s just picked up the Lifetime Achievement gong at this year’s National Car Club Awards (full report, page 10). The former racer and kit car assembler was a notable presence throughout TVR’s 75th anniversary celebrations last year and has been backing club events for decades, as this late Seventies shot from Lancashire shows.
This is the one of the highlights of the club’s TVR Extravaganza event in September 1978, hailed at the time as the ‘most successful TVR happening ever’; the club actually had to turn some owners away because it was so over-subscribed and book hotels in Fleetwood rather than Blackpool in order to accommodate all of the owners in attendance.
The event was the first of a series of five, which saw more than 100 cars from across the UK descend on the firm’s base on Bristol Avenue in Blackpool where factory tours took place. The cars then travelled in convoy through the Blackpool suburbs, along the M55 and then onto the M6 and eastbound to the Trafalgar hotel, located between Preston and Blackburn.
TVR owners then competed in an autotest in a 3000M in ‘Young Driver of the Year’ livery, a contest sponsored by The Observer to encourage higher driving standards in youngsters. Then-TVR boss Lilley was on board throughout the event, including presenting the prizes for the autotest and for a concours d’elegance arranged for c
