British Performance brand TVR made its return to the automotive market only last year with the Griffith sports car, and now the manufacturer has announced that it will be returning to motorsport as well with the 2018/2019 World Endurance Championship. TVR returns to Le Mans after 13 years and has joined Swiss team Rebellion Racing as a partner and title sponsor. The team has been branded as Rebelling Racing TVR and will compete in the premier LMP1 class with the Oreca R13 prototype race car.
Speaking about the return of TVR to Le Mans, Les Edgar, Chairman - TVR said, "Endurance racing is a key part of TVR's DNA, and our role as the primary automotive partner of Rebellion Racing TVR gives us a great opportunity to return to the sport for the first time in 13 years. It also allows TVR to work with a competitive racing team and apply the output to the development and production of not only TVR road cars, but also our future one-make series and track cars. In this respect, the opportunity to work alongside Gibson, ORECA and Motul is fantastic."
(The TVR Oreca R13 is powered by a Gibson 4.5-litre V8 engine)
Founded in 1947 by Trevor Wilkinson, TVR was known for building light and powerful vehicles. The brand was also the third largest manufacturer of performance sports cars for some time in its hay days. After sales started dwindling in the past decade, TVR decided to pull the plug on its operations for a bried period, and after a period of five years, the manufacturer made a return to the market with the Griffith sports car in September, 2017, at the Goodwood Revival in England. The new TVR Griffith is equipped with a Cosworth enhanced V8 Ford engine, and the car is expected to deliver an output of 400 bhp/tonne.
TVR's first three models - 1, 2 and 3 - were all racing cars, and the company first competed at Le Mans with the Grantura in 1962. The company was also known for its super successful one-make championships in the UK. TVR's last participation at Le Mans were in 2003, 2004 and 2005 with a T400R in the GT2 category. While TVR returns to the WEC as a title sponsor, it did say that learnings from the collaboration will flow directly into the development of future road and race cars.
(The 2018/19 WEC Super Series will start on May 5 with 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps)
The Rebellion TVR Racing's Oreca R13 prototype race car is powered by a Gibson 4.5-litre V8 engine. The team's two LMP1 cars will be driven by Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani and Bruno Senna, while Thomas Laurent, Matthias Beche and Gustavo Menezes will be in the second car.
This year's FIA World Endurance Championship is a 'super series' and spans between 2018 and 2019. The championship will begin with the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on May 5, 2018.
