1998 | TVR Chimaera 5,0

TVR was an independent British manufacturer of sports cars and until 2006 was based in the seaside town of Blackpool. The company manufactured lightweight sports cars with powerful engines and was, at one stage, the third largest specialised sports car manufacturer in the world offering a diverse range of coupés and convertibles. TVR's are composed of tubular steel frames, cloaked in fibreglass bodywork. The two arms of the company were TVR Engineering, which manufactured sports cars, and TVR Power, their powertrain division. The company has regrettably had a turbulent recent history and has not made any new cars since 2006. In July 2012, owner Nikolay Smolensky announced that despite analysing various potential plans to create a new car, building a new TVR model was not going to be financially viable, despite promising to do so when buying the company, and thus TVR's existence as a car manufacturer was ended. The Chimaera was intended to be the long-distance tourer of the range and as such was longer, more spacious and had slightly softer suspension than its sister car.

This lovely example has covered 33,950 miles from new, and comes complete with air conditioning and has been very well looked after throughout its life. The first owner was TVR who used it as a demonstration car. In 2009 the body was removed and the outriggers on the chassis replaced. Finished in Halcyon Atlantis with Pibrock Spinnaker full leather interior, grey carpets and the lovely grey effect wooden dashboard with matching steering wheel. This TVR Chimaera is supplied with a V5 registration document, a fresh MoT test certificate and a file containing invoices including details of the £3,000 spent in the last two years by the vendor. There aren’t many cars that offer the amount of fun the Chimaera does, and this example with the five-litre engine, is no exception. Consigned by Dominic Lake