Topic: Solved: NEH 15 - TVR Trident by Fissore at the Turin Auto Salon 1965

[Carnut]

1 point for identifying the car and builder; 1 point for saying when and where this picture was taken; and another 1 point for saying what is the link with another puzzle on another board!

[Carnut]

Go on then, Experts.  Tell us!

[75america]

I will try to score a hat-trick here.

TVR Trident by Fissore.
This might be the Palazzo Esposizioni al Valentino where the Salone dell’automobile in Turin took place and I guess that it must have been the 1965 edition that took place in the period 3-14 November of that year.
I do not know to what other puzzle you refer, but my guess is A#270, the Lea Francis Francesa Spyder which is also designed by Trevor Fiore.

[Carnut]

That's 3 points for you!
Right on all 3 scores.  Fiore designed the Lea-Francis Francesa featured in Arunas's A270 (I always knew it as the Francesca but Fiore spelt it Francesa, whether by mistake or deliberately I don't know!) in 1962 and used basically the same shape but with rather more sensible exhaust system in 1964/5 for his TVR Trident.

And the car is shown on display at the Turin Salon in November 1965, on the Fissore stand, although it had been launched at Geneva in March of that year.  By November TVR had gone bankrupt but there were 2 final prototypes left over, this one and the only convertible (displayed at the Goodwood Festival Speed in the Cartier Style et Luxe this year) so Fissore showed it on their stand before both cars were shipped out to the new owners of TVR as compensation for having sold the designs to a third party, Bill Last, for whom they also made 2 more prototypes for him to make his 'Trident' marque.  Martin Lilley drove the convertible around for a few years but the coupe sat around gathering dust until I acquired it in 1986.  Martin Lilley actually informed me only 3 months ago that this Coupe was in fact sold to an employee and driven around for some time, but when I acquired it the car had only 00001 miles on the odometer so not sure if that fact is correct...

Well done!

[Carnut]

That's 3 points for you!
Right on all 3 scores.  Fiore designed the Lea-Francis Francesa featured in Arunas's A270 (I always knew it as the Francesca but Fiore spelt it Francesa, whether by mistake or deliberately I don't know!)

Trevor Fioré says 'Francesa' it's a spelling mistake on his sketch..
He meant to write 'Francesca'!

[Wendax]

I saw your car on the Zwischengas marketplace today!

[Carnut]

Indeed!
The glassfibre Trident cars (Venturers and Clippers) have mostly gone to Germany now so there seems to be an appreciation of the style there. It needs a buyer who falls in love with the car's looks.
It's been on the market for a while now and was at the new Salon Prive de Vente at the Chelsea Royal Hospital at the end of April, but despite a lot of interest and positive comments about the car it's still for sale.
It's a bit of a mystery to me why; it's beautiful, super-rare, Turin Show car, in concours condition, has the same drivetrain as an early Cobra, has only had one owner who has ever driven it and who has driven all 13,000 miles that it's covered since new in 1965.
When I see a pile of rusty bits which belonged to an AC Ace but with no chassis or suspension go at auction for £202,500 it's bizarre that no-one has snapped up such a fabulous car as mine for only just over half that price.
I really don't know who people want!

[Wendax]

It is a funny thing that the Cobra is considered to have turned from a sports car to a supercar by implanting an American V8, while almost all other European-American hybrids are considered to be second choice, because they "only" have an American V8 as an engine.

[Carnut]

Yes, you're certainly right when it's an Italian car (although Iso Grifos still command big money), in which an American engine is looked down upon, but for other European hybrids (e.g. Jensen Interceptor, Gordon-Keeble, TVR Griffith/Tuscan as well as AC Cobra) it's acceptable and even a Good Thing, as there were so very few British V8s in those days and when a company did try to produce their own high performance engine they were generally a disaster!