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TVR roadtrips: Parma and Piacenza’s castles

Alvise Marco Seno — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 06:00:00 +0000

This was to have been a report of the ORCA rally through Italy, Switzerland, France and Monaco but unfortunately that was another casualty of the Greek financial crisis. In the end there were only 6 entrants and the organisers decided to cancel. We had been looking forward to the event for some time, so we decided to arrange our own trip. To comply with my insurance policy and Greek licensing regulations I needed to be using the car for a classic rally or old car shows. A few emails to friends resulted in an invitation to join the Italian TVR club on an informal weekend run in the area around Parma. After a few days on the computer we had booked ferries and hotels and worked out a tour for the weeks either side of the event. Valerio, the President of the TVR club issued me with a very impressive entrant’s registration certificate to take to my insurers who didn’t even query why I needed a Green Card for a fortnight to get to a two day event.
Tuesday 22nd June we drove from Athens to Patras and caught the ferry to Ancona. We arrived in Italy at about 3:00 pm on the Wednesday and drove straight to our first hotel at Campestri in the heart of Tuscany. The hotel was a lovely old villa set in many acres of well cared for olive orchards. Although we were only 10 miles or so from Florence we decided to spend the next few days touring the beautiful countryside. Neither of us had been to Tuscany before and we were surprised to discover how mountainous the “green hills of Tuscany” are.
On the afternoon of Friday 25th June we drove to Salsomaggiorore Terme near Parma in Piacenza. Our hotel there turned out to be another lovely old building on a hillside on the outskirts of the town. Salsomaggiore is situated in a valley with natural salt deposits and has been the site of many battles for possession of that once valuable commodity. More recently the therapeutic properties of some of the natural sulphuric springs have been exploited and the town possesses several very fine spa buildings in the Italian “Liberty” style of the turn of the 20th century. Many of the castles that surround this area, which we were to see during the Italian TVR club run, were built to defend the salt rights of the noble families.

The club run started at midday at a village called Varano de Melagari on the Saturday, near the famous Varano race circuit. We met in the car park of Dallara Automobilla, the manufacturer of the Formula 3 chassis that have dominated the class for as long as I can remember. We had hoped for a brief tour but some important development work resulted in our factory visit being cancelled. The Italians are very adaptable, so we all went for a 3 hour lunch instead!

The Saturday afternoon run took us on a 90 mile tour of the very mountainous countryside of Piacenza to the small town of Nibbiano where Valerio had reserved rooms for us in a hotel. For the run we were just 3 cars. Valerio in his brown and cream TVR 3000M, Maxim and his partner Jessica in a magnificent TVR T350 and Elly and I in our TVR 3000M. The T350 with its full race, TVR designed, 3.6 litre, 350 bhp straight 6 engine is one of the most magnificent sounding road cars I have ever heard. Every time it accelerated away from me I felt as if I was at Castle Combe race circuit. That particular car was painted in the most amazing metallic “flip” paint that changed colour depending where the sun was. At first I thought it was black, then dark green. Later as the sun moved again it changed to a deep burgundy red. TVR seem to have pioneered this type of paint which has only recently started appearing on other makes. I have heard a story that it resulted from customer complaints with the early metallic TVRs, that one side of a car was thought to be a different shade from the other. TVR obviously made a spray “fault” into a feature.
The two old TVRs kept up well and seemed to negotiate the tight bends with the same surefootedness as the modern TVR, although I suspect Maxim rarely used the full potential of his car.

Our hotel that night had a good restaurant and we all enjoyed typically good Parma wines and regional cuisine that evening. Valerio invited me to join the Italian TVR Club, which he believes, despite being one of the smallest TVR clubs, has the highest national membership coverage of TVR cars. Some 12 members own 80% of all the TVRs in Italy. With me now a member, they can probably boast 100% of all the Greek TVRs as well. We had a most enjoyable evening exchanging jokes and anecdotes. It always amazes me what nice people car club members always are and our new Italian friends were no exception.

On Sunday 27th we were joined by Marco and Marco, two young men who had been friends since childhood, driving a Griffith 500. Elly fell in love with the car! Well who wouldn’t? 3.5 litres of V8 power in a timelessly simple no frills classic sports car. (Oh well, I admit it was the colour and trim she was looking at) The Sunday run was a bit more relaxing than the day before with a leisurely drive through the Piacenza country lanes. Our first stop was Castello di Agazzano, which is actually two buildings, a fortified castle known as The Rock of Agazzano dating from 1475 and a Renaisance palace, which is built on the foundations of the original castle which was founded in the late 1200s . It has been the home of the Scotti family since the 12th century despite many family feuds and battles over the years. The palace can only be seen from outside the gates as the family still live there. However we were treated to some lovely piano playing emanating from one of the rooms near the walls. Our second stop was at Castello di Rivalta near Trebbia. That castle is really a medieval fortified village and a 14th century palace built within the castle walls. We were allowed to park inside and spent a few hours exploring the shops and buildings. Our cars seemed to attract a lot of interest and Valerio suggested that next time, if we charged 25 cents for taking photographs, we would easily collect enough for our next meal.

From Castello di Rivalta we drove to the vineyard of La Tosa for “lunch”. The modern La Tosa vineyard was founded on the site of a much earlier vineyard in the 1980s. The brothers who own it have replanted most of the stock and established their wines in the top league of the area. They also run a gourmet restaurant in the middle of the vineyards which showcased their wines with typical dishes of the Piacenza and Parma area. Valerio had ordered dishes of the day in advance. We started with a plate of meats that is typical of that central Italy. But, being near Parma, they were of a quality I have not tasted before. It amazes me how many flavours cured pork can have – especially in the Parma district. The antipasta was followed by no less than three pasta courses. All were delightfully light and creamy and each flavoured with a different vegetable. (We must get ourselves a pasta maker so we can have fresh pasta at home – I feel hungry writing this!). The meat course was a simple slice of tender beef in a light sauce. And then pudding! Again a delightful light creamy confection with the vineyard’s own sweet desert wine

Well fed, we were then invited to tour the wine museum. They had a very interesting collection of old wine making and vine growing machinery, as well as early papers on wine making techniques from the original vineyard, which were explained to us by the curator. I learned a little about how Italy recovered from phylloxera. It seems they imported an American vine called the Clinton which had not been affected and showed a degree of immunity. Wisely, the Italian authorities then banned its use for wine making, so the vintners were forced to graft their traditional grapes on the new root stock. The result is the fabulous Italian wines produced today.
Well fed, entertained and educated we parted company and Elly and I drove the short distance to Cremona for an overnight stop on route to Lake Garda.
Valerio had warned us that Cremona is not a town to dwell in. He told us it used to be nice until his family moved there about 200 years ago, but has gone down hill ever since! So next morning we made an early start and drove to Salo on Lake Garda. Again our internet hotel selection was perfect. We found our hotel after driving through the town’s one way ring road system several times and eventually parking the car and exploring on foot. It was right by the lakeside in a pedestrian only area. Car access for bringing our bags was explained to us. A large post at the end of the pedestrian area was retracted into the road by the hotel staff when we pressed a button. The hotel was a lovely period building in the very picturesque old part of the town and our room had a balcony opening out onto a fine view of the lake. We spent the rest of the day exploring the quant little town of Salo on foot.

Tuesday 28th we set of for Predazzo in the Dolomites, our final destination. Predazzo is a small Alpine town at the end of Val di Fiemme. It can really be considered as the gateway to the Dolamites as beyond the mountains rise steeply and the towns become more ski resorts. Again the internet had provided us with a splendid hotel in the middle of town, with a huge underground garage.
I wondered how and why they built an underground garage in such a mountainous area. Later, when I discovered something of the origins of the Dolamites it became clear. The actual mountains, apparently, are the remains of islands that must have looked more like the Greek islands some 260 million years ago. They have been squeezed upwards due to the movement of the tectonic plates until they finished up 10,000 feet above the sea today. The deep fertile Alpine valleys we see today were in fact deeper ravines filled to a depth of up to 3000 feet with the detritus of ancient seas. Thus digging an underground garage is not as difficult as I thought and might even have revealed remains of prehistoric marine life.

The whole of the Dolomite mountain area is fascinating. Each town and village has its own culture and language. The main languages of the area are Italian, German and Ladin, the old mountain language. In the area we had been driving even Ladin divided into Cazét in the northern villages and Brach in the southern. It was no wonder my limited Italian wasn’t understood some times. The food was also very varied. To me it seemed to be Germanic influence in some towns, with lots of dumplings and roast joints of meat, and Italian in others with finer cuts of ham and pastas. Many dishes on the menues were completely new to me and I’m sure reflected very local cuisine. Even the wines (yes they do grow grapes that high!) were a different style in each village we stopped at. Since the Great War the whole area has been under the control of the Italian city provinces of Trento, Bolzano, Brenta and Venice and those districts have no doubt diluted the older traditions of the Ladin mountain culture – not to mention the thousands of tourists who now visit from all over the world.
Our first excursion was to circle the famous Sella massifs. They are probably the most photographed of all the Dolamites but my reason was what I saw on the map. There were roads crossing the Passo di Sella (7362 ft); the Passo di Gardena (7008 ft); Passo di Campolongo (6152 ft) and Passo Pordoi (7411 ft) that took me right around the central peaks which rise on up to 10341 ft. From the map it looked even more exciting than the Stelvio pass and I wasn’t disappointed. The roads rise in a series of tight hairpin bends to long fast straights across the passes before descending into the next deep ravines. The route is probably no more than 50 miles but felt more. The views of course were breathtaking with the massive Sassolungo peak to the west, and Marmolada to the south. For a day I fanaticised that I was Donald Healey or Sammy Davis on one of those early Alpine rallies. Elly no doubt was Kay Petre, struggling with the maps as we rounded the hairpins at speed with rear tyres screeching and throwing up clouds of grit.

Our next excursion was to Marmolada itself, the highest peak at 10968 ft. Another mountain road took us to the lake that takes the outflow of the Marmolada glacier. Standing in the Italian sun in the high 20s whilst seeing that ice cold water coming down from the glacier can’t be captured in the photos we took.
For our last day we took a more relaxing drive around the lush valleys of the south side of Marmolada where Elly was amazed at the number and variety of Alpine flowers she found.
On Saturday 3rd July we set of for the gentle run down to Venice and the ferry home, arriving back in Athens early on the Monday.
We had travelled some 2.987 miles for our weekend run with the TVR Car Club of Italy. 1710 miles of which were on some of the most exciting roads I know – for the remaining 1277 mile the old TVR was safely in the hold of the good ship Icarus whilst we wined and dined and watched sunsets over the Ionian Sea.

Words: Klifford Knights

Related articles: From UK to Greece in a Classic car.

TVR 3000M Spider with Ford V8 302

Alvise Marco Seno — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 06:00:00 +0000

Mr. Mike Budde of Milwaukee, WI, owns a 1979 TVR 3000M. He was clearly caught by an irresistible desire: be the only one in the world to own a TVR 3000M Roadster. So the British coupé was converted into a convertible model. Further he replaced the original Ford Capri 3.0 litre V6 engine (138 hp) with a brutal Ford V8 Type 302.

So suddenly the TVR Chimaera could have her predecessor.

Source: BritishV8.org

TVR 3000M: UK to Greece in a Classic Car Again

Alvise Marco Seno — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:00:00 +0000

This time it was in a “modern” 1977 TVR. Well it’s modern compared to the ’39 MG TA that I drove over last time! In Greece it is prohibitively expensive to import cars, especially the sort of cars I like. However, providing I don’t need to use the car as an everyday car, I can import as a “Historic Car” with minimal cost. To comply with the rules it must be at least 30 years old, FIVA certified, and usage is limited to testing, old car events or rallies (or fights between old cars as it says on the translated form). The last trip to Bulgaria in the old TA convinced me that if I am to continue with the Greek rallies I would need a car that would be more suitable for long distances so I started looking at a British fun car from the 1970s.

I found the TVR 3000M via a few emails to some enthusiasts I knew. The car had been completely rebuilt mechanically by a leading specialist and sounded just what I wanted. I flew over in June to buy it.

Elly and I landed at Stansted and took a bus to Norwich. where I had arranged to phone the vendor who was to take me to the car. When I tried to phone, I got a wrong number message. Fortunately I remembered he had said he worked in insurance so on the off chance I wandered into the old Norwich Union building. I struck lucky and the receptionist managed to find him – apparently the number I had been given was one digit out.

The car was as described and after a little negotiation I handed over a wadge of notes and took the keys. We loaded our bags over the seats. TVRs of that age have no boots so everything goes in over the seats onto the enormous parcel shelf under that huge back window. We drove it to a hotel near Norwich for the first night.

We then spent a few days sightseeing in England, including the June run with FoDHVC, before driving to Newhaven for the ferry to Dieppe.

We took the night crossing which arrived at Dieppe in the small hours. It was then a lovely quiet run across France to Munster where we spent 2 days exploring the Parc des Baloons. The TVR is certainly a great car for long distance European driving. The straight roads of that part of France gave me a good chance to really get used to the car. Unfortunately the heater turned out to be permanently on as the hose that is supposed to bypass the heater matrix was actually plumbed in to bypass the heater valve. Fortunately we were able to get some cool air in via the Webasto roof. The owner of the hotel at Munster offered me the use of his garage so I was able to fix the plumbing error. Whilst the bonnet was up I noticed that the spare was flat. That too was fixed at a local garage but I was a bit miffed that the vendor had not forewarned me, knowing I had an 1800 mile trip ahead of me.

From Munster we drove to Switzerland where I made the mistake of taking the motorways past Zurich. We succeeded in getting lost twice and entering Germany, which cost me a €40 permit to use their motorways just to get out again – on top of the €30 I had already paid to use the Swiss motorways. Last time, in the old MG, I took to the national roads but I thought because the TVR was that much faster it would be quicker to use the motorways. Unfortunately it is a real spaghetti maze in that area and none of the signs tell you which direction is North or South. Needless to say we took the wrong direction several times. If I ever do the run again I’ll stick to the old roads.

Once we started to climb into the Alps the TVR came into its own. Last time I did the run in the old MG it was snowy and wet. This time was a true Alpine spring with flowers everywhere, warm sunshine and clear skies. The TVR romped up the passes and gripped the road like a train as we slid around the hairpin bends. The seats in the TVR hold you very well and being so low and far back you really feel that the rear axles are attached to your hips – like a bike but with 4 wheels. The weight distribution is just about even between front and rear wheels. This gives a neutral feel to the steering with no oversteer, which combined with the very good suspension results in a car that can safely be driven quite fast around the mountain bends. Our route was over the Fluelapass to Zernez.

At the little town of Davos I couldn’t find the road to the pass so I asked a local and got the strange response: “does your car take deep breaths?” Once I had assured him it did he showed me to a little narrow un-signposted lane. Had my car not been able to take deep breaths it transpired I could have put it on a train to take me under the mountain. The pass is quite something, climbing to 7745ft on a series of narrow hairpin bends. Elly tells me that it is above the height that aircraft have to use oxygen. The views at the top were fantastic but I did feel light headed when I got out of the car. I was pleased to note that the TVR showed no signs of overheating despite temperatures in the high 20s. The gearbox was a dream with the ratios just right for the terrain, although the overdrive 5th gear wasn’t needed often. Needless to say the 3000cc of Ford V6 engine helped. It is hard to imagine now how my old MG coped with its little 1250cc engine. Zernez turned out to be a very pretty Alpine village in a valley with mountains all around. We found a really nice family run traditional hotel called Bear and Post where we spent the night.

Next day we crossed the border into Italy where we were welcomed with the usual smiles and cheers from the customs officers. Italians seem to love sports cars – even British ones. Our route took us to the north of the famous Stelvio Pass and down to Predazzo. We passed many fine classic sports cars travelling the other way on that route. Yes it was the Stelvio Classic Rally. I was tempted to turn around and follow them but I stuck to our planned route to our next stop at Predazo. Perhaps next time I’ll have a go at the Stelvio Pass. We found a nice hotel at Predazo, and a particularly fine restaurant for dinner.

For the next leg I had selected a route slightly further north than the one I used for my last trip. This route was to take me through the Dolamites.

I don’t know how to put the experience of the Dolamites into words. The massive vertical peaks dominated the skyline for mile after mile as we negotiated the hairpin bends and passes. Without a doubt the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen and even more spectacular from the driving seat of a proper car. We were both so impressed that we are now trying to find some Italian Classic car events in the same area for next year.

It was with some regret that we left the Dolomites for the run down to Venice and the ferry to Greece. It was Sunday when we arrived at Maestre near Venice but when I phoned to book the ferry I couldn’t get any response from the office. Next morning we drove over to the port and discovered that we could only purchase deck tickets – no cabins were available. Also there were no cabins on subsequent sailings that week. Somewhat disappointed we took the tickets and drove the car onto the boat. We went straight to the purser and asked if there was a chance of a cabin – we certainly didn’t want 36 hours on deck. He added our names to a 4 page list and told us to wait until the boat sailed. As names were being called on the tannoy, Elly decided to go again to the purser and see what was happening. After what seemed an eternity she came back with a grin from ear to ear. I don’t know how she did it but she managed to get us a cabin. Fluent Greek must have helped – plus a little feminine charm. It was just as well as the boat was full of backpackers and young families. On deck was a padded room especially for kids to scream in and even a pool where desperate parents could drown noisy children. We arrived at Patra in Greece at about 10am after two nights on the boat and drove to Athens where Elly lives.

I got back to Skopelos a few days later and was called out of the car queue by a harbour policeman as I drove of the boat. What sort of car was it? How many horses did it have? Had I driven all the way from England? Could I bring it back to the harbour tomorrow so that the harbour master could see it? They had never seen a TVR before on Skopelos. I should get the VIP treatment from now on.

I did a little over 1800 miles of driving over 15 days, which included several sightseeing diversions, about 40 hours on ferries and thee days in Athens. We checked the fuel consumption a couple of times and we were getting around 32mpg. Most of the driving was below 60 mph apart from motorways. The old Ford Essex V6 produces massive torque so for most of the journey the rev counter rarely went above 2000 revs, which I am sure helped the fuel consumption. With that large engine and the car weighing under a ton, I barely needed to open the gas tap, even when climbing quite steep inclines. The only other expense was 3 pints of engine oil. In fact the journey back cost us less than the flight over – unless you include all the hotels, dinners, wine, souvenirs, ferry tickets etc.

I can’t wait for an excuse to do it all again.

Words: Clifford Knight

value added: built by hand?

Alvise Marco Seno — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Take a look at this TVR adverstising: it’s quite impossible to find such a scenery at present. Different brand cars share frames, components and engines to maximize economies of scale. The result is that many car are very similar to eachother so this takes to popularize a product. But there are other problems: technologies runs very fast. And brands need to sell as many cars as they can to gain money to be on the run.

Another result: nowadays cars are willing to loose their value in a very short time. Even supercars are perceived as “used” cars rather than special ones even after some years. Now you can have a Porsche 996 Turbo (420 hp, 4wd, 305 km/h) for 45.000 euros. Official dealers have a lot of trouble in selling used F430s of who purchased a 458. And so on…

You cannot consider a Lamborghini a crazy car anymore. The Countach was fantastic: very fast, wonderful thanks to Bertone, extremely questionable as concerned the assembly level, with a crazy side mirror (only a half went down)… Wat we have now? An Audi engine into a 4wd supercar.

TVR has always thought about a very special way of building its cars: by hand! And we think that’s a special value added for who’s looking for a very special car. You can say with any doubt that a TVR is crazy: its design doesn’t look like any other, it’s equipped with a race engine (we speak about Y2K TVRs), it hasn’t anything to guarantee some kind of safety, the door handle is a button under the side mirror…