The TVR Griffith Series 400 is a 2-door

coupe A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...

sports car produced by Griffith Motor Company in Plainview, New York (a Ford Dealer in Plainview/Hicksville NY, Long Island), between 1964 and 1967. It was the successor to the

TVR Griffith 200 The TVR Griffith 200 (or Griffith Series 200) was a lightweight fibreglass-body sports car. In the United States, the make was Griffith and the model was Griffith Series 200, whilst the United Kingdom the make was TVR and the model was Griffit ...

, featuring improved cooling via a larger radiator with twin electric fans, redesigned rear suspension, and a redesigned rear with better visibility and the round taillights sourced from the

Ford Cortina The Ford Cortina is a medium-sized family car that was built initially by Ford of Britain, and then Ford of Europe in various guises from 1962 to 1982, and was the United Kingdom's best-selling car of the 1970s. The Cortina was produced in fi ...

Mark I. The standard engine in the 400 was the more powerful Ford 289 'HiPo' Windsor engine producing 271 hp that was available in the Series 200 as an option. The 400 weighed a few more pounds than the 200 due mostly to the new Salisbury independent differential with a higher gear ratio giving it a higher top speed. Grantura Ltd of England designed the independent suspension for the TVR automobiles which later became the Griffith 200 and 400. The Griffith 400 had then state-of-the-art unequal

wishbone suspension A double wishbone suspension is an independent suspension design for automobiles using two (occasionally parallel) wishbone-shaped arms to locate the wheel. Each wishbone or arm has two mounting points to the chassis and one joint at the knuckl ...

on all four corners and the car weighed significantly less than its contemporary, the

AC Cobra The AC Cobra, sold in the United States as the Shelby Cobra and AC Shelby Cobra, is a sports car manufactured by British company AC Cars, with a Ford V8 engine. It was produced intermittently in both the United Kingdom and later the United ...

, making it a very potent racing car. As the Series 400 cars were being produced in early 1965, the entire east coast of the US was crippled by a prolonged dock strike. This not only caused a disruption in the supply of the series 400 bodies that were being shipped from TVR in

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

, UK, it also caused a delay in the shipment of the newer Series 600. Frank Reisner, whose

Intermeccanica Intermeccanica (formally Construzione Automobili Intermeccanica) is an automobile manufacturer, founded in Torino, Italy, in 1959 by Frank Reisner. It subsequently moved first to the United States, then to Canada, and is currently headed by F ...

body works in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, Italy, was building the new steel bodied Griffith, was also unable to have the rolling chassises shipped. Jack Griffith attempted to bring his car to the public by having these bodies airlifted across the Atlantic, before the venture collapsed. The remaining Intermeccanica cars were imported to the US by Steve Wilder, where they were assembled by

Holman-Moody Holman-Moody is an American racecar manufacturer, marine engine manufacturer and former auto racing team. The company currently operates out of Charlotte, North Carolina, but is no longer a race team. Holman-Moody continues to manufacture racing ...

and sold as the Omega. With only 59 copies of the 400 and 10 600s off the assembly line at the Griffith factory in Plainview, Long Island, N.Y, USA, the company was dissolved.

Specifications

* Engine capacity: 4,722cc/289 cid V8 * Power: * Top speed: Approximately * Transmission: 4-speed manual gearbox, rear-wheel drive {{TVR Griffith 400 Cars introduced in 1964