Griff Growl 2008 – TVR Club Sports Car Event

The TVR Car Club Griff Growl is the annual meeting for owners of the TVR Griffith sports cars, traditionally held at Ettington Chase near to Stratford Upon Avon in Warwickshire. This is one of the events that Ride Drive regularly attend to support and this page carried details of the 2008 meeting.

A Gathering of TVR Griffith’s at an Annual TVR Car Club Event

Ettington Chase is a country hotel and spa set in 11–acres of landscaped grounds and takes its name from the adjacent Warwickshire village of Ettington. The region lies just outside one of the most famous of all English towns – Stratford–upon–Avon; William Shakespeare country.

The hotel has now become the recognised home of the Griff Growl, the annual TVR Griffith owner’s rally, and in 2008 it played host to the 5th edition of the event, which took place on 9th and 10th August.

TVR owners, as usual, were well looked after and the hotel staff were on hand to make sure every guest had the most comfortable weekend possible.

Bad Weather was Having an Effect on Numbers

It has to be said the 2008 TVR Griff Growl was not blessed with the best of weather. In fact, it is fair to say that weather–wise it was something of a washout, if not a blow away. Isn’t that just how our Great British summer had been this year? There is nothing like fine weather to make an outdoor gathering of sports cars go well, and unfortunately that was missing from this one.

The weather obviously had an impact on attendance, as 127 TVR Griffith’s turned up, compared to 153 for the previous year. In addition to this number of TVR Griffith’s there were 42 other TVR sports car models.

There are some TVR owners, it appears, who are made of stern stuff you know, and those who did come along were not going to be deterred that easily from enjoying themselves.

TVR Sports Cars From Overseas

There were in fact some owners from overseas, having driven their Griffiths from France, Holland and even one from Norway. There was a regular annual attendee from Australia, and also this year there was one who came from New Zealand!

The Friday night kicked off with some 40 members bussing it to Stratford on Avon for the usual pre–Growl curry night. Not having to worry about driving back, as one can imagine, much merriment was had by all. This is a good TVR owner’s bonding session and is a great way to start off the club event.

A Wet and Windy Saturday Morning

Saturday morning brought dull, heavy and dismal skies, which later developed into torrential rain and quite a strong wind. From the point of view of trying to display ones wares from within a lightweight gazebo in such conditions is a nightmare.

Gazebo’s are not meant for blustery days and if not tethered well can take off with a mind of their own very easily. Despite the weather some traders reported good sales, obviously to the hardier attendees who were not afraid to break cover from places of shelter.

One trader reported sales in excess of those experienced for the whole of the 60th Anniversary celebration event weekend held at Rockingham earlier in the year.

The Crazy Horse’s racing rolling road was operating over both days, and our Bob Young’s TVR Griffith 500 was recorded as being the most powerful for a car in original form, producing 276.9bhp at the flywheel.

The Most Powerful TVR Griffith Came from Norway

However, the most powerful TVR Griffith overall this year was the Norwegian car, recording 404bhp. However, the engine had been changed for a Chrysler LS1 block.

A locally based Fireman, who owns a restored tender from the 1940’s, kindly brought this along on the Saturday to display, which added further interest. On Sunday morning a fire crew from Stratford Upon Avon came over in their slightly newer appliance – well a lot newer actually.

For the 2008 TVR Griff Growl, Ride Drive planned something rather different. This was as a change from the more usual manning of a stand and trying to engage car owners in conversation about ways in which they could get more out of their TVR sports cars on the road by driving them more effectively.

We first had the idea of doing free sample advanced driving sessions at ROAR 08, the TVR Chimaera event that took place on the Cheshire⁄Derbyshire borders in June this same year. There, the idea had proved to go down a treat.

Free Advanced Driving Sessions for TVR Sports Car Owners

At the ROAR event we offered, totally free of charge, any TVR owner a free advanced driving session over a pre–planned route whilst one of the team provided some constructive coaching from the passenger seat. The runs lasted about 20–minutes and were extremely popular.

It was as a result of the enthusiasm for the advanced driving sessions at ROAR that we decide to repeat the process, but this time with a bit of a twist.

This time, some TVR sports car owners were going to be able to do their drives whilst being filmed from a video equipped motorcycle, ridden by one of the Ride Drive team.

The motorcycle was decked out with video and sound recording equipment, with the voice of the Ride Drive coach within the subject TVR being transmitted onto the footage. Prior to the event, several website forums had been fairly buzzing with excitement over what we were proposing to do and booking requests were coming in well in advance of the event.

However, when it came to it, the weather was so miserable and damp that the video equipment kept steaming and making a solid attempt to put the mockers on the whole thing. Disappointingly enough, we got only three runs recorded over the whole weekend that were anything like watchable, which was a shame.

We learned a lot from the weekend and perhaps when we do the circuit of events next year, we will be on–song to have a lot more success (weather permitting).

Saturday Night and it’s Barbeque Night

Saturday night was set up for the usual Griff Growl barbeque at the White Horse pub next door to the hotel, with excellent quality entertainment being provided by a 3–piece live band.

However, any notion anyone might have had of enjoying a balmy summer evening in the pub garden was squarely out of the question, not unless they were wearing thermals and a good set of weatherproof coveralls.

As is customary at this stage of the proceedings, during the evening a charity auction is held, with various prizes having been kindly donated by the traders and other vendors. The chosen beneficiaries of the auction proceeds this year were the dependants of the four fire fighters. These guys lost their lives nearby to the venue whilst fighting a warehouse fire one night last November.

Although not all the money had been collected at the time of publishing, it looked certain the total would clear £1,000. The two half–day Ride Drive gift vouchers donated were enthusiastically bid for and collectively went for £200, which was a good result.

Saturday night turned to Sunday morning, and as everyone began to surface it was apparent the weather was again not going to be kind. In fact it wasn’t long before people were packing their things and preparing to return to their homes. Certainly by lunch time the whole event was winding down and, earlier than usual, it was all over for another year.

On behalf of my team I would like to thank the TVR Car Club for providing us with the opportunity to attend this event and that we hope to see everyone there again next year, perhaps this time under clearer skies.

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Wednesday, 08-Dec-2010

Griff Growl 2008 – TVR Club Sports Car Event