Legendary British engineering brand name to begin new life as 'high-performance automobile' manufacturer
By PH Staff / Monday, 23 October 2023 / Loading comments
Tom Walkinshaw Racing needs no introduction on these pages. Whether for its success on the track or the numerous road cars it helped develop, the firm is rightly regarded as a legendary presence on the British scene in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and it was a sad day when the doors were forced to close following the demise of the Arrows F1 team. Now, a little more than 20 years later, TWR has announced its intention to return to prominence as a ‘world-class constructor’ of low-volume performance cars.
The latest venture is the brainchild of Tom’s son, Fergus, who quietly reestablished the business back in 2020, and has evidently spent the intervening years assembling a crack engineering team, ‘including some members who were part of the original TWR’. The new venture is technically a separate entity to the original firm (its assets and facilities were sold off back in 2002) but the team insists that ‘the new company will share much of the DNA and spirit that helped the original TWR brand to become a world leader in performance and motorsport engineering’.
If that prospect is already sufficient to brighten up your Monday morning, rest assured there’s more. Part of the new TWR’s mission statement is apparently to ‘preserve and perfect the analogue driving experience’ and to avoid (or at least, deprioritise) the modern reliance on electronic systems. The firm reckons that by blending modern materials with a traditional engineering approach, it can build innovative cars with ‘a perfect balance of performance, style, functionality and quality’.
Needless to say, it isn’t the only carmaker attempting to exploit that very profitable niche, but fond memory of cars like the Aston DB7, the Clio V6 and several monstrous Jaguars ought to give the new TWR a significant leg-up when it comes to the job of establishing its position in a crowded marketplace. The father-son relationship obviously helps, too, and Fergus has made clear that he has ‘longed to find a way to continue the family legacy’.
“This new generation of TWR is first and foremost an engineering company that will make cars, rather than a car maker doing engineering,” he continues. “And that’s an important distinction. We will make use of cutting-edge technology, combining new expertise with traditional craft to build world-class products that make a statement of what this new TWR is all about. We aim to build some truly impressive and innovative automobiles, unconstrained by the rulebooks and styling demands of OEMs.”
Having said that, in the finest tradition of its predecessor, the newcomer is also looking to spend some of its time working with ‘class-leading brands to maximise the potential of their own products’, but clearly the focus for now is on launching its first custom-made project. Hence the teaser pic which accompanies the announcement. Perhaps we ought not to read too much into the fact that filename is ‘TWRJAG’ but it’s hard not to let your imagination run wild when models of a certain vintage continue to get your blood racing. TWR promises more details soon. We can hardly wait.
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