History lauds volumes of praise to those who are first. Thinking back to 1964, many will recall a short wheelbase, two-seater with British origins delivered to the U.S. where a 289 high output engine was installed and it sold worldwide – the Shelby Cobra. But there was another car that followed a nearly identical path, hot on the heels of Ol’ Shel – the Griffith 200.
The early TVR-based Griffith.
Using essentially the same body design as the TVR, the Griffith 200 and later 400—largely distinguished from the earlier model by a vast, sweeping fastback rear glass—were potent cars offering unique styling and very capable performance. Jack Griffith, the performance-minded namesake and owner for the U.S.-based Griffith Motors, worked with a simple if not familiar purchase plan for his cars. Take advantage of the UK built TVR, deliver it to the U.S., load it up with go-fast goodies, and sell to sports car enthusiasts. Of course, it didn’t hurt matters that TVR was, to say the least, one of the most progressive and imaginative promotors of sports cars… a subject for another time. Despite selling 192 production 200s and 59 400s, low numbers by any production measure, in 1965, the fledgling company somehow convinced themselves that an all-new, non-TVR derived sports car design would increase sales. Precisely the same time Shelby was working on transitioning to the new Mustang platform.
