Ok…how many of you stopped to Google Griffith?
Not a commonly mentioned classic car, right?
Well the Griffith was developed by a Ford dealer, Jeff Griffith. It was a tubular frame with a British TVR body bolted on. He produce the cars in that configuration, until the source of the TVR bodies dried up he found replacement with a sleeker (nicer looking in my option) by Intermeccanica in Italy.
So what powered this homogenized sports car?
Well since Jeff was a “Ford” guy so you can bet he at least had a Ford iron block in the mix. The total production of the Griffith was 285 cars from 1964 t0 1966.
The TVR Body looks great!!!
This 1964 Griffith in the British TVR body had two engine options. Both were Ford 289. Both were overhead valve and had cast iron blocks. The first option had a bore and stroke 4.00″ x 2.88″ and a compression ratio of 9.0:1. Five main bearing and hydraulic lifters topped with a Ford model C3AF-9510B two barrel it produced 195 bhp. The second option matched up with the first option, except with a higher compression ratio (10.5:1) and topped with the Ford model C30F-9410AJ “4” barrel. That boosted the bhp to 271!!! That’s a heck of a jump…but wait…keep in mind this car weighted only 1450 lbs!!!! Think about that!!!!!
Love the British Racing Green in this ’65 Griffith
For 1965, TVR bodied car matched the two options in the previous year to the ‘T’.
’65’s 289
1966 was a different animal. No more TVR bodied Griffith, this baby tucked it’s power house iron in an Italian steel body from Intermeccanica. And like the body…the Ford engine was gone. In it’s place was a Plymouth V8…yes a MORPAR!!!! It was an iron block with overhead valves. Bored and stroked to 3.63″ x 3.31″ and a compression ratio of 10.5:1. Add in the 5 main bearing and solid lifter and top it off with a Carter 4 bbl. carb (ADB3853S) and you could coax 235 bhp out of it. Not bad…down from the 271 with the Ford 289. However the car with it’s new Italian designed steel body, weighted over 1000 lbs more then the TVR version, topping the scale at 2540 lbs.
Sharper looking with the new body!!
Thanks for reading.
Tim
