Patience is a Virtue

It took a few years before Glyn Jennings realised his dream, in the shape of a TVR 390SE. Also an admirer of Lotus Esprits, Glyn and his wife were at a Lotus track day when they spotted Jeremy Robin's 400SE (Featured in January 1999 Sprint). From that moment Glyn was hooked.

Glyn joined the TVRCC and for the next year followed the prices of 400SE's. With four children, a dog, a cat and a mortgage he couldn't foresee it happening. Options were pondered... that Lotus Esprit... a Porsche 928? Still deliberating, one day driving down to Alton he was passed by a nimbus grey 390SE. Glyn realised the similarities with the 400SE he was lusting after. 390SE's being relative bargains compared to the 400's, although still difficult to locate, Glyn set about his search.

Beaten to it...

"...in June last year I saw one in Exchange and Mart, colour burgundy for sale, and was all set to buy it when one of you lucky guys beat me to it!"

Love at first sight (sound!?)

Four weeks later another one came up in the Birmingham area, £2000 cheaper but in blue. As so many of us have done, Glyn bought the first TVR he went to look at.

"The paintwork is by no means perfect, seems you only need to look at it and it chips or scratches but it has a new hood and carpets and a nice Momo wooden steering wheel. When I bought it the first job was to give the car a service and repair one headlight that didn't work. (Those wiring connectors on the harness behind the light pods are really temperamental).

Get it out of your system

In the six months that he's owned the car it's broken down three times - surely due to lack of use over the last three years?! After two weeks the car wouldn't start - faulty ignition module. A couple of weeks later it started cutting out. New HT leads, plugs and coil didn't solve the problem.

"I ended up having it towed away to a friend of mines workshop. With the front overhang and a low spoiler at the rear it's not an easy car to tow. The tow truck had one of those cradle affairs which just jacks up two wheels, so we decided the rear wheels were the best option and I still remember seeing the car going along with its front underskirt about 1" of the ground."

After a lot of investigation it turned out to be a poor earth connection from the power resistors. Apparently there were just a few strands of wire used for contact.

For the last time...

The third (and lets hope final) time it broke down was in December after filling the car up with petrol.

"The tank was quite empty and I put in about £25's worth. The car then totally refused to start and in a busy Esso garage on a Saturday morning this was highly embarrassing. I pushed it to one side and disconnected the fuel line, pumped some fuel out and the car restarted."

Remember Wedge fuel gauges can go up as well as down and provide no indication of how much fuel is in the tank!

Summer's coming

Despite the gripes, Glyn is rather happy with his purchase - and like the rest of us, looking forwards to blue skies and open roads...

1988 390SE Ford Crystal Blue metallic with grey half hide interior

53,000 miles. The owner only had the car for 3 months and the previous owner to him had it for five years doing only 10,000 miles in that period.