1967 Trident Clipper V8

Offered by Gooding & Company | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 20-21, 2012

Photo – Gooding & Company

When TVR ran into some financial trouble in the late 60s, a dealer stepped up and took on a new prototype built on a TVR Grantura chassis with a body by Fissore. The dealer reworked the design a little bit – switching it to an Austin-Healey 3000 chassis and dropping in a 289 Ford V8.

And that is what makes a Trident Clipper. Only 29 were built with the V8 (there were about 100 built later with a V6). This car makes 271 horsepower and can hit 150 mph and 60 mph in about five seconds.

These cars have attractive styling and power to back up the somewhat menacing looks – check out how the headlights are set back into the front of the car, the outside edge wrapping around it a little bit. It’s kind of pointy and aggressive.

Trident Clippers don’t come up for sale everyday, although Hyman Ltd. in St. Louis had one for sale recently for $75,000 (it may be this same car). Fantasy Junction in Emeryville, California also had one, but that was likely more than a year ago. Gooding estimates a final sale price between $50,000 and $75,000 – which could end up being a lot cheaper than buying it off the showroom floor of a classic car dealer. For more info, click here and for more on the auction, here.

Update: Sold $39,600.