Trevor Wilkinson, the man who founded British sports car brand TVR in 1947, passed away today. Wilkinson, whose first name was abridged to name the car brand, died due to illness in his Minorca, Spain home, where he spent his retirement.

At 24, Wilkinson built his first car, and soon thereafter founded TVR Engineering in his home town of Blackpool, England. The cars’ signature design, comprising a tubular backbone chassis covered in lightweight fibreglass body work, made for some powerful and potent sports cars. In 1962, Wilkinson and business partner Jack Pickard left the company to start a fiberglass engineering business, according to Autocar.

Despite reports that the cars would be sold Stateside, TVRs were never officially sold in North America. With the last TVRs rolling off the production line back in 2006 under recent Russian owner Nikolai Smolensky, the brand itself may follow in the footsteps of its founder.

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