Peter Wheeler

Peter Robert Wheeler (1944 to 2009) was a chemical engineer from Sheffield, Yorkshire, who owned the Blackpool-based sports car maker TVR for 23 years. He made his fortune supplying specialist equipment to the North Sea oil industry, bought the company in 1981 after owning a TVR himself, and sold it to Nikolai Smolenski in 2004 for around 15 million pounds. Despite his chemistry background he contributed to the design of TVR cars. Under his ownership the range moved from Triumph and Ford engines to the Rover V8 and later to the Speed Eight and Speed Six engines designed for TVR by Al Melling. Colleagues and motoring journalists described a quietly spoken but forceful and decisive boss with no committee meetings. After the sale he stayed in motoring, racing an Aston Martin DB4 and designing the Scamander amphibious car. He died on 11 June 2009 after a long illness.