TVR, the British maker of wildly styled and fiendishly fast cars, has been sold to Nikolai Smolensky, 23, one of Russia's youngest millionaires and the son of a controversial tycoon whose banking empire collapsed during the 1998 financial crisis.

Ah, the British motor industry. I was somewhat involved in the sale of Lotus in the mid 1990s. Personally I think all sports car manufacturers should be Italian. Just cos.

"TVR fans will be relieved that Mr Wheeler will be staying on to oversee styling and engineering. He and his deceased spaniel, Ned, have become industry legends: Mr Wheeler for styling the best-selling TVR Tuscan on the back of a Marlboro cigarette pack; Ned for biting a chunk out of a foam model prototype, creating what became the front light apertures of the TVR Chimaera."