London, England - Hundreds of TVR owners drove their sports cars through London on Sunday in an attempt to help save the firm's factory in Blackpool and smashed a world record in the process.
A convoy of 479 of the British sports cars was driven through central London to Downing Street where their drivers handed in a petition to Prime Minister Tony Blair calling for the government to save the factory and the jobs of its 260 employees.
Some of the workers rode as passengers in some of the cars.
The factory in Blackpool, a holiday resort on the north-west English coast, is to be closed and production moved to mainland Europe.
The rally broke the record for the largest parade of a single car model that was held by 249 Mazdas and set in New Zealand.
David Hughes, the event's organiser, said: "It's been an outstanding success in terms of breaking the record and giving people something to think about.
"Now let's hope the government has enough motivation to see if it can do anything to help the management of TVR."
There were hopes that TVR, owned by Russian businessman Nikolai Smolensky, would merely relocate to another site in Blackpool but they were quashed when some workers were laid off. - AFP