They were cars with racing mechanics and striking design, car radios, chrome and leather seats. But with just the addition of the race number they became race cars.

Then came the Jaguar E-Type, the Alfa Romeo 2600, the Lamborghini 350 GT, The Lancia Flaminia, the Maserati 3500 GT and the Porsche 911. And the concept became more “bourgeois.” Today Grand Touring cars almost do not exist anymore. But there is one brand that has much of that heritage: TVR.
What could be better than a TVR? A racing TVR, of course. But there is a step down and that is a racing TVR made road-going with a few accessories. the T440 R is a typical exponent of that now increasingly rare way of making cars. A well-known British dealer has one for sale: here’s the ad.

“Our stunning 440R is now for sale and attracting a lot of interest. If you know your TVR history you will understand the significance of this car.
The T440R was originally called the TuscanR and then T400. It was intended as a road going, homologation version of what was to be TVR’s Tuscan-based GT1-class challenger.

Then the branding changed, and TVR ultimately offered two road going versions of this car the T440R, with a 4.0-liter 440BHP engine and the Typhon which was intended to run a sequential gearbox and a supercharger. The first of the T440s (PN02 ZNG) is coming up for sale now at TVR101.
PN02 was the second prototype, the first, a purple (or sometimes silver) car, was cut up at the factory. PN02 was used as the press car and can be seen being driven by Jeremy Clarkson if you search on YouTube for Clarkson Tuscan R.

The car was converted to a replica of the Le Mans factory car in about 2004/5 to promote TVR in the racing series. It was sold to a private customer from Racing Green and has been with us at TVR101 since 2014. It is now being fully restored by us before we offer it for sale and is fitted with a brand new 4.4ltr speed six engine built by Dom Trickett at Powers Performance. It also has a new clutch, diff, shocks, close ratio gearbox, sucspension and many other parts bespoke to the car. The exhaust was built by the hugely talented Ryan Edwards, and we even have had the drop glass re-made by the original manufacturers in Italy!

The car has been superbly repainted in its stunning original Candy Apple Red and has a full, new, leather interior. A comprehensive photo file of the rebuild and pictures of the car in original form at the factory have been put together to record this historic build. The car was very advanced for its day, featuring a carbon fibre mono shell bonded around the entire chassis. The chassis itself is tubular steel space frame with aluminium/carbon fibre reinforcement and integral steel roll cage.

There is lots of information on the internet regarding these cars but tread carefully, it is not all correct. These cars are extremely rare and TVR were never good at keeping records! However, PN02’s provenance is genuine and can be traced. David Hothersall (TVR CC) is an expert on these cars and can vouch for its authenticity. One of the rarest (but entirely usable) cars in TVRs history could be yours, and with the TVR Griffith still not in production – what an opportunity!”

Images: TVR 101

but on the weekend it is a festival of gatherings with brands from all over the world. Of course, our beloved TVRs were there too. Among the many groups present was this stunning TVR Tuscan MK1 brought to the lawns of Le Mans. Besides being painted in a beautiful, gloomy and exciting black color (with black rims and leather interior) it was a beautiful left-hand drive example. So I am very happy because we have example number 68 in the TVR Tuscan left-hand drive registry (you can find it here: https://bit.ly/43mCPn9).

The French license plate of this curvaceous coupe/Targa tells us that it came from Department 73, which corresponds to Savoy.

This magnificent Gran Turismo with a 6-cylinder engine (its curvy, edgeless tail always leaves me breathless for the perfection of its shape) has a magnificent twist that makes it even more beautiful and original. In fact, please note the red TVR badge on the trunk door

Since the department is at the base of the Alps, it is easy to imagine the owner’s emotions during the fantastic “hill-climbs” behind the wheel of this masterpiece. I imagine him exiting hairpins strictly in oversteering with its tail dancing

Source: TVR Photos

I love everything about this car, I have said it many times: it is a monstrous creature, born without the use of expensive technology that was conceived bt Peter Wheeler and was design and built only by fantastic British minds and hands.

But at 12:20 on the video something begins that I cannot describe in any other way than “atomic lust.” The journalists presses the start button and the twelve cylinders of this behemoth come to life It begins a sound that is both frightening and wonderful at the same time: deep, mighty, round, perfect.

The second part is equally exciting: Graham Abbott, the owner of this gem, explains the differences between W112BHG and its “almost twin” sister. Frankly, I would recommend starting to enjoy this video from minute number 12 an feel the emotions I’m sure so few cars can give.

I am an “old-fashioned” enthusiast: when I heard the sound of that engine I shed a tear of emotion. And I think I am even more proud of this blog because such an amazing car, in this age full of technology and so much (too much) marketing, a better car than the Speed 12 I am not sure will ever be produced

Source: Drivetribe.com

I already wrote in the past about this wonderful TVR speaking about its definition “the silly” idea by the boss himself.

SUMMARY

The only one Cerbera Speed 12 built by TVR specifically for road use, the defining example. An opportunity to own an exceptional and unique motor car, fully sanctioned by the marque and coming from diligent enthusiast-ownership.

DESCRIPTION

Fully prepared by TVR engineers over two years, this road-going GT1 car is uniquely fitted with the correct race-bred 7.7-litre, 840bhp V12 engine and the final evolution of the race car carbon-fibre/Kevlar bodywork. Originally offered for sale directly by TVR’s Peter Wheeler, and widely featured in the motoring press, this is one of the rarest and most revered supercars of the last 25 years.

Car with chassis number SDLCC14A0YB001521 takes origin from a robust tubular chassis made with steel. Engine is formed basically with two Speed-6 engines that have been coupled to create a mighty DOHC V12.

some friends, who in the early 2000s were the TVR importers in Italy told me about seeing the V12 engine running on the dyno and recalled the enormous power of this incredible unit that was capable of generating so much torque that it made the dyno shudder.

The base price of the beast is 300,000 pounds. Personally, I would hope that this masterpiece of English automotive passion would come to Italy, but I hope at least that the new owner will treat it diligently and not let it molder in a shed

Images from Silverstone Auctions

He gets alsorts from prewar Bentley to Peugeots 205 GTI, triumph Stags to McLaren 720S mclearns. It’s all for the love for the metal.

His TVR Sagaris? It’s spectacular. This units express one more time the huge personality of a TVR with the Speed6 engine. Here’s some words about her (Gabriele d’Annunzio, one of the most esteemed Italian scholars, sait the car is feminine).

“I’ve had the car for 3yrs, and put through a mild resto. Body off, chassis powder coated and entirely rebuilt, painted laser blue and drapped from stem to stern in ppf. The orginal 4ltr engine now on 62k miles has just sailed through a 6k mile service, and pulls as well as ever. Tuscan S/sparco seats holding me in place, gaz pro gold suspension gluing the car to the read, its a wicked combination.

She’s not a garage queen, last summer going to classic le mans and getting involved in a couple of parade laps before Saturdays racing, an incredible moment for me having my right foot pinned as we went over the start/finish line. The only thing I might part with her for would be a racing green on tan mk1 tuscan with a 4.5ltr. But until that comes along she stays.

The car is the 2002 U.K. motor show car and TVR development T350c. I asked him some images to document this beautiful car and he sent me some very nice shots that I want to share with you. I don’t know who’s the new owner of the car.

It has always had a 4.0L Red Rose TVR Speed Six engine. Six months after being at the motor show it was re-sprayed in metallic silver, but still has hidden panels painted in Spectrflare.

Because this was the development car, it has some differences from a production T350c, these include… No notch in the body to help open the rear glass hatch, the petrol filler was originally in a different location and was moved, the radiator mountings are different, also Peter Wheelers name is hidden under an interior panel

He was able to contact one of the gentleman that actually made the body shell and he said there were two cars. His was the spectra flare, silver car and there was another car a target top and that was the green Birmingham motor show car.

He contacted the gentleman that owns the green target top T350T and he sent him a photograph of his VIN number and that proved that his spectra flare silver car was one car older than his. So to cut a long story short, he had photographic evidence that his car was the original T350C, and the very first T350 ever made.

It’s fair to say this is a beautiful example for the Register of the First-Last TVRs.

Until 4 years ago I had a 1987, LHD yellow 390SE with a 4.7l engine and Borg Warner 5 speed. I owned and cared for her for over 20 years, never growing tired of the wonderful noise!  Prior to this, I had two Granturas, two 1800’s, the #2 Trident prototype, a 3000s, several 2500m’s, a V-8 Taimar, 2 280i convertibles and a new 280i coupe.

I finally found the right person to sell my 390 to and ordered a 2019 Corvette and took delivery at the factory. I wanted to get the last of the manual transmission cars! In 3 years I only put 3000 miles on the car! It is the nicest car I will ever own, but not a TVR! I found this car online and purchased it sight unseen. Dieter Lohr, the previous owner, was the nicest man I have ever had the pleasure to deal with and took such fabulous care of the car you could not tell it from new, even being 25 years old with 60k kilometers!

I could not find an easy way to transport and ship the car, so my best friend and I decided to take a European vacation and pick it up!

We flew to Zurich, took the train to Biel, and drove to the Bugatti museum, Porsche museum, Autoworld, saw some old business acquaintances in Calais, took in the Goodwood Hillclimb, had the car completely serviced at TVR101 and they delivered the car to port for me. Such a hardship!!!

I found a power steering rack for the 390 in Germany and truly appreciated it over the years; glad to have it on the Chimaera also. Do miss having A/C though, being a spoiled Yank!!

We drove the car all over Europe and England with no issues at all, even on the wrong side of the road; it was a pleasure to drive!

Maybe I will live long enough to be able to import a Tuscan!! I had many friends at the old factory and miss them dearly!

I had the chance to meet a British TVR addict. He’s the owner of this jewel you can see in the story. Here’s his the experience.

Where does your passion for the TVR brand come from?
I like the brand for its enthusiast-based origins.  It is like Lotus, but with increased levels of comfort and luxury. Although they are track ready, like a Lotus, you can also use some of the later cars as grand tourers due to their comfortable seats, aircon, power steering etc. I also like that the later TVRs are modern classics, as you have the sweet spot of an analogue driving experience, but with more modern technology for the underpinnings.

I had a DeLorean DMC-12 (engineered by Lotus, so they also handled very well) for nearly nineteen years and that was even more analogue than the TVR Tuscan S, as the DeLorean didn’t even have power steering (although with the engine in the rear, it didn’t negatively impact the driving experience).  The DeLorean I bought with just 6500 miles on the clock in January 2002 and by the time I sold it in December 2020 it had nearly 90,000 miles on the clock. In the last four years I had it professionally upgraded from the 170 BHP odd firing 2.85 litre V6 PRV (Peugeot, Renault, Volvo) engine to a 526 BHP 6.2 litre LS3 (a Texas Speed Stage 1 cam shaft was why it went from 480 BHP to 526 BHP) and a Porsche 911 (964) Turbo transaxle to cope with the torque. The car still weighed around 1266 KG post conversion. Ultimately, the urge to change to another car became strong enough (as I was missing out on other cars) that when someone offered me a price I couldn’t refuse, I leapt at the chance to then scratch my itch to own a TVR Tuscan S MK1.

If you owned other TVRs, is this Tuscan S the best for you? Or, are there other TVRs that you dream of?
I’ve driven a TVR Chimaera 5.0 (Buick V8) which sounded amazing, but it isn’t a lively as the Tuscan S. The TVR Cerbera 4.5 AJP V8 is a favourite too, but I wouldn’t want to own one.  The TVR Sagaris I’ve heard is too soft, compared to the Tuscan S, although I did have a set of the TVR Sagaris steering arms fitted to my Tuscan S, which eradicated the little bump steer that my car had. I love the Targa roof and styling of the Tuscan S and I’m very lucky that the colour scheme and specification is as if I’d ordered it that way. As such, I doubt I’d ever choose another TVR over the car I have.

Which are the best qualities of the TVR Tuscan S MK1? Torque, trim, chassis, handling?
What has surprised me the most is how track focused the MK1 TVR Tuscan S is. It is definitely at home on the track being ‘spanked’ as many TVR owners call this. The Tuscan S seats are very, very comfortable and the heater and aircon work very well.  The lack of plastic and instead machined aluminium parts for the indicator stalks and window controls for example really do exude a high-end feel. The only car more bonkers that this is the Pagani range which are way more modern and in a totally different hyper car price bracket.

What’s her worst feature?
The positive attributes which make it so visceral, can also be more wearing if you’re not in the mood. What I’ve mean is the noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH). A light car such as this (1050KG) doesn’t’ soak up the bumps as much as a heavier car.  It doesn’t at all crash over bad road surfaces, but you are definitely moved around more in your seat than something more modern. It is fitted with rebuilt Nitron adjustable shocks which were set to medium stiffness when the car had had a full geo.

I made a note of the settings before changing them to the softest settings and it is much nicer on bad roads. The front is super tight (brilliant steering response), but the rear isn’t quite as focussed so you need to drive within its limits (and yours) which makes driving it even more fun as you are doing all of the work.  Although you have power assisted brakes and steering i.e. all of the input controls are light and lovely to feel, there is no ABS, traction control or any computers to do any work. You are 100% for what is going on. This could be seen as a negative if you’re tired and not paying attention on a wet road. The good news is that the car is excellent at communicating to you as to what is going on, so it is down the skill of the driver to interpret/listen and act accordingly.

The bean counters at TVR reduced the oil galleries buy one to save money on the original Speed Six design. As such, the worst thing you can do is let the engine idle at cold (at tick over RPM) as the oil can’t circulate throughout the engine. If it must sit on idle, then hold the RPM at 1500 RPM for ten seconds to help circulate the oil. The most important steps are to drive straight away and keep the revs no higher that 2500 RPM until the engine has reached 40 degrees. 3000 RPM max from 50 degrees, 4000 RPM max up 60 degrees and 5000 RPM max until 70 degrees.

Once you hit 70 degrees you have an available 7200 RPM to play with (for a 4 litre S spec) to fully spank the engine, with shift LED lights default set to amber 6500 RPM and 7000 RPM for the red LED shift light. Overall, it takes from cold around ten minutes of driving to get to spankable status (depending on environmental temperature) and this can be halved by using a preheater on the oil tank. This is essentially an 500W electric blanket that if turned on via the mains around 1.5 hours ahead of use, you then wash the insides with preheated oil when starting. 

The oil temperature will quickly drop from around 120 degrees to around 34 degrees as the oil in the engine and cold internals bring it down, but you’re speeding up the overall warming through process. One owner has owned his TVR T350t since new and has racked up over 296,000 miles on his 3.6 litre Speed Six through never spanking it until properly warmed up. Proof, that if the internals are of good quality, they will last. TVR didn’t always buy the best possible internals so the pre 2004 cars often needed engine rebuilds. Mine was rebuilt by Sr8tsix at 9,000 in 2007 and has over 52,000 miles on that build. It doesn’t leak and it doesn’t need topping up.

What’s the maximum speed you’ve reached in her so far?
The previous owner nicknamed it Jezza (in reference to Jeremy Clarkson) due to it being loud and obnoxious. As such I’ve never thought of ‘him’ as a ‘her’.  I’ve not had enough track to exceed 140 MPH so far, but the previous owner had more than 185 MPH out of him on a runway.

What’s the most exciting trip you had with it? A hard climb on a Swiss pass, a gentle trip on Cote D’Azure?
I bought my car in June 2021, so partially due to lockdown, I’ve not driven it outside of the UK yet. The previous owner took it to the Nürburgring and this is something I’d like to repeat myself, but this time it’ll be wearing its track silencers, as last time it was banned after a drive by of 135db (limit was 130db). So far, I’ve covered over 6000 miles in the UK with it.

How is the maintenance? Expensive, hard, easy, is it reliable?
I bought the car knowing that it would need a clutch. In the first year I’ve given it everything it needed to make it mechanically tip top. This included having the throttle bodies rebuilt (and a new throttle pot) to improve smooth running at gentle, low throttle. It has had four new tyres, a pre-heater for the oil tank and more recently I’ve just bought some new indicators that incorporate a day light running light. The twenty-year-old BMW starter motor started to slowly fail, so this is the only part I changed myself that was needed to making cranking it more reliable. 

Manuals and documentation are very hard to find, but the offset is that here in the UK, there are several dedicated TVR specialists.  After having a project car previously that I did a lot of work on myself, I now enjoy taking my car to a specialist, so that I can work in their office upstairs, whilst they work on the TVR downstairs. Year one was more expensive than year two as now the car has what it needs mechanically. For year two, I’ve not been spending anything on it, bar fuel and tyres.  It has not broken down, where I needed to have recovery and I feel confident in it so much, that I would happily drive it to Europe tomorrow”.

(Many thanks to Chris Hawes for his kindness)

• It’s still unclear how many Lightweights were ever built. What can you say about the yours?

I was the second owner of number 14 in your Register. I owned it between summer 2003 and spring 2004 and I can confirm that the car was the Lightweight version.

I have never heard about such a small number of lightweight cars being built so I have no idea if it is true or not. The only reason I know mine was one of them was because the TVR dealer I bought it from told me when I asked why there were no sun visors fitted (it was one of the weight savings). I think this dealer sold it to the first owner which is why they knew how much it cost at the time.

• When you bought it the company was still active…

The original owner bought it in 2000 for £54k. Besides the Lightweight style it also had factory fitted sport exhaust and colour matched dials on the dashboard.

Considering I had one of the early MK 2 cars produced in 2000 it would make sense I got the real deal before they gave up due to difficulties.

• Why the Cerbera was fantastic for you?

The sound of the engine with the factory fitted sport exhaust. When you started her up there were flames shooting out and the neighbours car alarms would go off.

• Which were her best features?

The acceleration and the ride, the faster you drove, the more she stuck to the road.

• What you did not’t like about her?

The quality was unfortunately really bad and the main reason I only had her for 9 months. By far too many visits to the garage (dead battery, air in the cooling loop, bad potentiometers in the carburetors, ceased bushings and more). Not what you would expect from a car that was 3 years old. The handling in the wet could have been a lot better.

• What’s the maximum speed you reach with her?

She reached 186mph with more to give. Fun fact, at 170mph the air ventilation can’t hold back the air pressure from the outside so you get quite a storm inside the car.

• What’s the most exciting trip you had at the wheel?

A drive in the British countryside where a pair of motorcyclists were rather surprised that the TVR could keep up with them.

• How was the maintenance?

Expensive and too frequent.

As I wrote several times it’s not clear how many units have been built. I created the Register of the Cerbera Lightweights but I miss an official confirmation.

Author: Alvise-Marco Seno

It’s a pity there isn’t a Cerbera to create an exciting trio but it’s however a fantastic chance.

The Tuscan MK1 in silver and black rims adds a bit of elegance to its gorgeous style. It’s absolutely fantastic to admire her impressive details: the front lid, the front lights, the large air exits so voluptous and aggressive, the large rear spoiler and the low lights. The rear plexiglas window is stored in the boot so you can look at the cockpit also.

The yellow Sagaris is an explosion of strenght, style and freedom in creating a supercar. TVR magnifies the concept of a modern Granturismo but that follows the philosophy of many decades ago. I won’t never get sick to write that just the race number on the side of the body would be enough enough to transform here in a race car.

The Sagaris has the same exactly figure of a shark and I think she expresses in the best way the sum of the British style and top of performance. The most exciting aspect of TVR brand has always the freedom to give emotion without all the complex need of modern Marketing rules.

The perfect situation for these two jewels would have been the left hand drive configuration but of course we cannot expect all from life. It’s already a fantastic chance to see them at the show.

You’ll be able to admire these two cars until next sunday. It worths a visit undoubtedly