There’s a particoular category of cars that only English people are able to build and sale today: The Gran Turismo. In the distant past, the Italians were masters at building them. Just think of the Maserati A6G ’54 Zagato, the Ferrari 250 SWB, the Alfa Romeo 1900 or Giulietta Sprint (and Sprint Veloce), the Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing or the Porsche 356 A Carrera.
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!”
