TVR has always been a strangely unhinged company. They eschewed safety gear like airbags and anti-lock brakes because they don’t add to the vehicle’s performance. They built a supercar so psychotic that it broke the dyno when tested and scared the company owner badly enough when he took one home that plans for production got scrapped. They are supposed to be exhilarating cars to drive, even if they have the temperament of a slightly annoyed Bengal tiger. Not that any of us here at BangShift would honestly know…the closest any of us have come to driving a TVR product is in a video game, that’s it. But we’ve heard stories, and we have footage like what’s below that lead us to believe that we need a crack at driving one of these little beasts at speed. These are TVR Tuscan Challenge cars, built in 1989. 43 cars were produced for the one-make racing series, none of which were officially road cars. Originally powered by Rover-sourced 3.5L V8s, by 1997 the TVR AJP8 V8, a 4.5L unit was in place and use a T-5 five-speed for a transmission. The name of the game for a Tuscan Challenge is lightness: before driver, these cars weighed in at just over 1,800 pounds. With about 350 horsepower on tap and gearing that seems drum-tight, entertaining isn’t the word for what driving one of these fiberglass-bodied, tube-frame wonders must be like. The racing was entertaining, that’s for sure!
