TVR adds a bit of Tuscan flair

After many requests, we've decided to finally take a look at TVR's latest - the Tuscan S. Most people have probably seen a similar car in the Travolta flick, Swordfish, and were wondering what it is, where it's made and most importantly, what's under the bonnet.

TVR is a British automaker, specialising in limited edition and predominatnly expensive and rare vehicles. You don't see many of these beauties cruising the streets in Australia, but for the price, you couldn't ask for more bang per buck.

TVR was started in England in 1947 by Trevor Wilkinson. He set up his own garage and called the business Trevcar Motors. Later that year, a mechanic by the name of Jack Picard joined with Wilkinson and TVR Engineering was born.

Today, TVR is the last wholly British-owned car company.

The Tuscan S is a high-performance sports car, engineered to be enjoyed. It is more at home on twisty coastal roads and race tracks than stuck in traffic.

The Tuscan S is a two-door coupe, with room for driver and passenger and comes with interior options such as a colour coded leather steering wheel, stainless steel kick plates, leather seats with lumbar supports, aluminium finish and a CD stereo.

Sure, the options are fairly minimal, but these cars are not designed to provide a quiet ride with GPS navigation and jelly suspension. For TVR, it's all about enjoyment and, if the cars aren't fun to drive, it isn't doing its job.

Sporting a rather unorthodox engine configuration, the Tuscan S has been endowed with a massive 4.0-litre, six-cylinder mill. You would expect most six-cylinder cars to emerge from the V mould (i.e. V6) but TVR opted for an inline-six.

As a result, the car loves to rev hard, producing 280kW (400bhp) at the rear wheels at a screaming 7,000rpm. Not bad for a 4.0-litre block. An impressive peak torque of 415Nm (310-ft.lbs) occurs at a quieter 5,250rpm.

Together with four valves per cylinder (a total of 24) the Tuscan S can take on just about any dream car you can think of - except for another TVR prototype called the Speed 12 - an 860bhp, 7.0-litre V12.

The Tuscan S is capable of reaching 300km/h and can accelerate from standstill to 100km/h in about 4.1 seconds. The stainless steel/carbon fibre twin exhaust system looks amazing and would have to take honours as one of the coolest factory systems we've ever seen. With magnificent 18-inch wheels, the Tuscan S is an impressive performer with looks to match.

Another remarkable aspect of the British supercar is its weight. Since the companies inception, TVR has stuck to a number of principles when making sports cars: they must be front engine - rear wheel drive, they must have an almost perfect 50/50 weight distribution and they must be light.

Well, the Tuscan S adheres to all these principles and - get this - weighs in at 1100kg. This is about the same weight as the 2002 Holden Barina - a sub-compact car. This puts the Tuscan R in elite company with power-to-weight ratios on par with some very exotic cars like the Mclaren F1, Lambhorgini Diablo VT 6.0 and Ferrari F50.

So there you have it. The TVR Tuscan S unearthed. TVR makes cars to order and at present its annual produciton is about 1500 cars. The Tuscan S will set you back £48,800 which converts to about $135,000. For what you get, the exclusivity, the power and rarity, this is an absolute bargain. However, unlike during the movie Swordfish, we weren't allowed to ship four identical Tuscans over. Maybe next year?