PH Show Readers' Cars: 'Swordfish' TVR

Just one of the fabulous PH cars that will be on display at the PistonHeads show in January

Once a year, we head to the NEC in Birmigham to host the PistonHeads Show. A major part of this event is the display of readers' cars and 2010 will be no exception with a fantastic line up of cars already booked in.

In the run-up to the show, we will tell you about some of the cars that you can expect to see when you visit in January, starting with this rather special TVR Tuscan - which appeared in the film Swordfish starring John Travolta.

Despite offers from a US based charity to buy the car, PHer Pascal Buyens is not selling. Better in public than in a museum, right?

“This was an opportunity I couldn't miss out on. I just had to own the Swordfish car. It's unique, and I had wanted it ever since I saw the movie,” says Pascal.

The Chameleon Blue Tuscan started life as one of six cars used in the movie – a couple were crashed, one had holes blown out of it and this one ended up in the hands of Pascal – who is understandably pleased with his decision to buy.

However, it wasn’t all beer and skittles for Pascal and the TVR. A few months after he bought it the inevitable happened – the engine went.

“The crankshaft bearings on the original Straight Six went after owning it for a few months. They went into the sump, and then got thrown into the engine, resulting in a total wreck,” he told us.

Rather than a rebuild, though, he decided to hand it over to Racing Green – who have been (and still are) fitting their ‘Finger Follower Free’ (FFF) engine. Oh and he’s supercharging it. You know, for good measure.

“I wanted the car to be even more bonkers in terms of horsepower, while retaining the ‘soul’ of the original Speed Six as much as possible.”

But does he think it’ll be more reliable? “The whole idea about choosing the FFF engine is, because I live in Belgium, that I wanted a reliable engine. I know it sounds a bit crazy but for me reliability was the main reason to go with Racing Green.”

We asked Pascal what he liked about it owning John Travolta’s former ride, why he bought it over a ‘normal’ Tuscan, and he was pretty frank about it: “The fact that I have a unique car. Not only because it's a Tuscan, but because I have a famous car... and with the new engine, it's not going to be just a fast famous car, it's going to be a true FFF car (F-ing Fast Famous car)”.

Here’s why Pascal thinks you should come and see his car at the show, and we couldn’t agree more…

“One of the main reasons I think you should come and see the car is that usually, when cars get used in films, they become some kind of ‘museum artefact’ afterwards (for which I have had some very extensive offers on the car already), or never to be seen again if they end up in a private collection.

"That's exactly what I want to avoid. Next to the fact that this is in itself already a quite unique car being a TVR, the fact that both John Travolta and Tiff Needell have driven this car (on Fifth Gear), makes it just that bit more special to see this car out in the wild...”

Thanks to Pascal for allowing us to display his car, and we'll certainly be looking forward to seeing it at the show.

For more information on the PistonHeads Performance Car Show please visit the website.

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