TVR Tuscan mk1, Powers 4.5, Cascade purple
Discussion
I’ve always been a serial GM fan, (see here https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... ), having owned probably around a hundred RWD Opels, Vauxhalls, Bedfords and Holdens in my 22 years on the road. However after a long time building a business, making kids, losing my wife, finding a new life with my childhood sweetheart and scratching my dream VXR8 itch, said sweetheart decided she’d like to get involved in my car buying…… so after a glass or two and an hour on eBay showing her a rusty Senator, some Bedford Rascals and various other tat, I saw a grey Tuscan advertised. I’ve known her for two thirds of my life but I never knew it was her dream car, so we started looking into it. After a few weeks of research, reading up on them and having some serious doubts about my sanity we found a car at Amoré autos….
The first pic in the ad was this one:
The colour put me off slightly - part of my business is selling automotive paint and I knew how expensive this stuff can be if I were to ding it…
This pic sold it though…… I thought it looked cracking so after umming and aahing, I grew a pair and arranged a viewing. Now, I know a fair few car dealers through work but Mark at Amoré was not your usual. Top bloke, nice setup, no pressure, and most importantly he involved my other half in the whole thing - it was her fault I was there in the first place after all!
My test drive consisted of a gentle bimble while warming the car through and discussing the idiosyncrasies of TVR design, and after 10 minutes or so the opportunity to open it up arose. Wow! The way it picked up speed had me hooked, the speedo ticking up at a fair rate, the feel of the controls, the bump steer - amazing! It was raw and I loved it. I’ve been in some fast modern cars - a 700hp M2 being the last I drove, but they leave me cold. They’d almost certainly leave the TVR standing but I can guarantee I’d be having a lot more fun in this than in almost anything else. Back at Marks we did the deal and agreed a date to collect.
That was mid April, and so far my other half and I have managed a couple of thousand trouble free miles, including a couple of long distance trips over long weekends. I’ve got to grips with some of its weirdness - the way it feels like a completely different vehicle between front and rear, the random fault codes flashing up, the heater and windows that work at their own pace, the constant attention it gets. It’s got some massive plus points - interior space and the clever little features being some. There’s also the niggling feeling in the back of my mind as to what will go pop first! Out of all the cars I’ve owned it’s only this and my VX220 that I make me wanna jump in an go for a spin - thankfully living in West Wales I’ve got the Beacons and Mid Wales both within 30 minutes of my house.
The car itself has done 45k, has a massive history folder going back to day one and has had the engine rebuilt at Powers Performance as a preemptive measure. Whoever decided to spunk £20k on the rebuild ‘just in case’ is a hero in my eyes. I don’t know how much power it’s generating - 400 plus sounds and feels about right, But it really doesn’t matter what gear you’re in, it just pulls, and pulls. And if you prod the long travel throttle harder it pulls harder, or spins up, one of the two. Sometimes both
I’ll be taking it for a going over some time this Winter just to sort a minor knock (suspected ball joint) and a full service, then a geo check at Meteor motorsport before next spring. I’ll be driving it until the weather gets properly miserable. Hopefully there won’t be much in the way of negatives to our ownership but I’ll try and keep the thread updated when there’s something noteworthy to say!
The first pic in the ad was this one:
The colour put me off slightly - part of my business is selling automotive paint and I knew how expensive this stuff can be if I were to ding it…
This pic sold it though…… I thought it looked cracking so after umming and aahing, I grew a pair and arranged a viewing. Now, I know a fair few car dealers through work but Mark at Amoré was not your usual. Top bloke, nice setup, no pressure, and most importantly he involved my other half in the whole thing - it was her fault I was there in the first place after all!
My test drive consisted of a gentle bimble while warming the car through and discussing the idiosyncrasies of TVR design, and after 10 minutes or so the opportunity to open it up arose. Wow! The way it picked up speed had me hooked, the speedo ticking up at a fair rate, the feel of the controls, the bump steer - amazing! It was raw and I loved it. I’ve been in some fast modern cars - a 700hp M2 being the last I drove, but they leave me cold. They’d almost certainly leave the TVR standing but I can guarantee I’d be having a lot more fun in this than in almost anything else. Back at Marks we did the deal and agreed a date to collect.
That was mid April, and so far my other half and I have managed a couple of thousand trouble free miles, including a couple of long distance trips over long weekends. I’ve got to grips with some of its weirdness - the way it feels like a completely different vehicle between front and rear, the random fault codes flashing up, the heater and windows that work at their own pace, the constant attention it gets. It’s got some massive plus points - interior space and the clever little features being some. There’s also the niggling feeling in the back of my mind as to what will go pop first! Out of all the cars I’ve owned it’s only this and my VX220 that I make me wanna jump in an go for a spin - thankfully living in West Wales I’ve got the Beacons and Mid Wales both within 30 minutes of my house.
The car itself has done 45k, has a massive history folder going back to day one and has had the engine rebuilt at Powers Performance as a preemptive measure. Whoever decided to spunk £20k on the rebuild ‘just in case’ is a hero in my eyes. I don’t know how much power it’s generating - 400 plus sounds and feels about right, But it really doesn’t matter what gear you’re in, it just pulls, and pulls. And if you prod the long travel throttle harder it pulls harder, or spins up, one of the two. Sometimes both
I’ll be taking it for a going over some time this Winter just to sort a minor knock (suspected ball joint) and a full service, then a geo check at Meteor motorsport before next spring. I’ll be driving it until the weather gets properly miserable. Hopefully there won’t be much in the way of negatives to our ownership but I’ll try and keep the thread updated when there’s something noteworthy to say!
Thanks for the replies chaps! I know the colour gets mentioned a lot for obvious reasons but in the last pic I’d been driving the car for 3 months and it was the first time I’d seen green in the paintwork - it’s not just a reflection in the last picture, the green appeared when I was driving. The bonnet was purple on the high points, gold on the low points, blue inside the vents, pink on top of the mirrors and the haunches were green and orange when viewed in the mirrors. It was like an LSD trip while driving through Pembrokeshire 
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