In 2001, Swordfish came out, starring John Travolta, a very curvaceous Halle Berry, and a rather young Hugh Jackman. It was a modest hit, made on a budget of $102 million and managing to earn about $142 million on the BO. Directed by Dominic Sena, the movie today is not remembered for great acting or a terribly gripping plotline, but for the one car chase scene that John Travolta did. And it’s not as if John Travolta drove great, just that he drove a TVR Tuscan Mk1, also known as the Tuscan Speed Six.

The car was a holler back to the original TVR Tuscan that came out in 1967, although the company had changed hands many times till the Tuscan Speed Six came out in 2000.

Coming back to the car chase, Travolta is being chased, by the “bad” guys, and he manages to get away in his TVR Tuscan Mk1. After shooting at them and making them crash, of course.

So here’s the deal with the supercar TVR Tuscan Mk1, and why this British car caught the fancy of so many Americans

The TVR Tuscan Made A Smash In Swordfish

2000 TVR Tuscan From John Travolta's Swordfish
Via: Pinterest

The TVR Tuscan Mk1 made quite a splash in the 2001 movie, Swordfish, even if the movie itself was called “a James Bond movie, minus the laughs. Or Bond”. But when Travolta raced the Tuscan at night, with a young earring-wearing Hugh Jackman who is clearly out of his element, Stuff reports that the British automaker TVR started receiving almost 50 inquiries a day, from Americans, about how to get a Tuscan for themselves.

The movie was no big hit, but the TVR Tuscan Mk1 sure was. And it certainly looked stunning.

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The History Of The TVR Tuscan

Blue 2000 TVR Tuscan Speed Six 4.0 Convertible
Via Flickr

Originally, the TVR Tuscan was introduced in 1967, and it came race-ready with V8 engines or road-ready with V6 ones. TVR was founded by Trevor Wilkinson and named after his initials, in 1946. In 1962 Wilkinson left and by 1965, it was owned by Martin Lilley, under whose aegis the Tuscan was launched.

By 1981, TVR was owned by Peter Wheeler and in 1999, Wheeler decided to relaunch the Tuscan, though it came in the hands of the media only by 2000. The Tuscan Speed-Six Mk1 wore a 4.0-liter Speed-Six engine that made 360 horses and 310 lb-ft of torque. A later Red Rose trim increased the output to 380 horsepower, and then there was also the 390-horsepower Tuscan S.

By 2004, Wheeler also gave TVR up, this time to Nikolai Alexandrovich Smolensky, as in the “little oligarch” who was also involved with Benelli motorcycles. Under Smolensky, the TVR Tuscan now became the Tuscan 2 but the base models were detuned and scaled back to jet 350 horses and 290 lb-ft torque.

2006 was the last we saw of the Tuscan and since 2013, TVR now belongs to a syndicate of British businessmen headed by Les Edgar. The Tuscan meanwhile has been relegated to a has-been with no signs of a revival anytime soon although rumors abound about its comeback.

That said the Tuscan was quite the performer. According to Car Scoops, the Tuscan S could hit 0-60 MPH in a flat 4.0 seconds. This is why the only example of the TVR Tuscan S in the US was listed for sale at a whopping $100,000.

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Want The TVR Tuscan From Swordfish?

2002 TVR Tuscan Speed Six Sports Car
Via: Flickr

Three Tuscan TVRs were imported into the US for the production of Swordfish and not much is known about them after the movie wrapped up. But one TVR Tuscan Mk1, from the movie, did show up at an H&H auction in 2010, back in the UK.

According to the documentation of the auction, this particular one-off TVR Tuscan Mk1 done up in Chameleon Blue was one of the movie cars in Swordfish. Later this very car showed up onscreen a second time, this time in the British TV series, Blue Dove.

With 48,000 miles on it, this TVR Tuscan Mk1 sold for £10,406 that included a buyer's premium. Clearly, this is not a movie car that generated much excitement in the buyers, or perhaps it was sold in the wrong country. In comparison, a John Travolta-driven car, the 1946 Ford “Grease Lightning” ended up selling for a cool $88,000. So was it because John Travolta was way hunkier back then or because Grease was a way more successful movie than Swordfish?

Could be either but the TVR Tuscan was a well-made, beautiful car. And if you have a hankering for it, here’s a 2004 TVR Tuscan Mk1 option for you, and it comes beautifully done in black, and very venerable. Only, you need to have $70,000, or thereabouts in spare change to afford it. Although this may not be as vaunted as the one sold in 2010, considering it has not been driven by John Travolta, sat in by Hugh Jackman, or leaned on by the very delectable Halle Berry.

Sources: Stuff.tv, Carscoops, Handh.co.uk, Bonhams, Hemmings