Loud, brash, and fast were TVR's three main design requisites. No one buys a TVR to blend in, quite the opposite, instead preferring to arrive in clouds of smoke to the accompaniment of bellowing exhausts, and throaty engines.
Known for their idiosyncrasies and a who cares approach to driver aids and safety, TVR forged a reputation for lightweight sports cars featuring thumping great engines for little cash, the Cerbera would shame many of the supercars elite members for as little is $70,000. For then-owner Peter Wheeler, this wasn't enough, the carmaker's frankly bonkers Speed 12 pushing as much as 800 hp and 200 mph, sadly this one didn't make production. Waiting on the wings, another 200+ mph TVR, the Typhon bumped the performance dial up to 11, and carried on thanks to the carmaker's obsession with speed. Unfortunately, the more aptly name Typhoon sports car was a mere blip on TVR history book, one that deserves remembering as the time TVR went Nuclear.
8 Automotive History In The Making, TVR Style
Britain's most famous to hell with it carmaker best known during the 80s for brutish Rover V8 powered wedges, transitioning to the softer, more organic Griffith and Chimaeras of the 90s. TVR has been around a lot longer than you might think, founded in 1946 by Trevor Wilkinson from where Blackpool's bombers take their name (TreVoR) changing hands up until the brand's demise in 2013 under Nikolay Smolensky leadership.
One thing that never changed, TVRs approach to design, build and engineering, big powerful engines with minimal weight equating to stupendous, often scary performance, just the way we like it.
7 Typhon's Race Car Origins
TVR's much vaunted Tuscan challenge series is where the Typhon story begins. TVR Tuscan Challenge, a popular single make racing series based around the S-Series and not the later Tuscan road car, the two although similar in design are wildly different. Tuscan racers made way for the Tuscan R, a Le Mans spec monster intended to tackle the Mulsanne straight at speeds over 200 mph.
Owner Peter Wheeler famously produced some of his best ideas on the back of cigarette packs or any scrap of paper close to hand, the T400R racer was different, using computer aided (a first for TVR) giving rise to a more aerodynamically efficient body, surprising cornering Tuscan based cars look other worldly. In total TVR produced seven racers and around and the same number for road use.
6 From Race Track To The Road, Briefly
On track, T400Rs weren't' especially successful, facing off against stiff competition from scores of Porsches and Ferrari's. On the road, Typhon branding and a few visual tweaks carried over from the T350 it was a different story, had it not been for TVR's untimely sale to Russian businessman Nikolay Smolensky the Typhon would have ranked up there with the fastest production cars recording a 215 mph top speed.
A lack of development post sale killed off the Typhon as a serious production car, TVR completing three example, two finished in Charcoal sporting 400 hp SpeedSix engines, the final example decked out in a lurid shade of orange becoming the Typhon SC.
5 What You Don't See Makes All The Difference
Telling any of the latter TVR's apart is tricky, the carmaker mixing and matching body designs between the T350 (rear end) and Tuscan's nose for the Typhon, even then what you see is difficult to discern. More so telling which engine you got, made harder by TVR's bizarre attempt to stop would-be home mechanics, fitting a bolted down hood leaving just a twin-fan cooling set-up and oil/water fillers on display.
Even armed with the right tools, removed the full engine cover is tricky, but believe us what lays underneath is one of the automotive world's greatest hidden secrets, TVRs SpeedSix 4.2-liter inline motor sports a custom TVR Vortech supercharger believed to boost output to 582 hp. More power equates to more heat, a stumbling block for the Typhon SC, a lack of funding and development spelled the end for the baddest TVR ever.
4 Out Of This World Interior
Jaw dropping looks outside are matched by TVRs legendary in-house designed and built interiors, you won't find any buttons, knobs, or switchgear from another brand here. Peter Wheelers verging on the xenophobic attitude to "nothing foreign" in a TVR shows from the moment you slide in to the driver's seat.
Directly ahead, TVR's airbag less steering wheel is flanked by an unusual mix of aluminum milled nameless knobs at the bottom, leaving owners puzzled as to their functions, and a digital all-in-one instrument display. While the initial confusion is sure to baffle any TVR newbie, once mastered it makes perfect sense… provided everything works.
3 Spine-Tingling Soundtrack
Stuck behind a Typhon? We wouldn't worry the experience is sure to be fleeting, given an open road the Typhon SC storms to 60 mph in around 3.7-seconds providing you can tame the savage power delivery and lack of traction control.
Speed is one thing the TVR does well, but it's the noise that sends shivers down your spine. The SpeedSix engine designed from the outset to be a fast revving all alloy unit coupled with an equal length tubular exhaust system, that despite the inclusion of catalytic convertors wails like a banshee, snapping, snarling, and popping briefly between shifts. Once you've experienced a TVR, there is no going back.
2 TVR's Practical Sense Of Humor
The fastest TVR built on the T400Rs foundations, speed taking priority over everything else, surely the ultimate two-seater from Britain’s finest analog sports carmaker. What most gearheads won't remember is the inclusion of a token pair of rear seats, someone at TVR clearly had a sense of humor. Molded into the Typhon's carbon fiber body, a full roll cage, making the already tight 2+2 seating more for storage than practical use.
Round back, just in case you're in urgent need of a fast shopping trip, the Typhon, despite having a structurally rigid bonded body and chassis set-up, has one nod to practicality. There's no trunk lid, instead, TVR opted for a hinged rear window, a neat way to include some useful load carrying ability.
1 Rarest Of The Rare?
Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and others thrive on selling supercars and then rolling out some rare limited edition specials, bigger sticker prices growing with ever diminishing numbers.
TVRs closure and iffy records at best make Typhon production hard to judge, especially as during development TVR played around with the model designation more than once, TVR TuscanR, T400R, T440R, before finally settling for Typhon as the brand's most extreme offering. Ask any former TVR employee or TVR Car Club member and the answer is a resounding, one. Just one true Typhon was produced, and that as we know is the SC.