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| TVR Tuscan Speed Six |
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| The TVR Tuscan Speed Six is probably
TVR's most significant new model since the Chimaera was introduced here six
years ago. To sum it up, its a removable hard top which, instead of being
stored in the garage, can be stored in the boot. Futhermore two people and
there luggage can go on holiday in it for a month with comforts like air
conditioning and power steering but without the car weighing more than 1000kg.
It is powered by TVR's own straight six engine which pumps out 360bhp plus it
has a novel roof design whereby, despite looking like a fixed head coupe, it is
able to store its roof and rear window in the boot, while still leaving room
for luggage. |
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No computers have been used in the styling of the car and TVR's team
of stylists, as always led by Chairman Peter Wheeler, has taken a year
sculpting the shape of this future classic. It could be said that there are
three main advantages in styling cars the way that TVR does.
Firstly,
there seems to be a generic shape which standard industry software produces
when the packaging shapes are typed in.
Secondly, sculpting the shape of the car by hand is an
inordinately time consuming business and just as one only truly appreciates the
lines of a car when one washes it, so it is TVR's belief that one can only
really get to grips with the design of the car over a long period of
time.
Finally, no matter how clever the
computer programme, you cannot walk around a computer screen or push it outside
to see how the light falls on it from different directions. |
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When a firm mass produces a car the tooling takes longer to produce
than the styling has taken but that is not the case with TVR. None of TVR's
stylists have ever been involved in designing cars for mass
manufacture.
Many of the features which make this car extraordinary are
there for sound engineering reasons but the simplicity and elegance of their
form that they have been left on show. For instance the unusual bonnet
arrangement, whereby the main piece of the bonnet is bolted into the car, is
there for the reason that it is in most racing cars. It is actually lightly
stressed and that means that it is able to duct the air flow very precisely.
There is a low pressure exit for hot air and an intake for cold air for the
engine situated in a high pressure area. |
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While it night be said that the exterior design of
the car is extravagant in concept, TVR has taken a minimised approach to the
interior. The very highest quality components have been used and once again
function has determined the form in which they appear. The curved aluminium
influenced top to the dash for example, acts as both strengthening beam for the
car and as a conduit for the cool air to the cabin ventilation
system.
The styling of the car has been very much influenced by the fact
that it has a straight six engine mounted between the front wheels and it is
this engine that is the heart of the car. Straight sixes have somewhat gone out
of fashion because they cannot be mounted transversely. Gruelling tests over
the last few years have shown its performance and reliability and in its
doubled up, twelve cylinder form, the engine has seen competition in the mighty
Speed Twelve. |
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