I've not only seen MINIs here, but also TVR's I was fortunate to see one of these zip past me....
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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.
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.
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.
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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