The Driver’s Seat: Henry Catchpole on the TVR Tuscan Speed Six

The TVR Tuscan Speed Six is 25 years old, so early cars are now eligible for import to the U.S. That alone seemed like a very good excuse to take one on a trip around some roads that should feel very familiar to it.

Now, TVR didn’t have a test track on its doorstep like, say, Weissach, Nardò, or the Nürburgring Nordschleife, so it used the roads around the factory in Blackpool (the UK’s answer to Las Vegas). Luckily, there are some great stretches of tarmac in Lancashire.

To really celebrate the full scope of the Tuscan, we also brought together the bookends of the Speed Six story at the very impressive Hilton & Moss dealership and restoration facility near London. At one end of the scale is an early, red, 2000 Tuscan with its distinctive pierced grille and steampunk, bimetallic interior. At the other chronological end is a 2005 Tuscan 2 convertible with a wavy dash and slightly more aero exterior. The latter also has some of TVR’s distinctive and expensive Reflex flip paint.

As the Tuscan Speed Six generally got better to drive throughout its life, we picked the later convertible to take on the journey. It has a 3.6-liter version of the Speed Six engine, with 360 hp and 318 lb-ft of torque. The straight-six is not known as the most reliable engine, but Hilton & Moss’s engineers had an interesting perspective on how it should be approached.

Nobody is quite sure what the future holds for the TVR badge in 2024 and beyond. There has been the promise of a Cosworth-powered car with a Gordon Murray chassis; equally, there has been talk of an EV. The new factory in Wales doesn’t seem to be an option anymore, and TVR are reportedly now headquartered at Donington, but ways of contacting the firm are thin on the ground.

Regardless of whether there is a new TVR or not, cars from the company’s past, like the Tuscan Speed Six, seem somehow more relevant than ever. The very analog nature of the cars, combined with interiors that seem even more impressive in the current restomod era, means that they have a surprisingly timeless quality to them.

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