Motoring News
Today, 01 May 2013TVR Tuscan Vulcan driven
A Chevy V8-powered Tuscan was nearly the saviour of TVR. Now we've had the chance to drive it.
So this is it, then. The last TVR. This is the very car with which Nikolai Smolenski wanted to restart the company, and it’s back in Britain finished, V8-powered and on the road. A driveable tale of what might have been, called the TVR Tuscan Vulcan.Russian businessman Smolenski, you’ll probably remember, bought TVR from its former owner, Peter Wheeler, in 2004, but despite his best intentions he could only watch as the whole shebang – already running out of both goodwill and customers – failed under him.But even when the Blackpool site closed at the end of 2006, Smolenski hoped it might not be over. He took the name and development team with him, and a small team of engineers beavered away to come up with what sounds like a distinctly un-stupid idea for a limited-volume car maker: don’t use your own engine. Instead, why not buy a Chevrolet LS3 motor and save yourself the bother?So here it is: a Tuscan Mk3, with a Chevrolet V8. Restarting production sounded like a plausible proposition until Smolenski’s team did the full numbers and realised that, in order to turn a profit, each car would have to sell for £100,000. No dice, then. The TVR name will live on only on wind turbines.All except for the prototype Chevy-engined Tuscan, which was in Austria. Meanwhile, a TVR specialist – Str8six of Lewknor, Oxfordshire
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