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Fahrbericht eines Tuscans mit einigen interessanten Anmerkungen
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Sixth sense
TVR's new Tuscan Speed Six has divided the opinions of both press and public. We asked ex-TVR racer Mark Hales to sort truth from fiction
By Mark Hales
Last Updated: 6:45PM BST 07 Jul 2003
Previous1 of 2 ImagesNext Modern classic: the TVR Tuscan Speed Six offers a beguiling cocktail of dynamics - new-style grip and brake bite, coupled with a vintage feel in the soft but well-damped suspension
Fashion victim: with trendy, low-profile 18in tyres fitted, the steering response of the Tuscan Speed Six becomes hyper-sensitive
TVR's Tuscan Speed Six has been in production since March and the employees of the largest wholly UK-owned car company are working round the clock to satisfy demand.
However, many of those who put down a £1,000 deposit at the 1998 Motor Show later changed their minds and bought something else. That also happened with the Griffith in 1990 and the four-seat Cerbera in 1993, but this time there was a difference. Customers backed out of their Tuscan deals on the basis of frustration rather than any adverse press reports, as nobody in the press had officially tested one.
Company chairman Peter Wheeler was willing to lend his cars to the press, but only when he was ready; he preferred to give cars to patient customers and receive the balance of £38,750. Maybe he felt that having enjoyed such unprecedented sales success with previous models the media knives would be out for this one. Whatever, he then dictated the terms on which the specialist press would test the new car. Each would have a Tuscan for a day with a factory representative along for the ride, then all would gather at one venue and carry out performance tests in turn.
The magazines grudgingly agreed, mainly because they had no choice. Creditably, they also resisted the temptation to slaughter the Speed Six; the general opinion was that it offered enormous performance and an individual style that extended as much to the handling and road manners as it did to the curvaceous body and wacky interior. And a car that looked so different and went so much faster than anything else at twice the price couldn't be pigeon-holed or suffer by comparison with rivals. Some tried, pitting the Tuscan against the similarly priced Porsche Boxster, which is a better car for the part-time enthusiast and probably better made, but can't get anywhere near the TVR's performance.
The Tuscan certainly has visual style in spades; the curves and scallops in the bonnet, the kicked-up rear end with its twin motorcycle-style silencers, the imaginative interior treatment, the brass-backed speedometer in its leather-clad pod and the incremental window lifters with their little aluminium knobs; it's nothing if not distinctive and exciting.
Then there is the sheer performance. That you can't go faster for the money has been TVR's clarion call for years, and the Tuscan's 100mph from rest in just over nine seconds is staggeringly fast, especially for a sub- £40,000 car. The engine is TVR's home-grown, 360bhp, four-litre, six-cylinder, which lays over under the bonnet in once traditional big-six fashion. Straight sixes are comparatively rare these days, so another one is welcome, but other than the fact a small company is making it in-house, there is nothing revolutionary about the 24-valve, twin-cam motor. Gruff yet melodic, it sounds more Lambo-Italian than Aston-English, yet it is smooth and punchy and has an instant response to the accelerator. Everybody likes it and the sound it makes.
The chassis though, is harder to assess and the lengthy press reports were unusually contradictory. One commentator found the steering surprisingly weighty, another found it over light. Some liked the ride, others didn't. Some felt the steering was too sharp, others felt it inspired confidence, one said it was a liability. Wheeler let them all get on with it, reasoning that 1,600 people had paid a £1,000 deposit for a car they hadn't driven; why would a few press reports make any difference, especially as they seemed unable to agree? It would have been easy to make the ride stiff and uncompromising, which would have controlled the car's masses and made it feel like any other road racer, but Wheeler wanted the Tuscan to be usable every day, with boot space for a week's holiday for two and, above all, a ride quality that was comfortable to live with. If that were not sufficient, he also wanted the Speed Six to have pin-sharp response to the steering, stating bluntly that if TVR builds a car with the Tuscan's performance, it needs controls with sufficient authority to keep out of trouble.
I drove one of the early prototypes on both road and circuit and found a beguiling cocktail of dynamics. Some ingredients were contemporary, such as the grip from a set of the latest tyres and the bite of modern brakes; others - like the soft but well-damped suspension - gave the vintage, tactile feel of a Jaguar E-type or 1960s Aston Martin. It was marvellously alive, because as soon as you moved the wheel, the body responded to the front end's bite and gave you messages via the seat, something that stiffer suspension would conceal. True, you had to be careful on the circuit, and sloppy driving made the car lurch and sling its tail out, but the experience was involving in a way you find on few road cars and none with this performance.
Unfortunately, such pleasure was only on loan for that day, with the car in that condition, because you can only fool the laws of physics so far. When the tank was filled with petrol, the boot with luggage and the cabin with people, the rear end bottomed out. The suspension had to be stiffened enough to keep the car safe when loaded - although another solution is being looked at.
Then there was another change. Fashion dictates the lowest profile tyres imaginable and once a set of 18-inch wheels and tyres with the depth of a rubber band made it to the options list, everybody wanted them. Trouble is, they have virtually no compliance, which might be ideal for the race track, but undoes all the suspension engineers' careful work in making a fast car easy to live with.
The car's steering response, already sharp, becomes hyper-sensitive and you find yourself gripping the wheel fairly tightly along bumpy stretches of B-road. Added to which, even though the rear springs are tougher than they were, the wheel once again needs careful handling lest you make the rear end roll about.
Reverting to the original 16-inch tyres is the answer, because it keeps most of that authority while introducing a touch of relaxation - but 18-inch wheels are, it seems, what people want.
Wheeler shrugs. "I know," he says. "We spend a lot of time making the car how we want and then people pay us a lot of money to spoil it."
Spoil is a bit harsh, but it seems odd that such an autocratic individual would allow himself to be deflected from his original goal. Let's hope Wheeler's not going soft and listening too earnestly to the marketing mob, because the Tuscan is unique in today's market place and is one of the most exciting cars available anywhere.
It's not perfect, but it does represent a collection of options which you simply won't find assembled anywhere else. A conventional TVR would be like a front-wheel drive Ferrari. It can't happen.
TVR Tuscan Speed Six
Price/availability: £39,750/on sale now.
Engine/transmission: 3,996cc, petrol, all-aluminium in-line six-cylinder with DOHC and four valves per cylinder. 360bhp at 7,000rpm and 310lb ft of torque at 5,250rpm. Five-speed manual gearbox driving the rear wheels via a limited-slip differential. Performance: top speed 180mph (claimed), 0-60mph in 4.4sec, average fuel consumption less than 20mpg.
Worth considering: BMW M Roadster, from £40,600. Porsche Boxster 3.2 S, from £38,330.
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Mfg Uwe
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TVR = gutes CO2 !!!!!!!!!!!!!
oder:
Lasst uns das Benzin verbrennen bevor es sich der Chinese holt!
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