TVR SAGARIS
Exactly how wild do you like your TVRs? Remember were dealing with degrees of extremity here. The starting point on the TVR ladder the Tamora is already teetering at the far end of, say, the Porsche sanity scale. Opt instead for the Sagaris and youll be landing an Anti Social Behaviour Order on wheels. Its heady stuff.
The Sagaris is a development of the T350, a car that had already been inspired by the requirements of motorsport. Named after a Greek word for war axe, the Sagaris looks as if its been given a few whacks. The front splitter and rear diffuser would be signature styling features on most sports cars but its the Sagaris bodywork that draws most attention. Its cleaved with a number of cooling ducts, gills and vents that TVR claim are fully functional, venting high-pressure air and keeping the car stuck to the tarmac.
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TVRs flagship racing series, the Tuscan Challenge, was rebranded as the TVR Challenge to allow various Blackpool-based cars, including the Sagaris, an entry ticket and the car has also campaigned in various GT racing categories. In order to limit the amount of modifications necessary for racing, TVR has beefed up the T350 chassis, endowing the Sagaris with an even more purposeful stance than the already solidly planted T350. The Sagaris features a wider track than the T350 for grip and stability and is propelled by the 400bhp, straight-six engine from the Tuscan S, with which it also shares a price of £49,995. TVR claims a top speed of around 195mph and 0-60 in 3.
7 seconds. Whilst the top end figure may seem a little optimistic given that the slipperier and more powerful Porsche 911 Turbo struggles to make 193mph, theres little doubt that the flyweight TVRs acceleration from a standing start is nothing less than concussive. 0-100mph takes just 8.1s.
"The Sagaris is an unremittingly ferocious car"
Standard equipment includes a full leather and carbon-fibre interior, CD stereo, power steering, limited slip differential, gas discharge headlamps and a two-year unlimited mileage warranty. Theres no air conditioning fitted as it was decreed that this would add too much weight. Shaving weight is a Sagaris theme, the cross-woven Vinylester bodywork saving 50-60kg over conventional glassfibre. Peeking from behind the 18-inch multispoke alloy wheels are some serious brakes, 304mm ventilated discs up front and 282mm rotors at the back.
Value for money has long been a key TVR theme with their wares comparing very favourably on a bhp per pound sterling basis with any of their rivals. You might well expect the likes of Porsche and Ferrari to command a few more shekels than a TVR but these days even cars like the Noble M12 have crept up to considerably more than the Bristol Avenue company are charging. Compared to the Sagaris price, the latest Noble M12 GTO3-R looks rather expensive and the M400 version even more so. The cabin ambience makes the TVR feel a significantly more special place to be, although it would be a brave person who took both cars to their limits on track in order to finalise a buying decision! The fact that you could afford a Sagaris, a BMW M3 and a Lotus Exige for the price of a Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale throws the value proposition into clear perspective.
TVR should also be given credit for designing their own engine rather than buying in a third party unit and subsequently modifying it. That Speed Six engine, designed completely in house, is no thud and blunder anachronism either. Its an all-alloy unit with four valves per cylinder and a fully mapped engine management system with some genuinely sophisticated engineering built into the manifolds and catalysts. The individual throttle butterflies on every cylinder seem to hardwire that throttle pedal to the engine, the revs rising and falling almost instantaneously with minimal flywheel effect.
Power assisted steering could be construed as evidence of TVR going soft in its old age, but customers find their TVRs marginally less uncontrollable with a bit of help from a subservient servo, so there it is. The steering is still very quick and theres a signal lack of airbags anywhere about the cabin, and theres also no anti-lock on the braking system, something that TVR may well have to address in the medium term due to forthcoming European legislation. One of the more reassuring things about the Sagaris is that the technology that underpins it is maturing nicely. Whereas buyers of new TVR models have often had the suspicion that they were acting as unpaid test drivers, the Speed Six engine has had most of its early teething troubles ironed out and the T350 chassis is itself a development of the Tuscan underpinnings.
With tried and tested independent double wishbones and coil over gas dampers with anti roll bars, the suspension is eminently tuneable. The incremental development incurred in the creation of the Sagaris has largely hinged around weight saving and styling, two areas where TVR never fail to excel. Theres something extremely desirable about the Sagaris that shows that TVR can compete fairly and squarely against rivals from BMW, Porsche and Ferrari. Its still an unremittingly ferocious car but when companies like Porsche, Ferrari and BMW attempt to go down the stripped out and hardened route, they just charge a lot more for it.
Whats more, they dont do it with quite such manic conviction as the Sagaris. If moderation is a word that rarely enters your vocabulary, TVR will be willing to accept your deposit.
Facts At A Glance
CAR: TVR Sagaris
PRICE: £49,995 - on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 20
PERFORMANCE: Max Speed 195mph / 0-60mph 3.7s
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (average) 18mpg [est]
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height 4035/1885/1195mm
