The TVR Sagaris Sports Car

It’s not surprising that public opinion was split on the TVR Sagaris when its prototype debuted in 2003. The Sagaris, possibly the last TVR model ever produced, looks every bit the mythical beast that many of its company’s models—like the Chimaera and Cerbera—were named after. If you’re looking for attention, the Sagaris would be my recommendation and guarantee to steal the spotlight in any major metro area—in the world.

The family tree of the TVR Sagaris

TVR Sagaris

The Sagaris is the ultimate evolution of the TVR Tamora and TVR T350 Targa and Coupe models and is generally praised as TVR’s finest road car. Its base is a rigid tubular steel backbone chassis with a slightly wider track than the Tamora/T350. A roll cage is also neatly integrated into the vehicle’s frame without interfering with ingress and egress to the vehicle and without obscuring sight lines to some of the interior’s beautiful details. A hand-laid, lightweight fiberglass body completes the chassis and helps keep the Sagaris at a lean and mean, competition-ready weight of just 2,371 lbs.

Endurance racing-ready bodywork & Bilstein-tuned suspension

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The hand-painted, composite bodywork of the TVR Sagaris is its defining feature. Its numerous scoops and intake vents give it an aggressive appearance, certainly making it look like the lightweight, armor-piercing “sagaris” battle-axe it is named after. But these exterior features are more for function than they are for form as the Sagaris was originally designed to compete in endurance racing, which requires that all of the racecar’s key components remain as cool and ventilated as possible during the extended periods of time out on track. The Sagaris is widely praised for its handling, no doubt aided by joint research and development with Bilstein, the well-established shock manufacturer, in fine tuning the independent double wishbone suspension familiar to the TVR model lineup. Lengthened wishbones, altered pickup points and a slightly wider wheel track vs. earlier TVR models are all changes which give the Sagaris its infamously responsive front end.

Old school drivetrain: TVR Speed Six engine + Borg-Warner T5

TVR Sagaris

Powering the 2-door coupe is TVR’s very own Speed Six engine, a 4.0-liter straight six producing 380-hp (before launch the Sagaris was marketed as having 406-hp, this was later downgraded). The twin-cam, 24-valve engine is mated to a Borg-Warner T5 five-speed manual used as far back as the 1980s in the Ford Mustang. A gruff, throaty sound, which matches the Sagaris’s wild styling perfectly, can be heard from the dual exhausts which uniquely face perpendicular to the car’s chassis—shooting a raspy snarl to all those within earshot.

Smells like resin, drives like heaven

TVR Sagaris

The Sagaris was commonly faulted by automotive journalists on road tests for smelling like resin inside the cabin, a downside of the vehicle’s construction techniques and a telling reminder that this was no mass-produced people mover. It was, however, praised for being equally exciting to look at as it was to drive, which is just about the best piece of praise a car fanatic can lay upon an automobile. And although I personally have never driven one, if the TVR indeed does drive half as fun as it looks, I can only imagine what it’d be like to take a spin in one.

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