While we in the United States may think we’ve long since cornered the market on raw, overpowered sports cars (hi, Dodge Viper/Hellcat/Demon), there remain plenty of comers from other parts of the planet who seek to carve out a chunk of the scary performance machine market for themselves. One lesser-known example from the United Kingdom: TVR, a boutique sports car company that’s died and been resurrected more times than Adam Sandler’s career. After roughly a decade of largely sitting idle, the British carmaker is once again hard at work on a new high-performance speed machine.
We caught our first glimpse at the new TVR in a YouTube video last year; now, we know when we’ll see it in the flesh. In a press release issued Monday, TVR announced it intends to unveil its all-new sports car at the Goodwood Revival on September 8th.
The new car—which goes officially nameless for now—has been drafted in coordination with Gordon Murray Design and will feature that company’s advanced carbon-fiber construction process, giving the TVR a connection with the fabled McLaren F1—a fact you can be sure owners of the new TVR will be sure to point out every chance they can. But even more than most cars, the heart and soul of a TVR is what lies under the hood: in this case, a Cosworth-designed V8 5.0-liter based on Ford’s Coyote eight-pot and cranking out about 480 horsepower. Factor in a weight of around 2,640 pounds, and TVR says the new car will blitz from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than four seconds and top out at 200 mph.
The price for all this mechanical madness? Less than £90,000 ($116,300 at current exchange rates).
Along with the press release, the company also released the following image, which reveals exactly nothing about the car other than the fact that it will have a tailpipe on the side.
While the September event will be the public’s first chance to slap eyes on the new car, potential customers have been scoping it out already for some time—albeit in early, conceptual forms. Nevertheless, the company says it has already seen enough interest in the 500-example “Launch Edition” that it’s putting a freeze on any further deposits until the official debut, at which point intends to re-open the books.
Oh, and if you happen to be wondering why the name TVR seems oddly familiar even though you have little interest in British sports cars, you’re likely remembering the company from the TVR Tuscan Speed Six’s appearance in the 2001 thriller Swordfish, where it starred alongside Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry’s breasts, and John Travolta’s buttcrack goatee.
