TVR used to be a very small company that made typical British sports cars – in Blackpool, Lancashire, of all places. They followed the same formula as all the other constructors: lightweight fiberglass body on a great-handling chassis and a lightly-tuned straight-4 to provide the power. AC broke away from the norm when Carroll Shelby squeezed an enormous American V8 into their Ace to create the Cobra and that gave everyone the same idea – why not do the same for other Brit sports cars?

It was tried with a variety of cars and TVR were no exception, but nothing earth-shattering was created until the eighties, when the company was bought by Peter Wheeler, a millionaire with big ideas. He wanted to make TVR into a “serious” sports car manufacturer.

The result was a series of models that multiplied to the point of confusion. They all had one thing in common, however – they were ridiculously overpowered and a handful to drive as a result. Until the Sagaris of 2004, that is.

The styling is very TVR, aggressive and slightly over the top, but at last the company had produced a car that could handle the power delivered by its 4 liter straight-6. And the result was a car as desirable as any of the great Italian supercars at a fraction of the price.

Well, Jeremy Clarkson seems to think so, anyway…