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…

This has absolutely nothing to do with cars, except that it’s the Top Gear team. It’s quite funny, however, and might lift your spirits on a Monday.

The team attempt to play a song for Rednose Day (it’s a charity thing that began with Comic Relief) - and it’s quite good, amazingly enough. Just don’t ask me who Justin Hawkins is - I’m far too old to know things like that.

Anyway, here it is!

After all this stuff about saving the planet, it would do us all good to have a breath of fresh air in the form of something totally irresponsible. A Lamborghini, for instance - they’re always good for a fantasy or two.

Or are they? According to Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson, the company’s take-over by Audi has tamed the wild excesses of the Italian original. He seems somewhat disappointed in the Murcielago LP 640, apart from its power and speed, and I detect a certain nostalgia for the fins, scoops and protuberances usually associated with a Lambo. But I think it’s successful, in the looks department, at least. That dose of German seriousness has taken the edge off the usual Italian flair maybe, but it still looks like a Lamborghini.

So you have to drive it carefully? Isn’t that true of all supercars?

A while back I wrote about the Cadillac CTS-V and tried to explain why I like its looks. It’s a beefy thing and lives in that narrow world between ugliness and brilliance - in my opinion, erring on the side of brilliance.

But how does it perform? Knowing that it is raced in the States, I was very interested to find that Top Gear had tried it and you can see the result by clicking on this link. Be warned, however, Jeremy Clarkson is at his most obnoxious when talking of American cars!