TVR made the Tuscan's body to a very high standard in glassfibre, so any uneven panel gaps or misaligned panels point to poorly repaired crash damage. More likely to be a problem is stone chipping to the nose of the car. This is relatively easy to repair, but cars with 'flip' paint schemes will be very expensive to put right as toners cost around £1,000 per litre. These paint schemes are also notoriously difficult to match without a full body respray.
Underneath the nose of the Mk1 Tuscan S and Mk2 models is a splitter that is very easy to catch on speed bumps and steep driveway entrances. Look for one in good condition as a sign of a careful and fastidious owner. Mk1 models are easy to spot as they have three stacked light indents either side, while the Mk2 has only two light pods and they have Perspex covers where the Mk1's are unenclosed. The Mk2 also does without the 'pepper pot' front grille but has one-piece rear light lenses compared to the Mk1's individual rear lights. The Mk2 Convertible has a fold-down fabric roof in place of the lift-out panels of the earlier models.
Twin faired-in lights distinguish Mk2 Tuscan
The lift-out roof panel and rear screen stow away in the boot easily and the boot is very generous in size for carrying luggage. It's not uncommon for the rear screen to blow out of its position if only the roof section is removed as air pressure builds under the rear window. Stronger aluminium securing clips are available, as used in racing TVRs, and they solve this potential problem. Squeaks and rattles from the rear screen are not uncommon. The same problem afflicts the doors where the door card has begun to come away from its mounts.
The windows in the doors are known to stop working due to faulty electrics. Usually it's simply the small electronic encoder board has become wet. Removing the door card and drying out the encoder board should sort this and covering them in silicone spray should help prevent it happening again.
Other electrical gremlins include the door buttons failing to work due to the electrics getting wet. If you're sat in the car and the door buttons fail, there are two red release cables under the dash to let you open the doors. From the outside, there is an emergency way to open the doors, but this is best left unpublished here.
The bonnet of the Tuscan was sealed shut from the factory so it could only be accessed for servicing and maintenance. Many owners have now converted their cars with a hinged bonnet, which is relatively cheap and easy to do, so they can look after the engine more easily.
Owner's view:
"Standard rear screen clips are rubbish. The first thing I did was upgrading to race proven ones: the clips are cheap plastic and the locks are weak and don't latch after a while."
Scott Divitt