Anyone ordering an 'R' will be getting a particularly tailor made car. Whilst all TVRs are build to customers' specifications, the Tuscan R will benefit from a greater range of options and unique features. Not only will trim and colour combinations be decided by the customer but also the capacity and the level of tune of the Speed Six engine. At the top end of the power scale, TVR can provide a 4.2 litre 450bhp unit that will rev  to 8,000rpm.

Depending on how you envisage using the car, you can have it set up for road or track. Suspension settings are optional and you can even have a full race spec roll cage built in to the already strong chassis. The chassis is all new, made using the same type of stressed aluminium honeycomb panels as used in the mighty Speed 12 race car. The chassis is then clothed with a carbon and kevlar composite body which helps to keep the weight down. Target weight for the car is a mere 1000kg, giving it a power to weight ratio of 450bhp/tonne, significantly better than most supercars.

The seating arrangements are also flexible. From luxurious full hide through to carbon kevlar racing seats the choice is yours.  Any combination from one seat through to four in a 2+2 arrangement is possible. With all four seats, the car has a couple of inches more room than a Cerbera as well as a good sized boot, making this one of the fastest family cars around. Should you elect to pass up on the rear seats, you can have extra fuel tanks put in for long distance cruising.

The cars will be sold through the dealer network, but serious punters will be invited to the Blackpool factory for demonstrations and to sort out the personalisation of cars. The R's will also be serviced exclusively by the factory. Five cars were sold prior to the motor show and more cars were sold in the first few days of the show. As part of the package, owners will enjoy hospitality at race days, special visits to the factory, track days and an individual range of merchandising.

With the car designed by the motorsport division at TVR, the Tuscan R is very much a GT car which can be tailored for road use rather than the reverse. We can expect to see at least five giving the Porsches a hard time in the 2001 British GT series, raising TVR's profile even higher. 

For those owners who choose to use them as road cars, they'll have a unique car very much in the tradition of bespoke GT cars of old. In these days of mass mergers and automationin the motor industry, TVR is once again bucking the trend and providing fantastically fast bespoke cars at relatively accessible prices.