Tvr Tuscan Le Mans
As related in our throwback look at the career of the TVR T400R (previously known as the Tuscan R) racers, TVR built seven of the cars for competition.
But where are the seven now?
Happily, three of the seven might be seen racing together when the COVID 19 crisis is over.
Chassis one, the first in competition, and the last to race at Le Mans, plus 4 x British GT seasons and three in the Le Mans Series is up for sale and ready to race in a variety of competitions now available for the cars. She was last seen on track at the Silverstone Classic last year (above).
The car has been in the ownership of racer John Hartshorne since late 2001 and after its initial race career finished, was loaned out by John to the British Motor Museum at Gaydon for many years, before coming back to racing in the 2019 Silverstone classic, pedalled by John's regular Le Mans Cup co-driver Ollie Hancock who is now entrusted with selling the car on.
You can see details of the car, and contact details for even further details for serious enquirers Here >>
Chassis two, the ex Rollcentre car, and now back in the 2002 livery for the car is in regular competition and has run both at Classic Le Mans (in 2018) and at the Classic Daytona 24 Hours in 2015 (below).
The car was owned until relatively recently by TVR specialist Jason Clegg, whose Str8Six company in Oxfordshire has done copious work on refining the often troublesome engined for the race cars.
Clegg though wanted a car that had raced at Le Mans and finally persuaded Lawrence Tomlinson to part company with one of his collection (of which more later).
He finally managed to persuade the Ginetta Cars Chairman to sell him chassis four, an ex De Walt liveried Le Mans Car that had been entirely disassembled. This car raced at Le Mans in both 2003 and 2004.
Now fully restored the car has tested (not without some dramas!) But is now ready to race in either 2020 or 2021 restored to full health and in full Le Mans livery.
To allow the resource to complete the restoration Clegg sold on the Rollcentre car to friend and ex TVR Tuscan Challenge racer Andy Holden who also hopes to race the car.
Chassis five, six and seven are all in the ownership of Lawrence Tomlinson.
All three are at the Ginetta factory at Garforth and are in Team LNT Purple and Orange livery.
The trio includes the final two cars built, the cars that finished first and second at the Spa 1000kms in 2005, TVRs only contemporary sportscar race victory. One car is displayed, alongside the 2006 Le Mans winning Team LNT Panoz, on the mezzanine workshop level at Garforth, also home at present to the Team LNT Ginetta LMP1s.
The third car at Garforth is Chassis five, the other Le Mans car from 2003 and 2004.
That accounts for six of the seven.
The 'missing link' is chassis three, the ex Eclipse Motorsport car, originally liveried in dailysportscar colours!
That car has, quite remarkably, been converted by another TVR specialist for roadgoing use!
Brendan Allen, owner of Concept Performance in Sheffield, is rather remarkably based just minutes away from Eclipse Motorsport's John Griffiths, the two had previously been acquaintances but met again after Brendan bought a T400R windscreen via eBay and the seller turned out to be John, and had the T400R for sale!
Since then the car has been converted for the road, though all changes can be reversed to see it go back into full race trim.
The car had custom wheels made and fitted, the exhausts now exit to the rear and not the side. It has fog lamps and a handbrake fitted to clear MoT requirements too.
The car still runs the original diff but with revised, and somewhat more compliant, suspension and the racing sequential box has been replaced too with bushes fitted to engine and gearbox to add just a little touch more refinement.
The car is though still a very extreme proposition!
Brendan also has a good chunk of the original factory tooling for the bodywork and has done repairs for other T400Rs.
Is it for sale? "Like anything else for the right price, yes, but if I sold it I'd likely use the money to build a replica, it really is my dream car!"
Source: http://www.dailysportscar.com/2020/05/05/tvr-tuscan-r-racers-where-are-they-now.html
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