Top 10 Supercars of Last Decade – TVR Sagaris
Author: Chris Barker
Published: 19 August 2008
Continuing to stride through MT’s Top ten supercars of the last decade, and its day four.The bad news is that you’ve missed out on the first three entries in this web-based hall of supercar fame, for a quick recap that'll be the Bugatti Veyron, Lamborghini Reventon. But on a brighter note there’s seven more days – and therefore supercars – still to go. If you include today’s offering to the Gods of automobilia, which is none other than the TVR Sagaris. Like many before it, sadly now no more, defunct, nil, zero, ok. You get the picture. If you don’t however, MT has five more to tickle your fancy with, which will render your immediate submission like a manic Ken Dodd on hallucinogenics would. Seamless. From the Diddyman to motoring’s equivalent of the Candyman of urban legend fame. You know, utter the name five times in succession and brace yourself for a visit from something that’ll scare the pants off you. Well, it goes by the name of the TVR Sagaris.
TVR Sagaris
Cost: £37K or as near as damn it, for a good nick example of the last 2006 model year version. £50K when new.Speed: 195mph+Claim to fame: Taking its name from an armour-penetrating axe, the choice of weapon favoured by a particularly violent people called the Scythians who roamed the Greek world from the 8th Century.Why it gets our thumbs up: Eschewing nannying driver aids that are commonplace in modern cars, making supercar driving the brutal, vicious seat-of-the-pants experience it was always supposed to be.Things may be looking a bit quiet in Blackpool's Russian Quarter these days, but who can forget what's gone before?By stirring up the kind of aural commotion that would make Beelzebub smart and looking like something that Robocop would regurgitate after a messy paraffin-addled session on the tiles, the Sagaris was fettled with endurance racing in mind.After lurching from British to Russian, to Austrian, to Russian, to American, and back to Russian ownership, TVR has had more nationalities at the helm than models rolled out in the past four years, and sadly matters don’t seem like improving anytime soon, as behind-the-scene rankling – interspersed only by blatant lies about when, where, who, which and what in terms of production – rumble on. Just like the Sagaris did once. Oops, we think that’s a tear forming in the eye.In its heyday – that'll between 2004 and 2006 – the Sagaris would show a flagrant disregard for EU guidelines, being that it wasn’t fitted with ABS, traction control or electronic stability, and reasoning that airbags are not overly important in the run of things either.Doing its level best to ignore just about any driver aid and rudimentary safety mollycoddling, the 380bhp 4.0-litre engine could help drivers realise 62mph in 3.7 seconds from a standing start, thanks to its straight-six engine that produced 349lb-ft of torque and took the Sagaris on to the unnerving side of 195mph.Brutal, but not entirely stripped down to its modesty like some supercars, the Sagaris remained a strangely cultured beast that may well have gone the same way as the dinosaurs, but in no way could it be accused of being caught in the past.A myriad of air vents and exterior intake orifices lends itself for endurance-primed track excursions, which was set to be the Sagaris’ mainstay and best advert, until Mr. Smolenski pulled its plug and TVR as a whole stared down the gun-barrel of insolvency. Still the finest looking TVR ever riveted together though.• View the full Top 10 Supercars of Last Decade articles: • Bugatti Veyron • Morgan Roadster • Lamborghini Reventon • TVR Sagaris • Nissan GT-R • Ferrari 360 Modena • Porsche 996 GT3
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