Legendary British sports car maker TVR was once the third-largest maker of high-end speciality sports cars in the world, combining low weights with powerful engines and iconic designs. They made their name by cramming big V8s into tiny British chassis, but over time interest and sales fell dramatically, and the automaker has been in a sort of corporate limbo. Its last new car, the Tuscan Speed Six, hasn’t been produced since 2006. Only this past summer was it revealed that TVR was developing an all new vehicle, and with it would come a bigger, badder V8 than anything before.
Britain’s AutoCar got a behind-the-scenes look at TVR’s testing facility, where the engine dyno was loaded up with a Cosworth-tuned 5.0 liter Coyote V8 that made so much torque, it overloaded the measurement equipment. Excited yet?
Cosworth and Ford go way, way back, and TVR has a history with the Blue Oval as well. For much of its history TVR has turned to Ford for motivating its vehicles, though it also used a few Rover engines, as well as motors of its own design. With plans to return to the market with an all-new vehicle in 2017, TVR needed to source something that’s reliable, affordable, and above all, powerful. Enter the Coyote V8.
In the 5 years since it first debuted, Ford’s reborn 5.0 has quickly garnered a reputation for being both bulletproof and extremely moddable. The Cosworth-tuned motors will get unique engine management systems related to cam timing, a lighter flywheel, dry sump oil pump, and modified exhaust manifolds for a side exhaust system. TVR says this will deliver horsepower levels between 450 and 500, up from the 412 the Euro-spec Mustang motor is rated at.
While hardly dyno-breaking power, the modified Coyote motor made more torque than expected, forcing the testing equipment to shut down. After it was recalibrated, the motor was shown to be capable of lapping the Le Mans circuit in 3 minutes and 40 seconds, which would have put it towards the front of the pack in the GT3 category.
Bench racing is all well and good, but we’re more interested to see how the flyweight TVR (which will supposedly only weigh around 2,400 pounds) performs in the real world. 2017 is the proposed launch date, and after seeing these results, there can be no doubt that the Coyote V8 is the only choice for motor. The grand tradition of big American V8s in small British sports cars is alive and well.