TVR T350 (2002 - 2006) review: an exotic British icon for £30k

In 2003, a year after TVR had introduced the Tamora to replace the Griffith and Chimaera roadsters, it launched the T350. Based on the Tamora, the T350 was available in coupe and (a year later) targa-topped forms, with a swooping glass hatch that had a surprisingly aerodynamic profile thanks to time in MIRA’s wind tunnel. If the name was a little unromantic, it was at least descriptive: 350 referred to the power output of the car’s 3.6-litre TVR-developed Speed Six engine, and a healthy figure for a car that, like all TVRs, was light at under 1.2 tons.

The T350 therefore sat above the Tamora but below the Tuscan in the brand’s range, though in 2005 it spawned its own range-topper, the belligerent-looking Sagaris, powered by a 4-litre version of the Speed Six, weighing even less, and sporting some of the most spectacular details yet on a TVR, from its see-through spoiler to side-exit exhausts.

> TVR: Why we think it’s all over

Both the T350 and Sagaris would hang on until the brand’s messy end under Nikolay Smolensky, and would be among one of the last cars the company made. In all, TVR moved around 460 units of the T350 across its coupe and targa variants. Low by the standards of most of the cars created during Peter Wheeler’s tenure, but not bad for only four years on sale - and it means that finding one today isn’t difficult.

Great to look at inside and out, thrilling to drive, and costing about the same as a brand-new Mazda MX-5, it ticks plenty of boxes too, whether you’re a seasoned TVR enjoyer or are approaching the brand afresh. It delivers an experience that you won’t really find in more mainstream used sports cars from the likes of Porsche, Lotus, Alpine, or BMW.

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For

• Sleek and exotic styling looks like nothing else on the road
• Speed Six engine feels as brawny and raucous as it ever was
• A great British sports car for new MX-5 money

Against

• Sharp steering and busy ride take some getting used to
• You’re on your own as far as driver assistance goes
• Touring range isn’t great unless you have a light right foot

Price

£30,000-£45,000 (value today)

evo verdict 

Judged against sports cars that you can buy today for similar money, the TVR T350 is quirky and requires a degree of commitment to live with. But it’s also styled like nothing else (especially inside), feels like a hot-rod in a straight line, and its driving experience, while a little unsophisticated in some respects, is capable and hugely involving. Decades of accumulated knowledge mean running a T350 isn’t quite as risky as TVRs used to be either, and with prices starting at £30,000, we reckon it’s great value right now too.

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Engine, gearbox and technical highlights

• Remarkable Speed Six engine was designed and built by TVR itself
• No driver aids, but controls are calibrated to account for this
• 0-60mph in under five seconds, and 175mph flat out

It seems difficult to fathom today as enormous global car manufacturers strive to share as many parts as possible, and tiny boutique carmakers feed off the powertrain crumbs scattered on the floor by the multinationals, but in the 1990s and 2000s, TVR just… built its own engines. From scratch. And they were bloody good ones too, occasional flakiness notwithstanding.

The Speed Six was the brand’s inline six-cylinder, and the T350C received the smaller of the two capacities at 3.6 litres (a 4-litre variant could be found in the Cerbera, Sagaris, and Tuscan). The dry-sumped unit made 350bhp, falling just shy of 100bhp/litre, and punched 290lb ft of torque to the rear wheels through a five-speed Borg-Warner/Tremec gearbox (even TVR wasn’t nuts enough to make its own gearboxes).

In effect the recipe was similar to other TVRs of the period: a brawny engine dropped into a spaceframe chassis, clothed in jaw-dropping fibreglass bodywork, with a low kerb weight of only 1187kg. Suspension was double wishbones at all four corners so there was chassis sophistication too, and the T350C even got power steering – though true to TVR form, no ABS, and certainly no traction or stability control beyond a sensitive right foot, quick reactions, and a healthy dose of respect for the car’s limits. Big brakes though: 304mm up front and 282mm at the rear.

Driver’s note

“The engine dominates everything. It's such a shock after the smooth raspiness of the others, this is a more rumbly, heavy hitting engine. The throttle travel is really long so you have to fully commit to rev it out, but when you do the noise and muscularity are so addictive” – Yousuf Ashraf, Senior Staff Writer, evo issue 339.

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Performance, ride and handling

• Low weight and mighty Speed Six engine make for thrilling performance
• Long-travel throttle pedal is the car’s de facto traction control
• Busy ride and sharp steering, but you can get into a flow with more miles

The sheer performance of TVRs doesn’t hit quite like it used to, with rapid advancements in technology in the last few decades making 0-62mph figures somewhat meaningless, and sophisticated electronics and automatic gearboxes meaning you lunge towards the horizon with minimal skill and effort.

In the T350C though you’ll work hard for your 4.7sec 0-62mph time, and that number is still anything but slow. The manual gearshift is weighty and mechanical, the engine needs commitment to rev out, and the suspension isn’t quite up to the job of dealing with our increasingly broken roads, so you’ll need to hang on to get the best from it. The experience of winding out the raw, growling ‘six is addictive however, and nothing if not involving.

And while it can feel busy over bumps, the T350 gels when you start to push. It’s got fundamentally good balance, there are no uneven spikes in the power delivery, and TVR’s form of mechanical traction control – giving you a throttle pedal with a deep arc – make it an intuitive car to get on top of (if not one with the easy-going pace and security of a modern equivalent). Only the over-light, surprisingly quick steering can be an issue, making the first few miles behind the wheel feel a little edgy.

It’s never less than exciting though, and a fast drive leaves you feeling energised in the same way you would with a Caterham, just with a better soundtrack and a roof over your head.

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Driver’s note

“I was surprised by how friendly it is when you really push. It almost seems to calm down when it loses traction, and the power delivery is really manageable.” – Yousuf Ashraf, Senior Staff Writer, drove the T350 on evo’s six-cylinder sports car test in issue 339

MPG and running costs

• Economy between 15-25mpg depending on how hard you clog it
• Touring range of 275 miles if you’re fairly gentle
• Values have held firm for some time, so depreciation isn’t an issue

It is fair to say that most T350 owners probably won’t spend much time carefully monitoring their fuel economy, but peruse owner forums and consensus seems to economy in the low to mid-20mpg range in general driving, something in the teens if you’re enjoying it, and a shade under 30mpg on an exceedingly gentle cruise.

To put that in terms that might be more relevant based on how you’ll use the car, TVR’s figure of a 63-litre tank equates to 13.8 gallons, which is a range of 345 miles at 25mpg, 276 miles at 20mpg, or 207 miles at 15mpg. More realistically, most owners seem to squeeze no more than about 50 litres into the car – around 11 gallons – which means a tank-to-tank 275, 220, or 165 miles using the economy figures above. Unless your friends have a Caterham or a Mitsubishi Evo, you’ll probably be the one dictating fuel stops on a road trip…

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In terms of overall ownership, years of accumulated knowledge and clued-up marque specialists should reduce the likelihood of a failure-to-proceed these days. Finding 225/35 (fronts) and 235/40 (rear) tyres for the 18-inch wheels isn’t too much of an issue (and won’t be too expensive compared to the 19- and 20-inch wheels of modern sports cars) while the car’s light weight is beneficial when it comes to other consumables, too.

Depreciation is a non-issue. Values have long since passed the bottom of the curve and while a general slowdown in the collector car market means we’re not in a period of rapidly increasing values right now, there probably won’t be a huge swing if you buy a T350 today and sell it a few years down the line. Not free motoring perhaps, but it’s not going to sting like the depreciation on a brand new car.

Interior and technology

• Spectacularly swoopy cabin makes every drive feel special
• A single-DIN stereo is about as technologically advanced as it gets
• Bespoke switchgear sets the TVR apart from other small-volume sports cars

‘Technology’ in a TVR tends to be whatever aftermarket single-DIN stereo you cram into the swoopy dashboard. Which these days, does mean you can find a unit that works with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, so road-tripping in a T350 needn’t mean sitting there in silence. Well, as silent as the Speed Six engine ever gets, anyway.

The cabin though is a bit of a place of wonder. It’s a leather-lined cocoon from TVR’s swoopiest period of design, the only straight lines in the entire cabin being the needles on the dials. Despite the occasional parts-bin component (like those round air vents that must have seen service in hundreds of cars over the years), it feels incredibly special, from the custom-made switches to the no-nonsense three-spoke Personal steering wheel that TVR fitted from the factory, and the evocative dials in the instrument cluster.

Pedal offset aside, the T350 is surprisingly comfortable too. It’s accommodating of taller drivers, without feeling too hemmed-in, the seats are well-shaped, and the glass tailgate opens up to a reasonably useful boot, so touring isn’t out of the question.

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Prices and buying options

When new the T350C was priced at just under £39,000, and the targa-topped T350T another couple of thousand on top of that. Anyone who bought one new and has hung onto it for the past few decades will be pleased to discover that their investment has held somewhat firm (if you ignore inflation), since the average value of a T350 on the market today is in the region of £30,000 to £45,000 depending on all the usual factors – mileage, condition, whether or not it’s in a desirable colour.

We drove the T350C back to back with three other iconic six-cylinder sports cars in evo 339: the 981-generation Porsche Cayman GT4, Lotus Evora Sport 410, and BMW Z4 M Coupe. Today, you can get into the similarly front-engined BMW for a chunk less than the TVR, but the best T350 on the market still undercuts the entry point for either the Lotus or Porsche. Perhaps the closest competition for the T350C is another TVR, since a good Tuscan is in a similar ballpark to the T350, as is the Cerbera, while low-end T350 money will also net you a seriously nice Griffith or Tamora.