Wednesday, June 2, 2010

A car as bad assed as it looks: TVR Sagaris

If you read my post on the hardcore TVR Cerbera you wont be surprised that TVR had more crack head projects.


In modern automotive design there have been a dilemma in the realm of sport cars. Most of them just look too soft, and the ones that look hard really are big softies. Examples include the Porsche 911 GT2, yea it looks sorta hard core, but in essence it still looks like a big winged smiling beetle. Despite its softie looks it will kill you if you even mess up slightly. The Audi R8 looks like something a hitman would drive but it really is a gentleman's car. So this issue brings me to this car, the TVR Sagaris.

The Sagaris, like all TVR's gets its name from something epic and medieval. In this case its a battle axe. But the brute force continues, under the bonnet is TVR's tried and true 4.0L inline 6, half the engine of the Cerbera Speed 12 but no less the grunt. Despite only pushing out 380hp it cuts the 0-60 sprint in 3.7s [Comparison Ferrari 599 GTB with 620hp does the same time] So it ticks the badass performance and history boxes but the list goes on. Unlike the previously mentioned Porsche 911 GT2, the Sagaris lacks airbags, ABS, traction control and stability management. All of these are required by law to be installed into all cars for safety reasons. TVR's argument have always been: "don't crash then".

Now to move on to the looks..... look at it. It's design is pure race car with a shot of LCD. Those wheel arches flared with vents look like dragon gills [a gyarados to be accurate] The exhaust just kicks conventional design in the face by exiting right behind the rear wheel. Its path from the rear of the car to its exit is unprotected so you can get motorcycle like exhaust burns [these pics are of the concept, the production model is shown in the video below hence the difference in exhausts] The spoiler is plastic, clear and looks like it was pulled from NASCAR. Its sorta elegant but it kinda makes you think "hmmmm this might make the car flip over"

To me, the average car can be compared to a majestic piece of sculpture or something similar but every time I look at this car, I see Kratos. I can't imagine Kratos driving this but it is close. In fact I can't think of any one looney enough to drop into a Sagaris. Its presence in Dizzee Rascal's - Flex music video confirms this. Its just parked there and he's leaning up on it. If I were Mr. Rascal I would have done the same thing. The Sagaris is in an elite list of vehicles that I would like to own for owning sake. It's like Usain and his cheetah, I mean no one wants a cheetah as a pet but imagine how epic it would be to drop into a conversation.

There's a part in The Fast and The Furious where Brian asks Dom about the Charger, being very knowledgeable about the car and its history, Dom finally admits that he's scared to drive it. If I saw one of these in my garage, I'd say the same thing.





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