TVR has a reputation for hand-building fast sports cars, the Tamora has a better power-to-weight ratio than a Porsche 911 Turbo, Dodge Viper GTS, Ferrari 360 Modena, and Chevrolet Corvette. Tamora will top 170 mph, 60 mph in 4.4 seconds and hitting the 100-mph mark just 5.1 seconds later.

 This TVR is about as much fun as you can have on terra firma while fully clothed, stone-cold sober, and uninfluenced by recreational pharmaceuticals. There's more than enough straightline acceleration to drain the blood from your eyeballs, the chassis copes with so much grunt. The basic layout, front and rear, consists of upper and lower control arms with anti-roll bars and coil-over-gas dampers. High-geared steering that's almost telepathically communicative complements plenty of grip and sharp handling. The Tamora is one of those exquisitely balanced and very responsive mile eaters that require little more than a flexing of the wrists and appropriate amounts of pressure on the loud pedal.

TVR's customers tend to be real enthusiasts rather than poseurs, so the chassis feels increasingly competent as the pace increases, and the ride, a little stiff at low speeds, becomes surprisingly smooth and absorbent and wickedly sharp,

The Tamora is old-school in the most exciting and praiseworthy sense of the term. It's a delightfully tactile, communicative sports car that's easy to drive in slow-moving traffic but comes vividly alive when wanted.