The 1980 Tasmin was new breed of plush and pricey TVR in the mould of the Lotus Elite. Fashionably angular, it appeared first with the German 2.8 FordV6. The problem was that things didn’t get really interesting until the V8 350i was announced to the market in 1982. These 138 mph machines were initially built for the Arab market. However, they soon banished the V6 Tasmin from the TVR order books. You could understand why buyers loved their beefy exhaust notes and muscular performance. Most of them were convertibles using Rover’s injected Vitesse V8, goo for 190 bhp. The 350i spawned a whole raft of ever more aggressive derivatives throughout the 1980s, increasing TVR’s status as a marker of credible performance cars. the shape seemed to date quickly but exhibitionists were attracted to the car’s extrovert character. The V8 engine was very powerful at that time with 3528 cc. The chassis was built from tubular back bone, with front disc brakes and the five speed manual transmission was built for the car.
Suspension was independent and the top speed of the car was 138 mph (220 km/h). It reached 0-60 mph (96 km/h) in just 6.0 seconds. If the shape didn’t have much class, then the chassis of the 350i certainly did, offering composure, poise and instant over steer if necessary. Production of the 350i held out until 1990, with no slackening of demand, as TVR began to prepare their new range of Griffith and Tuscan sports cars that really took the company into the big league.
