BACK TO BASICS

Insurers were beginning to turn against hot hatches by the early ’90s; while they were adored by all walks of life, premiums began to mitigate against them.

Four-cylinder sports cars from mass manufacturers had died with the Triumph TR7, but higher performance six- and eight-cylinder models survived in the hands of small-scale makers, including Morgan, Reliant and TVR. With the vast parts bin of the British motor industry to call on and smaller overheads, these faster and more costly cars could survive in the specialised ends of the sports car market, for which niche demand in Britain has always existed.

A shock to the sports car consciousness was delivered in 1989, however, when a certain Japanese marque proved that the cheap roadster was a lucrative sales proposition.

TVR V8S (1991-1994)

In evolutionary terms, the V8S was a fascinating model for TVR; it adopted the running gear from the nascent