‘Just press and hold the black button and it’ll re-start.’
Seems like a simple instruction, but it takes me a few seconds to gain my bearings in this unorthodox cabin. I had been briefed on the visual cacophony of unmarked buttons and dials by TVR guru James Agger only minutes earlier – with a pre-warning that I would definitely stall the Cerbera at some point. And then the inevitable happens… So I’m slightly red-faced, but, as soon as the riotous AJP V8 engine fires back into life, the mild embarrassment fades into the background.
Every now and again a car manufacturer builds something that blows everything else out of the water, and that’s exactly what the Cerbera did in 1993 when it was first shown at the London Motor Show. TVR’s then-owner Peter Wheeler had a vision to create the fastest, maddest yet most grown-up car ever to wear his marque’s badge. It would have a fixed roof and a pair of seats in the back so you could take the kids out with you, and it would be named after the multi-headed dog of Greek mythology. You know, the one that ferociously guarded the gates of Hell.
I’m seeing the Cerbera today for the first time in quite a while, and I’d forgotten just how low, long and incredibly curvaceous these cars look. Unadorned with spoilers, wings or even door locks
