Small scale car producers TVR played the ‘Lotus alternative’ roll throughout the 1960s and ‘70s with a range of pretty, curvaceous fiberglass coupé bodies sitting on a steel tube backbone chassis.

Into the early 1980s and TVR caught up with the Origami trend for more angular bodies and though still dynamically excellent machines, the uncompromising styling of the Tasmin and its brethren proved to have a relatively short shelf life.

For the V8 S they tweaked the engine up to 3.9 litres with a 10.5:1 compression ratio, popped on gas flowed heads with free breathing manifolds and inserted a high lift cam.

The resultant 240 bhp and 270 lb/ft of torque propelled the roadster, via a Rover five-speed gearbox and a limited slip differential, to 60 in five seconds and on to 150mph while giving it real world 50 to 70 in top gear performance that was superior to an Aston Martin Virage or Ferrari Testarossa.

‘Boom’, as they say these days.

This nice British classic is presented in Cooper Gree...