There aren’t many things on this earth that can prepare you for what happens when a Sagaris really gets into its stride. Initially, there isn’t quite the eruption of wheelspin, tyre smoke and acceleration you might expect from a car with 406bhp and just 1159kg to lug around, but once you realise the Sagaris can do over 60mph in first gear and hit 100mph while still in second, your whole perception of the car’s performance shifts.
By the time 60mph arrives the juggling act between throttle, clutch, tyres and Tarmac has only just been resolved, hence the time of 3.9sec. It’s only once you select second within the snappy five-speed gearbox that the real damage is done against the stopwatch: 0-100mph takes a mere 8.5sec, 0-150mph just 20.0sec. To accelerate from the urban limit to the UK’s motorway maximum takes 3.0sec. By any standards that’s a mighty set of statistics.
It takes about 10 yards to realise how much better the Sagaris is dynamically compared with any previous TVR. It’s stiff, yes, but not in an uncomfortable or unrefined way. The Sagaris has shades of the Lotus Elise about the way in which it appears to seemingly glide over rough surfaces without upsetting its occupants.
Yet what really distinguishes the Sagaris dynamically is its control at high speeds. And its precision. And, most important of all, its ability to change direction oblivious to the normal forces of nature without feeling in any way neurotic, as TVRs have tended to in the past. Because of its new-found suspension composure and its low weight, the Sagaris is a car you’ll naturally want to attack corners in with confidence.
It steers far better than any of its predecessors too, with as much feel as there is accuracy and almost none of the kickback that used to afflict old TVRs. Put simply, it’s a car whose nose you can nail to whichever apex you wish, secure in the knowledge that the rest of the car will follow suit. It is not a car that feels like it might bite.