TVR Tuscan Tuning

"Thanks for reading my TVR Tuscan tuning article."

The Tuscan was produced from 1999 to 2006, and was very dramatically styled, almost shark like, and one of my personal favourites from the TVR factory.

The Tuscan is an awesome project car to play with. If you do your research then you can create an awesome Tuscan but don't be fooled there are lots of uprated kits out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.

Lets look at the engines TVR offered on the Tuscan, all were NASP units and put out plenty of power.

• 3.6L Mk1: 350 bhp (261 kW; 355 PS), 290 lbft (393 Nm)
• 4.0L Mk1: 360 bhp (268 kW), 310 lbft (420 Nm)
• 4.0L Mk1 Red Rose: 380 bhp (283 kW; 385 PS), 310 lbft (420 Nm)
• 4.0L Mk1 S (pre-2003): 390 bhp (291 kW; 395 PS) at 7,000 rpm 310 lbft (420 Nm) at 5,250 rpm
• 4.0L Mk1 S (2003 onwards): 400 bhp (298 kW; 406 PS), 315 lbft (427 Nm)

Mk 2 Tuscan range had new engine options with more power.

• 4.0L Mk2 (2005 onwards): 380 bhp (283 kW), 310 lbft (420 Nm)
• 4.0L Mk2 S (2005 onwards): 400 bhp (298 kW; 406 PS), 315 lbft (427 Nm)
• 4.0L Mk2 Convertible (2005 onwards): 360 bhp (268 kW), 310 lbft (420 Nm)
• 4.0L Mk2 Convertible Red Rose (005 onwards): 380 bhp (283 kW), 310 lbft (420 Nm)
• 4.2L Mk2 T440R (2003): 440 bhp (328 kW) at 7,600 rpm, 350 lbft (475 Nm) at 6,000 rpm.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for loads of people first priority in your Tuscan tuning project.

We found that most Tuscan factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out -around 1.5, and some negative camber will often improve your cornering and handling.

We would go to a maximum drop of 24mm - 39 mm on most models. You risk rubbing on the arches if you go lower than this.

Don't just look at the peak power figures, you need to see the whole torque curve when determining if a mod is right for you Tuscan.

Smaller engines do not provide much of a return in terms of power so start with a bigger engine. Engine swaps are a good option if you have a small engine size.

Tuning modifications.

Typically these motorsport upgrades are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to go before you start.

Getting the correct grade of performance upgrade kits for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 motor sport mods just won't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.

Please watch TorqueCars Video tutorial on car tuning. And be sure to subscribe and support our new channel.

Stages of Tune

Stage 1 mods: Panel air filter, Remap, Alloy wheels, Sports exhaust, Lighter flywheel, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm).

Stage 2 mods: Fast road cam, high flow fuel injector, fuel pump upgrades, Power/Sport clutch, Ported and polished head.

Stage 3 mods: Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Engine balancing, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Sports gearbox, Competition cam.

Your aim when modding your car should be a flat and wide torque output. You don't want all the power to be at the top end of the rev range unless you are creating a competition car.

The whole point of our pointers is to give a limited introduction of modifying performance parts and point you in the right direction, our forum is where you can ask for more detailed advice and tips on your modified car project, the best sport modifications and all aspects of modding cars.One of the biggest mechanical uprated mods you can do on your NASP engine is to fit a fast road cam .

The intake and exhaust durations play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car difficult to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a reflashed ECU to fully realise your gains.

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to ramp up the fuelling.

If you find you get flat spots and power surges after your modified upgrades you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Uprating the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned Tuscans uprated injectors.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up. Contrary to popular belief there is generally a small power gain to be had by fitting an induction kit, they only help and are recommended after you increase the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed on heavily tuned engines, this can be sited within an air box but a performance panel filter should suffice for most applications. TorqueCars suggest you use a panel air filter as these are easy to clean and maintain and generally perform better than paper ones.

Do not go with the largest exhaust you can buy this will slow the exhaust rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Getting a professionally polished and ported head with larger valves can fully maximise your power gains. In nearly all cases of Tuscan tuning your clutch will start to complain and this needs an upgrade - read our overview on clutches for more information. The best mods in our experience for your Tuscan are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.

Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NASP engine will give large power gains. It is usually easier to bolt on a supercharger than it is to install a turbo. With a turbo the boost curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it difficult to map fuelling with.

The nice steady boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them simpler to map. Alternatively you could perhaps add water injection to reduce the risk of knock.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

The benefits of alloys include lowering your unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling. If you are serious about performance then you will need to carefully choose your tires - ideally with a track legal slick tire. Please note although they can look cool on the Tuscan big alloy wheels will actually decrease your performance. The larger you go the lower your acceleration will be - this to the change in your effective final drive ratio.

For this reason endeavour to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel your OEM settings. In all cases we do not recommend going larger than 18 inches.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss Tuscan options in more detail with our Tuscan owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased TVR tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

There is a more updated version of this Tuscan Tuning article on TorqueCars.com

We need your help improving this article, so please send us your feedback in the comments box below and pass on any tips, points or facts we have wrong or have not covered. We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which mods were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our guides and tips are kept up to date.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under TVR. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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