In the late 1990s, Peter Wheeler began the project that would fulfil his ambition to see TVRs at Le Mans.

It would need to be built using modern composites,[1] be more rigid than any previous TVR and designed for 200 mph (322 km/h) on the Mulsanne Straight, to be stable and above all, to win.

There was one road car prototype built in 2001 which was displayed during its lifetime (it was cut up and destroyed) in two colours, purple and silver.

Shortly after TVR built the two road-going prototypes (the homologation cars) the project name changed.

Originally both badged as TuscanR, the FIA rules for Le Mans stipulated that there had to be two models so in 2002 the red car was rebranded as the T400R and the Fleetwood Brown car as the T440R (the latter with a 4.2L S6 opposed to the 4.0), named for the proposed BHP outputs of the models, and priced at £71,995 and £74,995 respectively.

The Typhon would be a supercharged 4.0L T440 with larger brakes and the option of a sequential gearbox over the standard 5SP manual.

The red T400R was seen briefly with the T440R badge before being re-styled in the De Walt colours and used as a Le Mans promotional vehicle.

The orange Typhon was fitted with the TVR Vortech supercharger and the in-house designed and built sequential box and went on to be retained by the factory as the development mule for the ill-fated Typhoon project.

Over the course of 2005, TVR stated that excessive heat from the supercharger was a cause of delivery delays but the closure of the Composites Department around that time suggests that this was a story to mask the deepening financial woes of the company.

[2] Engine[3] Engine (Final) (Proposed): Transmission Transmission: Five speed manual gearbox (six speed sequential gearbox) Suspension Front: Double wishbones with coil springs over adjustable gas dampers, anti-roll bar Rear: Double wishbones with coil springs over adjustable gas dampers, anti-roll bar Brakes Front: Vented discs with 4-piston calipers with 322 mm brake rotors Rear: Vented discs with single-piston calipers and 298 mm brake rotors Chassis/Body[1] Body: Carbon fibre mono shell bonded around the entire chassis.