A lot has happened since I wrote the first journal almost 4 months ago now, and we have been lucky to have had one of the hottest summers on record, even up here in North East Scotland!

On reading back my first entry now, it offered little apart from enthusiasm. Having had more time actually driving the car in all weathers means I feel I can now comment on what the car is like as a driver's tool. If I had to use one word to sum it up it would be: Interesting.

As I mentioned in the first journal, the car has upgraded Nitron Dampers fitted before I got the car; on smooth roads these are brilliant but if it starts to get bumpy, it can get very "interesting" very quickly.

I may try to contact them to see what the optimum settings are and maybe try to soften it up a bit to make it more compliant. As it stands, there is literally zero body roll; fine on smooth roads but the trade off is significant when it gets rougher.

Around town you regularly wince as the car crashes and bangs over potholes and other imperfections; if it's bad for me, god knows what passengers think!?

Outside town it's amazing the short time it takes the car to reach some of these "interesting" speeds; a quick overtaking blast and you really do have to throttle back quickly or risk not only your license but on poor surfaces, your self preservation. Some Tuscans have been timed from 0-100mph in just over 9 seconds!

Not helping bump absorption is the 255/35/18 tyres all round; the sidewall really is tiny. This was obviously an issue for the previous owners as the front near side rim was kerbed. I had these refurbed locally and they came up brilliantly, but I park about 3ft from the kerbs now! Whilst the wheels were in getting refurbed I was running around on a set of 16" Cerbera wheels; the difference in ride comfort was astounding, so much more pliant but they completely ruined the look of the car, I have never seen a set of wheels change a car so much. You could also feel the higher sidewall tyre flexing when throwing the car around which helped to make it more predictable, but as soon as the new tyres were on the 18" Spiders, they went on again and the looks were restored.

The refurb also gave a chance to see off the rear boots in a cloud of tyresmoke, immature yes, but fun, hell yeah!

In the wet the car really does require care, I had the tail wag on me under hard acceleration, at 85mph, in the rain, that was a buttock clenching moment, it all happened so quickly I didn't have time to correct and to be honest if I had I would have probably been off the road backwards. A lift and it sorted itself out but it gave me the fright I probably needed.

It's easy to slide around at low speeds in the wet or dry but once the speeds are higher I try to keep it all smooth, neat and tidy. It's not particularly progressive, and there is little warning when the grip does run out, in the dry you really can take big liberties but in the wet a badly driven shopping car would see it off fairly easily! Whether it's just me not having enough experience of the car in extremis I don't know, but in short I just don't know where the grip ends and a big off starts.

Tracking it has been tempting, but compared to my previous track spec Honda S2000 I don't think it would be as much fun, but then again I won't know for sure until I give it a go. Over time some of the famed TVR foibles have come to the fore, namely an alternator and an EFI fault which both miraculously cured themselves.

Another feature of the car is the recalcitrant gearbox: when cold the car really can be a pain, especially when pulling out of the garage only to have to jump out to close the door after you, getting it back into first can be a bit of a workout. Once all the fluids are up to temp it eases up but you have to be very deliberate when changing gear, rifling through the box on a full bore run has to be done carefully to avoid expensive graunchy type noises.

I remember reading stories about professional footballers being told to get rid of sportcars due to the seating positions and workout the left arm and leg have to do, I can now appreciate this is as my left side really does have a hard time especially around town.

I had the car serviced at the end of the summer, an annual 6,000 mile service, and the first since the engine rebuild. I got it done slightly early as it was running rough and I wasn't sure if the tappets had been checked post rebuild.

So in it went to Dreadnaught TVR, (www.dreadnought-tvr.co.uk) Scotland's only official service centre as far as I know. The final bill came back for £856, which was 13 Hours labour which included balancing of the throttle bodies, tappets adjusted, and various fluids. Although that may seem fairly hefty it is the first time I have ever had a car back from a service and actually noticed any difference for the better, which was nice.

The only recommendation for work was the replacement of an engine mount, which due to the quirky nature of TVR took another 6 weeks to arrive. I decided I would either fit this myself or do it locally as Dreadnought is a 4 hour round trip.

My most memorable drive to date is a 20 min blast home on a beautiful summer's evening after a round of golf at a local course, (the boot can accommodate 2 bags with drivers and the targa panel on top amazingly).

Dispatching a hard driven 645i with relative ease, a smooth road and the exhaust blaring, grip levels were huge and apart from a big (provoked) roundabout exit powerslide the car was confidence inspiring and a LOT of fun.

One real surprise is how good the headlights are, easily a match for some of my xenon equipped previous Audi's.

Drive it regularly and you can become used to, blasé even about the performance, it no longer feels as quick but jumping back into it from my 5 series daily driver after a week in the garage and I am instantly reminded just how truly rapid the thing is. This the girlfriend found out to her cost after continually badgering me for a drive only to be slapped with a fine and 3 points courtesy of the boys in blue, a mere 5 minutes after getting behind the wheel!

Next time, well it had to happen eventually, it lets me down on the way to the MOT station in the height of rush hour traffic, and I get it on a dyno. It's going to be emotional…

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