The TVR Tasmin was the first of the TVR 'wedge' cars, and its lines came from Oliver Winterbottom who had moved across from designing the Lotus Eclat and Lotus Elite. Winterbottom designed the Tasmin in 1977 which went into production in 1980, sitting on TVR Taimar mechanics. The name 'Tasmin' was chosen by Lilley because it reminded him of a girl called Tamsin and because he liked Maserati's Khamsin. The Tasmin bombed on the market and Peter Wheeler took over the chair of TVR in 1981. What Wheeler did was to boot the Tasmin into a new market zone, taking it away from humble Ford-engined cars which could no longer be sold at the price bracket TVR was trying to sell. So in 1982 the V8-powered 350i was launched with a 190bhp version of the Rover V8, and the Ford V6 models were renamed 280i. Chassis improvements were made for the V8 engine, and the coupe model was dropped in favour of the convertible. In 1984 the 350i was uprated to the 275bhp 3905cc 390SE. There was revised bodywork from 1985, and there were chassis revisions in 1986. Wheeler carried on giving the Tasmin more and more power, with the 420SEAC gaining a 4228cc 300bhp coming out in 1986 topped by an expensive Kevlar body. In 1988 the engine went up to 4.5-litres and 324bhp for the 450SEAC, and the decision was taken to drop the V6 280i. But two more Tasmins were to come, a 3948cc 275bhp 400SE, and a 4441cc 320bhp 450SE. Production finally ended in 1991.