The project originated in the late 1990s when the Tuscan Challenge race series needed modernizing. Wheeler commissioned a completely new racing car that would employ contemporary composite construction, be more rigid than any previous TVR, and be CAD-designed to reach high speeds with aerodynamic stability.
The car began life as the TuscanR — a natural successor to the TVR Tuscan Racers that dominated the Tuscan Challenge through the 1990s. When TVR launched the T350 road car, it was decided the racing programme should carry a designation consistent with the road range, and the car was renamed the T400R. This rename coincided with a cosmetic revision: the rear light cluster changed from a single unit per corner to a row of smaller, individual circular lights running down each side.
TVR's path to a competitive GT car had begun earlier with the Speed 12 and Cerbera Speed 12 GT1 projects. Those programmes were not successful as racing entries, but they introduced the company to modern composite techniques. Wheeler himself had been experimenting with Kevlar and carbon fibre since the SEAC models of the late 1980s. All of this experience fed directly into the TuscanR/T400R project, which applied those materials more comprehensively than any previous TVR effort.
Between 2000 and 2004 TVR built seven race cars. The first three were of the original TuscanR body design; the final four adopted the T400R body shape, distinguished primarily by the revised rear light housings. Of the four T400R-bodied cars, two were delivered to the DeWalt-sponsored team in 2003 and two went to RSR in 2004. Some earlier TuscanR chassis have subsequently been fitted with T400R rear light clusters, likely as a result of repair work following racing incidents.
Racing with the cars commenced in 2001. The programme ran through the 2006 Le Mans Series season, giving the chassis a competition life of roughly five years.
The car's most significant achievements came at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Chassis 4 and 5 both raced at Le Mans in 2003 and again in 2004. Chassis 1 — the most continuously campaigned of the seven — raced at Le Mans in 2005, making it the single most prominent car in the programme. Overall, three chassis (1, 4, and 5) appeared at Le Mans, fulfilling Wheeler's original objective of placing a TVR on the La Sarthe circuit.
The T400R represented TVR's most serious and sustained assault on professional GT racing. Built on decades of composite experimentation and informed by the lessons of unsuccessful earlier GT1 projects, the car proved competitive in the classes it contested. The programme validated TVR's capacity to build a purpose-designed racing car to a professional standard and stands as the company's most ambitious motorsport undertaking during the Wheeler era.