In an interview then-owner Peter Wheeler, said that TVR had tried to record the car's power on an engine dyno. The dyno was rated at 1,000 bhp (750 kW) but the test resulted in its input shaft being broken. To get an approximate figure TVR engineers tested each bank individually; the result was 480 bhp (360 kW) per bank, suggesting a total rating of 960 bhp (720 kW). Wheeler, no newcomer to high performance cars and an experienced racer in the TVR Tuscan Challenge, drove one of the finished prototypes home and concluded that the car was unusable on the road, in his opinion simply too powerful.
The deposits were returned when the production plans were cancelled. The remaining prototypes were carted around to various car shows and one by one they were dismantled and used as spares for the Speed 12 race cars still competing in the British GT championship. The life of the Speed 12 was however, not yet over. In August 2003 TVR placed an advert in Auto Trader for a TVR Cerbera Speed 12 registered W112 BHG. What TVR planned to do was to rebuild one of the prototypes and sell it on to an enthusiast. Buying the car was not a simple process however, and involved being personally met and vetted by Peter Wheeler himself to make sure the buyer was a suitable candidate for purchasing the car. Eventually, the deal was completed and the Speed 12 was rebuilt and handed over to its new owner. Since the original bodywork had been destroyed, TVR had to use a remaining shell from one of the GT racers, which proved a positive point as with the increased downforce the car would be even faster round a track than before.[citation needed] On top of that TVR did some more work on the engine and the ECU. The car featured in the May 2005 edition of Evo Magazine in which it was described as "awesome" and "terrifyingly quick".