1995 TVR

SPECIAL CHIMAERA bordering on Super-Car Performance Standards. 4.6L Stage 3 Semi-race Engine, rebuilt and modified just 18K miles ago (2 years).

*** THUNDERBOLT IS NOW SOLD. 'SHE'.. THE CAR, THE WORK DONE AS DESCRIBED IN THE AD & THE DOCS ALL SPAKE & THE RIGHT MAN KNEW THAT. THANKS FOR ALL OTHER ENQUIRIES ***

SKIES ARE BRIGHTENING ITS FEB 2015 ** SO OUT WITH THE V8 FOR A BLAST ** Spring is on the way .. so why delay.. tho' as someone said to me the other day ..you're never late in a V8 anyway!LOL!#¢

FOR THE RIGHT BUYERS Good Offers will be listened to carefully and with interest.

TRULY SPECIAL taking you safely into fastest Porsche GT2/3/Turbo etc territory rather than even the latest Boxsters or even Carrera4's.

AMAZING ACCELERATION accompanied of course by the most delightful exhaust note, it is truly phenomenal performance in a British car that the nation should be proud of.

SHE IS VERY GOOD at slow speeds, no shunting or bad manners - on plain 95 octane petrol that is, put in 99 octane and she is a bit jumpy around town. Stops promptly at whatever speed with precision in a straight line, the brakes are quite superb.

She has been a LABOUR OF LOVE over the last 7 years, (ex-owner Peter) lavished countless hours and funds to bring her up to this standard.

Will pull smoothly low down in any gear, a pussycat to drive slowly, happily burbling around the country lanes in a truly relaxing way with the top off but will change its character instantly with a prod of the right pedal! Most of all I just like driving her on the motorway at about 60mph just humming along listening to the Spitfire-like engine and/or to the Pioneer stereo.

ENGINE : Fully rebuilt 4.6 engine Stage 3 semi-race polished and ported heads, a Kent Tornado cam, lightened flywheel, forged Omega pistons. Fitted with many V8 Development parts to give it 323 BHP/350LBS Torque. These figures were measured at the wheels (charts available and go with the sale) - not imaginary ones at the flywheel or taken from design tables. Standard 4.0L Chimaeras reportedly didn't produce the manufacturers figures of 240BHP but instead more 210-220, 4.5s about 250BHP, and 5L maxed at 310BHP but not with the same raw pulling power as this one-off build. Reminding myself of this just yesterday in the sun (its coming to a place near you too, for sure;), I am now more impressed with the pull in top gear than I once was with the benchmark 0-60, which I appreciate enough but even so.

* It is the later Serpentine engined model and is in excellent condition, engine has done 17K miles, car has done 83K *

* Excellent oil pressure, 60lbs+ running when hot, 55lbs idle on 10/50 Fuchs Titan SP Fully Synthetic oil, no cheating on 15W/40SS!

* No oil leaks or engine smoke.

* While the engine works were carried out, the Borg Warner T5 gearbox and differential were sent to John Read, (Readman Racing) for a check, overhaul and upgrade.

* All CV joints, steering parts, wheel bearings and any moving parts have been renewed.

* It has power steering accompanied by an electric pump.

* The old Lucas ECU and distributer have been replaced with a MegaSquirt programmable ECU, coil packs and a new engine wiring harness. This upgrade has produced smoother running, better performance and economy. The engine also starts beautifully hot or cold and no matter how long left standing.

* The car has recently had a full respray in the original British Racing Green.

* Heater works very well indeed, no hot seats required here.

* New carpets.

* New hood.

* New battery.

* Refurbished starter motor.

* Refurbished outriggers.

* New rear tyres and front good.

** New all round adjustable suspension with ring tool **

** Important Lupo Light Conversion - makes dramatic difference and improvement over the standard headlamps **

* Lockable bonnet catches - important for speed track use.

* The engine spec and RR BHP/NM graph are available and come with the car.

* Taxed & in use, yet with new RFL Rules, now stays with owner

* MOT July 2015.

* V5 & past MOTs & full documentation including 'Owners personal leather bound wallet' all present and correct

There is a large file accompanying this car showing the expenditure up to mine and last ownership which only reinforces the fact further that this car has been really looked after and is not to be confused or put in the same pitstop with worn, tired and less fortunate Chims.

Reason for sale, well that will be of no concern to the new owner whatsoever. Its there to enjoy in the good weather surely coming and the new owner will be very pleased all round, of that I am quite sure.

Those are the good bits.

Now for any bad bits....? Can't think of any yet.

Improvements? Fit door kick-plates maybe, new alarm/immobiliser possibly, the existing one works although shows signs of being temperamental.

Optional remote battery cut-off fitted. Multipurpose, additional immobiliser, battery saver, zeros risk of electrics fires.

Comes with Steve Heath Workshop Manual & BHP/LBS Charts

____________________ END OF DESCRIPTION _________________

Please, due to past experience of mine and others there are a few things that I must insist upon. Although I generally like meeting people, the following I can do without even when wishing to sell a car :

Time wasters (dreamers included), tyre-kickers, greasy oiks who are careless or heavy handed and do not respect other peoples property, people who book to view and are then late even when living close (really annoying). People who are bored with their lives and want a couple of 'my hours' to 'entertain' themselves. You get the picture..

No automatic test drives although for the serious and earnest I am happy to at least demo and drive them if appropriate.

So, as you see I will never make a car salesman but that was never my life’s ambition, instead I enjoy nice vehicles and when its time to change, letting others enjoy too.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this advertisement to completion.

Genuine inquiries most welcome, will be really sorry to see this car go but all things weighed up I should be moving on to something else now and let someone else have a go.

Kind Rgds.

** Reasonable/Sensible Offers Kindly Invited **

** Latest Developments **

Guys, as we approach Spring interest in the car is picking up and I expect her to be sold fairly soon. However, I would prefer not to just 'sell it to anyone', but instead find a good and proper appreciative home, one that she deserves .. as she does.

Below is my response to an enquiry made by I'm sure a very nice and earnest man which may be useful to others.

MY REPLY :

"Good Morning G*****,

Sometimes I can be quite terse so don't take it personally, its just the way I am now … but this car is a bit of a rock'n rollers car with nice edges admittedly but with real 'personality', can kick like a mule and ride like a thunderbolt ..when you want it to, with a sublime 'soundtrack' to boot(I think the term is;) . Its not really something so much for an 'accountant' to cost up everything on, its a one-off for someone who wants a motor love affair. It is a man's car too and it has to be handled a la Steve McQueen type thing. Its smooth too to ride and drive and to look at but its got that raw edge which is what first attracted me to it, I suppose because I'm a bit like that; I look nice 'n smooth and placid.. but I can be a brute with real muscle when required, if I can put it like that LOL?!

Its as reliable as any Ferrari and quite honestly just as fast too, it has only failed to start once but that was because of the temperamental immobiliser but that's solved with a workaround anyway which actually improves the overall car security, so its not an issue. The engine is bullet proof and built by real engineers and has only done around 18,000 and all the running gear is up to date with top spec replacements. As stated, the car was the work of Peter (of Dorking way) over a 7 year period who put largely his own blood, sweat, money and tears into it .. and thought he was a fool for selling afterwards I know but we're still in contact, a superb man. He wouldn't sell a car that wasn't up to the grade and frankly I would have spotted it anyway, the last time I was sold a bad'n was as a 20 year old… a VW Beetle decades ago, and know what to look for as he does.

However, as to the outriggers I took Peter's word for it, they look good from underneath when I changed the engine oil and filter two months ago and are as was told me upon purchase. I'm sure Peter would be quite happy to take a call from you about that and anything else if you like as he is the specialist, and in fact most of the gen on the Ad was from what he wrote, so…

TVRs are simply not used over the winter period and I ummmd and arrrr'd whether to try to sell prior to Christmas as I decided I was moving on from fast cars for a number of reasons, and maybe all cars, who knows, but I'd now 'done the super car' on a budget kind of thing. So I took it off the market as winter is not the time to sell a sports car let alone a TVR, but if you follow cars on the best sites you'll know that some great cars can be up for years and not find new owners, but that's not necessarily a reflection on its quality. Yes, because it is not standard some might be put off, and any serious interest should have a chat prior to contacting things like insurance companies as I can be of help on that. But otherwise its a 'standard' and mostly upgraded/refurbished Chimaera of 1995 vintage with all appropriate work done lovingly and without much care to cost and time to keep it more than up to spec that has been given one hell of a mechanical overhaul too tho' putting it in that super car performance category 'with attitude' which standard Chims 4/5L are simply not in.

I saw in the newspapers yesterday the chap who pranged the £1million Pagani Zonda on an industrial estate .. the 7.2L hyper car that can do 0-60 in 3.5 seconds the article said?! 'Oh, I thought, about as fast as my Tornado Cam 4.6L Chimaera then, LOL?!'.. only half the fun at best I reckon. But that's a benchmark only and when you have it is irrelevant as I mostly just cruise as I did yesterday when I took her out for a 50 mile run. And that's another thing, the reliability .. sitting outside under covers for nearly 2 weeks and put the key in, allow the lithium crystals to warm up for 30 seconds and turn the huge V8 over and she thunders into life like that Spitfire I wrote of in the Ad, thrilling! The Tornado cam gives it that extra initial irregular splutter tho' its a clean burn engine with zero smoke at any point, and then THUNDER!

I don't know what more I can say, G*****. Its a super car that is relatively cheap but its not for everyone. Not referring to you, but some people might like the more perfect Mercedes SLK 55 AMG maybe that is engineered to perfection and in luxurious Uber-ness by Germans that this car is not. But the downside is the cost of replacing or repairing anything on one of those .. like Porsche .. a fortune and mostly has to go to a specialist garage to do anything. This car can be done at home by an enthusiast and all the parts are available relatively inexpensively too. And importantly for me, its British and people I feel really should be proud of that as indeed I am, British with an edge and not perhaps for the molly coddled uber sanitised 'modern' driver of today who likes everything to be like it comes off a Japanese production line.. it most definitely isn't that.

Yes, if you are interested in this very special TVR still then I'd be happy to have a chat with you and take things from there; and possibly photograph the outriggers and other bits underneath where possible if I can. As I say, I have an edge now but please don't take anything I say personally because it isn't intended or meant that way. I don't like selling cars, and sometimes explaining to everybody that they're not about to be ripped off can get tiresome .. maybe that's it, I don't know. But if you haven't had one before, a TVR is a real enthusiasts car and not really for the faint hearted .. especially NOT this one as you really do have to know a few things about cars and love doing it too, otherwise people are better off maybe buying a Honda S2000 or something, you know what I mean. So, I'm not desperate to sell but want the drive clear and its just that I'm moving on from a lot of things, cars included maybe, that's all, but only really want this car to go to the right owner and not a moaner unable to appreciate everything about it.

Have a nice day.

Kind Rgds