Twin Turbo Griff 500

[martinworth]

There seems to be some confusion currently about this car which was featured in TVR Sprint in September 03 on page 6.

Well I can confirm that I am "Mr Mad the Madman" and have bought it directly from Bill Allen, Group Chairman of County TVR a few days before thier Open Weekend. That is why it had a SOLD notice on it. Bill was going to use it as his personal car for sprints etc. but I convinced him to sell it before he did anything, so it makes me the second owner on the log book. He had brought it down from HL Gorner of Wigan before they sold it to use it as part of the County TVR launch. I would like to thank him for the expertise and interest he has shown in making certain I am happy with my purchase.

The car comes with a fantastic detailed history of the build with photos. At some point, I will get them posted up on the web. A few key headlines are:
5.0 Ltr Tuscan race engine from TVR Power
Twin Courtny Turbos
472BHP at 5500 rpm for max torque.

The car achieved a standing quarter of 12.7 seconds(speed thru the trap 128mph)at the Brighton speed trials.

The excitment builds as it is currently having a few more tweeks done and I am picking it up on Friday 24th, being driven to the Cheltenham by my mate Simon in his Grif. We are going to blast through The Malverns to warm up the tyres before I go on down to Cornwall for the weekend.

I am not going to say when (just in case Plod are about) but at some point I will then drive it back home to Kent.My old record in my Superchipped 360BHP Audi S8 was 2hrs 45min so we will see what happens, weather permitting.

Keep your windows open if you live on route 'cause the noise will keep you awake!

[judas]

Twin turbo Griff 500...

You, sir, are a complete madman - and I salute you!



Have fun with your nuttermobile, but be warned - you may need surgery to remove the grin

[Apache]

You lucky man, I'd be very interrested to know what mods have been done to handle all that power

[j_s_g]

martinworth said:

... The car comes with a fantastic detailed history of the build with photos. At some point, I will get them posted up on the web. A few key headlines are: 5.0 Ltr Tuscan race engine from TVR Power Twin Courtny Turbos 472BHP at 5500 rpm for max torque.

Any idea who fitted the turbos? If they can manage it on a Tuscan race AJP, wonder if they can do it to a Cerbera one...

[mike s]

Isn't the "5 LTR Tuscan Engine" A rover V8? Cause I don't remember them making a 5 LTR AJP

[j_s_g]

mike s said:

Isn't the "5 LTR Tuscan Engine" A rover V8? Cause I don't remember them making a 5 LTR AJP

The Rover one got replaced with the AJP, as far as I can remember...

www.pistonheads.com/tvr/tuscanracer/history.htm

[mike s]

So let me get this right a 5 LTR Tuscan engine has 450 BHP so thoose TWO Twin Turbos only make 22BHP!

>> Edited by mike s on Sunday 19th October 20:52

[pbrettle]

mike s said:

So let me get this right a 5 LTR Tuscan engine has 450 BHP so thoose TWO Twin Turbos only make 22BHP! >> Edited by mike s on Sunday 19th October 20:52

Err yes and no. Fitting turbos, you really have to drop the compression ratio so you loose power there (but gain again with the turbos!). However, a "standard" Rover V8 Tuscan race engine is supposed to be 450, but what jungle juice does it run on? Probably been de-tuned to give it some decent low speed running characteristics and hence probably only (??!?) 380 or so... therefore two small turbos (presume one for each bank) with low inertia will add something like 90 to the total - hence the real figure... so in reality not bad.

Mind you its going to be a pretty stressed engine at the best of times. That much power from an aluminum headed 1950's V8 is pretty stunning, but probably the best you can really get out of it.... before you end up replacing the whole engine and starting again (though some might say that they did that to get this engine to start with!).

Oh, and hats off to the loonie who bought it! One hand full certainly. But god, what a car and glad to see that you are going to enjoy it too.... your a better man than I.

[rev-erend]

I presume the car is British Racing Green ... I talked
with the guy who built it several times at the Brighton Speed trial - at the time it was having trouble cooking alternators... hope that's fixed.. but
look out for the problem.

It was a great feat of engineering - does it still have the gear selector lockout ... it stops misselections when going up the box !

I remember him saying he was hitting 160 plus on a newly opened bypass.. nice car - hope you are brave !