-------- Phoenix Update ---------
Discussion
As you know, over 15 months ago, when I was a relaxed calm person really (honestly)..... my cerbie went off on a journey.
The story was, I called Joolz (Joospeed) and spent about an hour on the phone talking about power upgrades, engine reliability and forced induction. Joolz being the genuine geeza he is, gave me his time to talk me through, forced induction, turbos, high-compression, what he considered the weak parts, what he considered the limitations from his experience, there was even a chance of maybe him doing the work, but he hadnt attempted it before and could not see him fitting a project of this scale into his busy agenda...
But, the information and advice passed to me was more than enough to encourage me to look deeper into the quest for more power. I got in touch with a few tuners (not TVR specialists), after speaking to them, I very quickly realised this project was not for the faint-hearted... some even though they had built mad drag-cars etc. were just not interested, they did not see how a 1000HP TVR would be reliable or even roadable, they suggested NOS, as this was a typical way of most beasts being able to run mega-power on the strip and generally mild on the roads, but I wanted 1000 under tap ALL the time and no less and did not want to hear anything else (when I make my mind up, its pretty much solid)... So this pushed me further.... my mechanical understanding was pretty lame at that time, although I had played with jap turbos and cossies in the past with my brothers/cousins, I was still a little weak on understanding the AJPV8 and what it can and cant do and where its liabilities lay.
So I then managed to get in touch with a serious car nut, Steve, I came across him on the V8 website/forum, and soon realised he was more than just a nut, he virtually did all his work himself at home. He bought me up to speed and pointed me to various sites of interest and other forums. So my research commenced... looking, reading, learning... we spent ages exchanging emails, eventually he provided me with the details of Autocraft (TVRCraft)... I contacted them and they sounded very eager to help, at this point they did not tell me of any of their other projects.... I went along to see them down south, it was a sunny day, and a flippin bike hammered past me, my motivation for more power now REALLY grew! After spending a considerable amount of time discussing options and also picking their brains, I decided to leave the car with them.
Now I always dreamed of building/designing my own car, and I convinced myself that this would be my chance to do it, but to be able to do it later when I had children would have been a hard thing as other priorities in life take over as the fathers amongst you know too well.... and I really couldnt see myself doing it when my kids to be moved out and I was grey haired.... so, this was it... my chance to go for it, and surprisingly my wife was 100% with me, although a little cautious...
The engineers spoke to many specialists in the field of gaining more knowledge in respects to long-term reliability, as one of my main key points was always that of RELIABILITY, MCD were their first point of contact. Craft eventually went on to design the engine from the ground-up, the modifications, the block alterations, the head modifications etc, they took ideas from their past beasty engines and coupled them with some top-fueller ideas, I was impressed. But little did I know, this would take sooooo long to get into motion.... research time, design time, sourcing the right companies who had reputable histories in building components for some exotic motors, from F1 to dragsters and so on....
While this was happening, I then thought, there is no point building a car with this kind of power and engineering thrown at it if we dont attempt to prove what she can do out there in full public view. So this is when I started to think and Alistair (one of the engineers at craft) opened the bible on aerodynamics, traction etc etc... as far as traction was concerned, Dave (the technical director of craft) came up with a few suggestions and the whole drivetrain was now researched and drawn up, effectively the cerbera from top to bottom was to be re-developed, the beasty gearbox and custom rear-end and shafts were sorted.
As far as aerodynamics was concerned, I spoke to quite a few specialists in the field, via email and phone, countless late nights speaking to the ozzies and the yanks.... I then got into an email exchance with Carbon Al through PH, very quickly got in touch with the very rare poster, Carbon Al, real name Allan Thompson.... He's been designing and building all forms of crafts from boats to bike bodies to car bits for over 25 years, and to top it off, he owned a Cerbera himself... I went ahead with contracting his companies services to take the body through complete re-development.... little did I know, Allan was also a bonified specialist in hydro and aerodynamics.... Although I layed out the initial designs, the majority of the final design was influenced by the guru of carbon himself, Carbon Al.
So here I am, really excited about my project and many others I knew from the meets etc who were also very supportive. But then, as time went by, my humour started to deteriate, already upset of the delays to my project due to subcontractors not delivering components on time (one even taking 6 months to develop!).... The company over in the states who developed the forged aluminium wheels to my specs took 7 months to deliver the end product... and so on...
Things began to get very very tedious on Pistonheads, people began to have a dig at me and piss-taking began... I guess this was motivated by a number of reasons, most notably the lack of belief that this project was in fact real... Then to top it off, the death of my younger brother really hit me hard.... which I am still trying to get over... but its not easy, especially when most the conversations with my brother were based around this project and his hanging-off-the-edge of his seat interest and desire to sit behind the wheel of the cerbera one day... being heart broken is an understatement...
Since I began this project, things have been a mess, but now finally I am back on my feet and pushing ahead, the body re-development is coming to an end and the last remaining components of the engine are turning up soon.....
There are no dates as of yet for completion, but I am optimistic that it is not too long a wait now. I really want to thank all those for their continued support. Some of you who I have never met, but my gratitude is there!
I did promise to release development pictures, but I'm a perfectionist, and really holding back till the primer's on the shell to give an idea of things to come... another month and I'll be ready for the press release hopefully through pistonheads first, and I'll be ready for the critique, with my usual sledgehammer attitude....
She is back on course and will make all us TVR owners proud, I will see to that. This baby is taking everyone along on the ride to show those yanks and japs in their out-of-this-world beasts what the brits can do with a 100% british-designed engine and one of the most beautiful cars, if not THE most beautiful car ever developed in the queens country!
I just wanted to say this, because theres quite a few new-comers who dont know me or of this project very well and to also give you all something to read (one of my long posts)...
And chaps keep the support coming! I need it! My brother was my other motivation, but now all I have is the motivation I get when fellow TVR nuts edge me on with their words....
Thanks again all!
PS. I spent ages thinking about this, and now I know what really pushed me to go for this project. The man who made this happen was in fact Joolz, he encouraged me to go for it way back when she was just a pimp-bling looking multicoloured cerbera.... and then stevie came along and edged me on with all the pointers and also introduced me to TVR Craft.
In my books, if any of you EVER need someone to make your car run better and more power, the most honest fella I've ever come across in the TVR specialists world is Joolz.... it would be wrong to not speak to the fella for some advice before you spend any money on anything TVR! This is from the bottom of my heart, the MAN who doesnt post on here as much as he used to was the one who looked after my cerbera and the REAL reason why the Phoenix Project became a reality! Thanks bud!
Thanks again all!
The story was, I called Joolz (Joospeed) and spent about an hour on the phone talking about power upgrades, engine reliability and forced induction. Joolz being the genuine geeza he is, gave me his time to talk me through, forced induction, turbos, high-compression, what he considered the weak parts, what he considered the limitations from his experience, there was even a chance of maybe him doing the work, but he hadnt attempted it before and could not see him fitting a project of this scale into his busy agenda...
But, the information and advice passed to me was more than enough to encourage me to look deeper into the quest for more power. I got in touch with a few tuners (not TVR specialists), after speaking to them, I very quickly realised this project was not for the faint-hearted... some even though they had built mad drag-cars etc. were just not interested, they did not see how a 1000HP TVR would be reliable or even roadable, they suggested NOS, as this was a typical way of most beasts being able to run mega-power on the strip and generally mild on the roads, but I wanted 1000 under tap ALL the time and no less and did not want to hear anything else (when I make my mind up, its pretty much solid)... So this pushed me further.... my mechanical understanding was pretty lame at that time, although I had played with jap turbos and cossies in the past with my brothers/cousins, I was still a little weak on understanding the AJPV8 and what it can and cant do and where its liabilities lay.
So I then managed to get in touch with a serious car nut, Steve, I came across him on the V8 website/forum, and soon realised he was more than just a nut, he virtually did all his work himself at home. He bought me up to speed and pointed me to various sites of interest and other forums. So my research commenced... looking, reading, learning... we spent ages exchanging emails, eventually he provided me with the details of Autocraft (TVRCraft)... I contacted them and they sounded very eager to help, at this point they did not tell me of any of their other projects.... I went along to see them down south, it was a sunny day, and a flippin bike hammered past me, my motivation for more power now REALLY grew! After spending a considerable amount of time discussing options and also picking their brains, I decided to leave the car with them.
Now I always dreamed of building/designing my own car, and I convinced myself that this would be my chance to do it, but to be able to do it later when I had children would have been a hard thing as other priorities in life take over as the fathers amongst you know too well.... and I really couldnt see myself doing it when my kids to be moved out and I was grey haired.... so, this was it... my chance to go for it, and surprisingly my wife was 100% with me, although a little cautious...
The engineers spoke to many specialists in the field of gaining more knowledge in respects to long-term reliability, as one of my main key points was always that of RELIABILITY, MCD were their first point of contact. Craft eventually went on to design the engine from the ground-up, the modifications, the block alterations, the head modifications etc, they took ideas from their past beasty engines and coupled them with some top-fueller ideas, I was impressed. But little did I know, this would take sooooo long to get into motion.... research time, design time, sourcing the right companies who had reputable histories in building components for some exotic motors, from F1 to dragsters and so on....
While this was happening, I then thought, there is no point building a car with this kind of power and engineering thrown at it if we dont attempt to prove what she can do out there in full public view. So this is when I started to think and Alistair (one of the engineers at craft) opened the bible on aerodynamics, traction etc etc... as far as traction was concerned, Dave (the technical director of craft) came up with a few suggestions and the whole drivetrain was now researched and drawn up, effectively the cerbera from top to bottom was to be re-developed, the beasty gearbox and custom rear-end and shafts were sorted.
As far as aerodynamics was concerned, I spoke to quite a few specialists in the field, via email and phone, countless late nights speaking to the ozzies and the yanks.... I then got into an email exchance with Carbon Al through PH, very quickly got in touch with the very rare poster, Carbon Al, real name Allan Thompson.... He's been designing and building all forms of crafts from boats to bike bodies to car bits for over 25 years, and to top it off, he owned a Cerbera himself... I went ahead with contracting his companies services to take the body through complete re-development.... little did I know, Allan was also a bonified specialist in hydro and aerodynamics.... Although I layed out the initial designs, the majority of the final design was influenced by the guru of carbon himself, Carbon Al.
So here I am, really excited about my project and many others I knew from the meets etc who were also very supportive. But then, as time went by, my humour started to deteriate, already upset of the delays to my project due to subcontractors not delivering components on time (one even taking 6 months to develop!).... The company over in the states who developed the forged aluminium wheels to my specs took 7 months to deliver the end product... and so on...
Things began to get very very tedious on Pistonheads, people began to have a dig at me and piss-taking began... I guess this was motivated by a number of reasons, most notably the lack of belief that this project was in fact real... Then to top it off, the death of my younger brother really hit me hard.... which I am still trying to get over... but its not easy, especially when most the conversations with my brother were based around this project and his hanging-off-the-edge of his seat interest and desire to sit behind the wheel of the cerbera one day... being heart broken is an understatement...
Since I began this project, things have been a mess, but now finally I am back on my feet and pushing ahead, the body re-development is coming to an end and the last remaining components of the engine are turning up soon.....
There are no dates as of yet for completion, but I am optimistic that it is not too long a wait now. I really want to thank all those for their continued support. Some of you who I have never met, but my gratitude is there!
I did promise to release development pictures, but I'm a perfectionist, and really holding back till the primer's on the shell to give an idea of things to come... another month and I'll be ready for the press release hopefully through pistonheads first, and I'll be ready for the critique, with my usual sledgehammer attitude....
She is back on course and will make all us TVR owners proud, I will see to that. This baby is taking everyone along on the ride to show those yanks and japs in their out-of-this-world beasts what the brits can do with a 100% british-designed engine and one of the most beautiful cars, if not THE most beautiful car ever developed in the queens country!
I just wanted to say this, because theres quite a few new-comers who dont know me or of this project very well and to also give you all something to read (one of my long posts)...
And chaps keep the support coming! I need it! My brother was my other motivation, but now all I have is the motivation I get when fellow TVR nuts edge me on with their words....
Thanks again all!
PS. I spent ages thinking about this, and now I know what really pushed me to go for this project. The man who made this happen was in fact Joolz, he encouraged me to go for it way back when she was just a pimp-bling looking multicoloured cerbera.... and then stevie came along and edged me on with all the pointers and also introduced me to TVR Craft.
In my books, if any of you EVER need someone to make your car run better and more power, the most honest fella I've ever come across in the TVR specialists world is Joolz.... it would be wrong to not speak to the fella for some advice before you spend any money on anything TVR! This is from the bottom of my heart, the MAN who doesnt post on here as much as he used to was the one who looked after my cerbera and the REAL reason why the Phoenix Project became a reality! Thanks bud!
Thanks again all!
Great, great post Ash.
You've covered everything...passion, motivation, commitment, dedication, adversity and a reason to make it all happen.
I am sure you will end up with a car that you and everyone else on PH will be proud of.
Keep up the humour, approach (although sometimes on here you're mis-understood), drive and support on here, and we'll keep our eyes peeled in anticipation.
Jules.
You've covered everything...passion, motivation, commitment, dedication, adversity and a reason to make it all happen.
I am sure you will end up with a car that you and everyone else on PH will be proud of.
Keep up the humour, approach (although sometimes on here you're mis-understood
), drive and support on here, and we'll keep our eyes peeled in anticipation. Jules.
Sweet, glad to hear its coming on even if not altogether as fast as you (and tbh probably most people on here) were hoping for.
This is yet another reminder, along with your "best thing about owning a cerb" thread, that I can't wait to get into the world of TVR ownership, I just hope Cerbs done start appreciating too fast
Keep up the good work and I hope it all works out as YOU would like
Cheers
Hugh
This is yet another reminder, along with your "best thing about owning a cerb" thread, that I can't wait to get into the world of TVR ownership, I just hope Cerbs done start appreciating too fast
Keep up the good work and I hope it all works out as YOU would like
Cheers
Hugh
I've obviously read about the project in the last couple of months but didn't know its origins. You are a very brave man.
To put it into context it took 16 months to have my everyday road Dolomite Sprint turned into a racer (and I was paying for it to be done!). In the greater scheme of things, your project is flying along.
Can't wait to see it finished.
Scott
To put it into context it took 16 months to have my everyday road Dolomite Sprint turned into a racer (and I was paying for it to be done!). In the greater scheme of things, your project is flying along.
Can't wait to see it finished.
Scott
A very good post Ash. Enjoyed reading it. 
Nice one Ash ... glad to here your getting on top of things again!
- good to read something like this when the weather is crap, too much work stuff
and your own beasty is up on axle stands!!!
Geeze I love these cars ... look forward to hearing it from my end of the A1!
Hope you won the bowling tother night ! I was sat plodding along on the poxy M4!
Catch up sometime ... DAS
- good to read something like this when the weather is crap, too much work stuff
and your own beasty is up on axle stands!!!
Geeze I love these cars ... look forward to hearing it from my end of the A1!
Hope you won the bowling tother night ! I was sat plodding along on the poxy M4!
Catch up sometime ... DAS
Great post Ash, and good to hear things are back on Track. Look forward to seeing the beast when done - my last sighting of her was when i went over to Autocraft with you and she was sat outside, completely devoid of engine and most other bits and pieces.
I'm sure this is going to be worth the wait
I'm sure this is going to be worth the wait
Good to hear an update Ash...
In the words of our driver... "Race Ya"...
he he he...
slinky
587racing.com
In the words of our driver... "Race Ya"...
he he he...
slinky
587racing.com
Absolutely flabergasted !
Unbelievably huge project, And to think my knees start knocking when I have to top the radiator up - Which, incidentally, I topped-up with winscreen washer fluid the first time !
I admire your tenacity but am very worried that you can sse the light at the end of the tunnel which is, in fact, a train coming the other way !
The largest amount of time expended on the small projects I've done on bikes has always been 'those last finishing touches'.
I send every best possible wish to you and your supporters for the continuing project. 'Nil desperandum illegitimae carburundum'
PJ
Unbelievably huge project, And to think my knees start knocking when I have to top the radiator up - Which, incidentally, I topped-up with winscreen washer fluid the first time !
I admire your tenacity but am very worried that you can sse the light at the end of the tunnel which is, in fact, a train coming the other way !
The largest amount of time expended on the small projects I've done on bikes has always been 'those last finishing touches'.
I send every best possible wish to you and your supporters for the continuing project. 'Nil desperandum illegitimae carburundum'
PJ
Ash,
Best of luck with the project mate. I've read many of your posts with interest since joining PH 18 mths or so ago, some I've understood and others (with my VERY limited technical knowhow) which have gone right over my head. But, I really admire your determination in this project, especially since your personal set back late last year.
Best of luck with it all and as your only down the road from me (St Neots) I look forward to hopefully seeing the pheonix out and about sometime...
Best of luck with the project mate. I've read many of your posts with interest since joining PH 18 mths or so ago, some I've understood and others (with my VERY limited technical knowhow) which have gone right over my head. But, I really admire your determination in this project, especially since your personal set back late last year.
Best of luck with it all and as your only down the road from me (St Neots) I look forward to hopefully seeing the pheonix out and about sometime...
SXS said:
Entire life history
Its good to have a hobby Ash
, but for someone like me the journey is the event. With all due respect I probably won't come to the unveiling of a car that looks nothing like a cerb and is soo ridiculously fast as to be undriveable. So from that point of view I can only wish you good luck.
However I'm a little upset that the very thing I have the most interest in which is seeing the old cerb in the process of being stripped down, the technical development ideas on the engine/suspension/brakes and basically the process you're now going through that you don't want to show the outside world is the very bit that interests me most
I would be sitting here glued to my computer with those sort of pictures comming from you every so often.
So how about it Ash? Let us see what you're going through. Those that just want to see a flashy motor at the end and talk about wheel rims don't have to look do they?
Thanks for the kind words chaps!
Julian64, unfortunately I am unable to reveal any detailed build information and/or images of custom components etc. At the request of TVR Craft I have agreed contractually to not disclose any information which may reveal their technical designs, which include drivetrain/suspension/electrics and rolling chassis. Although I am the owner of this project, I must respect their wishes as Dave has employed his own personal technical designs. But other aspects from an exterior/naked-eye perspective will be made public as and when various phases are complete. But as you dont like the thought of a mutant cerbie, you wont be missing anything
Julian64, unfortunately I am unable to reveal any detailed build information and/or images of custom components etc. At the request of TVR Craft I have agreed contractually to not disclose any information which may reveal their technical designs, which include drivetrain/suspension/electrics and rolling chassis. Although I am the owner of this project, I must respect their wishes as Dave has employed his own personal technical designs. But other aspects from an exterior/naked-eye perspective will be made public as and when various phases are complete. But as you dont like the thought of a mutant cerbie, you wont be missing anything
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