TVR Phoenix project arises

Check the 1,000bhp Cerbera at the FoS

Project Phoenix

If you ever thought that the TVR Cerbera was under-powered, read this story of one owner who thought so too.

The Phoenix, a two-year-long controversial project much discussed on PistonHeads' forums in recent years, is finally becoming reality. The project has been extremely ambitious from the first day the owner, PHer SXS (Mo Ash), put his dream down on paper – a TVR pushing out over 1,000bhp as a road-legal daily ride and drag-racing monster.

Fast and furious, the car's pretty quick as standard. Immense acceleration comes from TVR’s own engine -- a flatplane 4.5-litre SOHC 16v V8 producing in excess of 400bhp -- mounted in a lightweight spaceframe tubular chassis clothed in hand-laid glassfibre and hand-stitched four-seat interior. The car quite easily tops 180mph.

But this wasn't enough for the owner of this Cerbera, which was destined to become the Phoenix. So he harnessed the know-how of Austec Racing and starting changing things...

Engine

The engine has been stroked and bored from 4.5-litres to six litres -- and will be supercharged. The heads have been raised nearly two inches to accommodate the longer stroke using billet heat-treated plates with custom water-channels, and the compression ratio configured at 8:1.

The engine has practically been rebuilt. It includes custom designed and built conrods from Carrillo and pistons from JE, a heavily modified block -- it's now symmetrical where once the block extended to the side to hold the pump assembly -- and Nikasil liners. The bottom end has been modified to hold four-bolt and crossbolted main-caps CNC’d from a raw billet of high-content nickel-aluminium bronze -- and there's a custom-built steel crankshaft. A six-stage dry-sump oil system akin to those used in Nascar racers -- the pump is second to none -- was made by Weiss Racing. And, at the top, the heads have been ported and strengthened. Electric steering and water-cooling are added extras.

A centrifugal supercharger supplies the forced induction with a maximum boost of 38psi, although in this application it will be set at 28psi. For just that extra tiuckle of boost, it also boasts NOS induction intake cooling and dual-stage methanol/alcohol injection as well as a charge-cooled intake system. Shovelling fuel into this hungry beast will be achieved utilising a 16-injector dual stage fuel system, fired by a race-specification ignition system using a high-power coil and reserve coil per cylinder.

Body and transmission

The drivetrain utilises a six-speed manual ZF box, mated to custom developed driveshafts and propshaft, yoked to a custom developed Sean Hyland 8.5-inch differential designed to handle at least 800lb-ft. The owner has plans for a custom automatic transmission available for drag-racing along with drag-racing wheels and shocks. No concerns here then.

The contracted bodyshop CS/CDT has taken pains to develop the new body for increased rigidity and aerodynamics. As the pictures show, this is not a body-kit, the body was hand-shaped using techniques employed in high-speed lightweight race-boat building to meet the owner's stringent design requirements -- scribbled on a dozen A4 sheets of paper.

The 19-inch wheels were custom made by an American company using T6 forged mil-spec aluminium, strong and extremely light. The tyres for road use are made by Bridgestone in the size 345 wide rear and 295 wide front.

Current status

Body development complete
Engine development complete
Engine build in progress
Engine on dyno testing very soon

Ash estimates the final numbers will look like this:

250mph+ (drivetrain configured for 276mph max)
Weight @ 900kg excluding driver
In excess of 1,000bhp (initially to start at low boost and progressively wind up boost + NOS and meth injection as engine goes through its dyno-testing)

So there we have it, soon, very soon, the TVR Phoenix will be on our roads for all to see and hear. And how will the power get to the tarmac? Ash said: “We’ll make it work. Austec Racing will make this dream a reality even if it means re-writing the books.”

When the owner was asked if he had any questions for us, he replied “What colour should she be?”

The next news release will be a detailed pictorial of the engine and internals – read it first only here on Pistonheads!