Very early 390se
Discussion
Russ Wood, who sadly passed away earlier this earlier year, owned this lovely 390 from new.
I seem to recall that it might also have a Torsen diff from the factory, rather than the usual Salisbury plate diff. Can't be many (any?) 1 owner cars of that age left.
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/t...
mrzigazaga said:
Being an early 390se would it have the trailing arm suspension?.....Ziga
Not sure, although I should know, having met Russ and seen the car quite a few times. He used to do the Continental Meetings in it. IIRC the factory was racing a 390 in '84, and from that they developed the A frame rear suspension.Number 7 said:
mrzigazaga said:
Being an early 390se would it have the trailing arm suspension?.....Ziga
Not sure, although I should know, having met Russ and seen the car quite a few times. He used to do the Continental Meetings in it. IIRC the factory was racing a 390 in '84, and from that they developed the A frame rear suspension.
Not sure why everyone dislikes the trailing arm so much.
I have trailing arm on the racer with a 230 BHP 4.0 v8, It does have the later LSD and is all rose jointed, but it handles very well, I've got a Data logger with G meter, and I get 1.3G in the bends so it can work fairly well.
side not due to chassis thread I do have a full roll cage that makes the Chassis a hell of a lot stiffer ( you can lift the whole car on one outrigger) .
esp as I've noticed the road 280 chassis does a bit of a dance when it drops onto the locks of the 2 post lift, a lot more than the 400SE's i've had on the lift.
I have trailing arm on the racer with a 230 BHP 4.0 v8, It does have the later LSD and is all rose jointed, but it handles very well, I've got a Data logger with G meter, and I get 1.3G in the bends so it can work fairly well.
side not due to chassis thread I do have a full roll cage that makes the Chassis a hell of a lot stiffer ( you can lift the whole car on one outrigger) .
esp as I've noticed the road 280 chassis does a bit of a dance when it drops onto the locks of the 2 post lift, a lot more than the 400SE's i've had on the lift.
TVRleigh_BBWR said:
Not sure why everyone dislikes the trailing arm so much.
It was a near-identical setup to that used on the original Esprit, using the driveshafts as the upper link which Colin Chapman was advised was a bad idea. Sure enough on an early spirited drive of the first Esprit it broke, so Lotus added a top link that stiffened it up and the rest is history - you'd struggle to find a more sure-footed car. To do the same on the TVR Wedge would mean a substantial chassis redesign; if you consider how the A-frame was achieved it was largely done by changing the diff subframe design (i.e. cheaply). My guess is they hoped the wide-based A-frames would have been stiff enough in themselves but then found they weren't, hence the tie-rods.You can tell the forces involved by the fact that the TVR trailing-arm setup knackers the main pivot bush in short order whereas they hardly ever fail on an Esprit.
Hi Leigh...Im not saying i didn't like it...In my honest opinion i think it definitely needed something as Ian describes...John Halstead has modded his 350 that has trailing arm and i would have had the same done if i still had Delilah as you can see the negative camber i had...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
It takes me back to my early days on here and i agree sometimes in my naivety i assumed the worst...As you do...But it just seemed a lot to ask of a piece of rubber..All the side movement and forces are on the mount and pin..There is also the rotational or up and down movement of the arm to consider as well...I have never tracked a car and especially one with trailing arm so i cannot comment on that but the most scariest moment for me in a TVR was hitting a hard undulation on a wet motorway at 65mph...Talk about the back end skipping out...FFS...No gravel pit or bails of hay on the duel carriageway...And i think the 40 ton M&S lorry behind me would of made sure i fitted in the coffin...I opted for the super flex as the rigidity/Shore was much more tolerant of what was needed and the only down side was that the steel inserts supplied were to small on the ID so the pins wouldn't fit...They are now aware of this so any bought for TVR should come with the correct size insert.
They totally transformed the handling...And they are made from Cornish pasties and maidens musk instead of yak poo and chewing gum...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
It takes me back to my early days on here and i agree sometimes in my naivety i assumed the worst...As you do...But it just seemed a lot to ask of a piece of rubber..All the side movement and forces are on the mount and pin..There is also the rotational or up and down movement of the arm to consider as well...I have never tracked a car and especially one with trailing arm so i cannot comment on that but the most scariest moment for me in a TVR was hitting a hard undulation on a wet motorway at 65mph...Talk about the back end skipping out...FFS...No gravel pit or bails of hay on the duel carriageway...And i think the 40 ton M&S lorry behind me would of made sure i fitted in the coffin...I opted for the super flex as the rigidity/Shore was much more tolerant of what was needed and the only down side was that the steel inserts supplied were to small on the ID so the pins wouldn't fit...They are now aware of this so any bought for TVR should come with the correct size insert.
They totally transformed the handling...And they are made from Cornish pasties and maidens musk instead of yak poo and chewing gum...
All but one of the taz racers were trailing arm, and just about all of them snapped the front pivot bolt at least once !!!!
mine now runs a big bracket supporting both sides of the bolts and a huge rose joint.
most of the early 2 piece arms with the alloy hub carrier snapped the hub carrier too.
They like shedding hub nuts too...
still great fun
mine now runs a big bracket supporting both sides of the bolts and a huge rose joint.
most of the early 2 piece arms with the alloy hub carrier snapped the hub carrier too.
They like shedding hub nuts too...
still great fun
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