Yellow SEAC @ Barons - sold £6,600!

[firefox1712]

shpub said:

The first 420 SEAC came out in April 86 and was chassis 333. The Seacs were officially announced in the October Motor SHow. See bible chapter 1 and this info came from TVR who had compiled a chassis history up until 87. Build dates from Chassis are notoriously difficult. Yes you can sequence them and that will give an approximate idea but it is not accurate as cars were often finished out of order or held back for Aug 1 registration at the dealer. DH494 is noted in the list as August 86 with a modified screen aperture! It doesn't describe it as anything special apart from this. Steve www.tvrbooks.co.uk

Steve -

The build sheet for the car says a little more. I cannot comment just now. I'm trying to get hold of a copy of it; any legal or criminal action may need to refer to it.

firefox

[Terminator]

seamus said:

Unfortunately Mervyn has now stood down as car club registrar hence why he may not be responding.

Mervyn has stood down only as a TVRCC Director and Committee member; he's been persuaded to carry on as model registrar.

Sometimes my emails to him take a week to be answered, even when I use his secret private address

[firefox1712]

AAAAAAARGH!

These chassis number formulae do not seem to fit. Methinks there are different chassis number sequences for different models. Does anyone know what these are?

Is there a definitive answer?

firefox

[suffolkfox]

Hi firefox1712, good to see you at mid essex meet. For anyone who may doubt that the car looks good, take it from me it's a beaut, irrespective of its background. Hope you don't mind me posting a couple of photos.




Cheers

[firefox1712]

Jerry -

I think we only met very briefly. Thank you for the comments. Shame you didn't see it with the hood down when I arrived! Shame about the dirt picked up from the country lanes that someone commented on!

I must be a real Wedger - driving on a day like today with the hood down - and it did rain a little.

May see you next week at the Suffolk meet - Daniel said he would send me details.

cheers
JJ

[waynester]

FF, welcome, welcome to wedge ownership. Been away from forum for a couple of weeks so have been catching up on all threads.
Great looking car..bad ass in ya face wedge!! Tell me, what is it like to drive with that steering wheel? Looks outrageous, but i would probably crash using it.!!!

Wayne

[firefox1712]

Wayne -

At low speeds in tight turns, car parks, moving away etc. you're all elbows winding it this way and that! But pressing on on the open road it's OK. I'm still undecided about the wheel myself, but guess I'll leave it like it is for a while.

[gf350]

Firefox,

I've just put my spare TVR OE personal wheel on e-bay if your interested.
GF.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2443053024

>> Edited by gf350 on Thursday 13th November 22:14

[firefox1712]

Thanks gf350 -

I do have the original wheel. Will compare with yours.

chin chin
firefox

[firefox1712]

Hi Chaps and Chappesses!

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Well, I've not been able to find out much more about my car except:-

My engineer has now gone over the car very carefully and tells me -

The car has the 4 point wishbone suspension at the rear as we know but also bespoke wishbone front suspension. The suspension is fully adjustable all round and in his opinion the car was built as a racing car. He suggests it would benefit from a half day to a day re-setting-up the whole suspension. He used to set-up Mika Hakkinen's McLaren when he won the world championship so I presume he knows what he is doing. He also says that replacing all the bushes with polypropylene ones would make the ride even harsher.

Some of you know (and I'll mention it to you all now)that the build sheet says the car left the factory and was delivered to The TVR Centre as a 420 SEAC with modified windscreen aperture (whatever that means) in metallic black. That has been mentioned independently to at least one other of you. I am still waiting for a copy of that build sheet - it hasn't arrived yet. Perhaps with the model registrar changing there has been a delay - can anyone shed any more light on this? I just hope papers haven't been lost.

The car was sold, apparently as a new car, to a City bank / financial institution.

I have no particular axe to grind in confirming the car as an SEAC - just to find out what it is! We know that the body of the SEAC was based on and developed from the 390 and not the 400 - so maybe this was a development car of some sort as has already been suggested to me.

The wheels are I believe 1989 wheels (not 1986), and the tyres are a lower profile than that specified for the 350 series (incl. 390?).

There are notes on file to say that the factory and the TVR Centre have no information on the car. However, I'll try to see if I can get any information from some other sources. Any help from any of you guys would be most welcome.

My engineer tells me it is a straight car and rather good. A minor kink in the chassis has been checked and the chassis is not out of true. There are also some areas that appear to be 'unfinished'. He thinks it is great fun, but built as a racing car rather than for the road.

So there we are everyone - the progress so far! Any further contributions most welcome.

chin chin
firefox

[dmsims]

Only thing I can suggest is examining the inwards faces of the body

SEAC stands for Special Equipment Aramid Composite, I don't know whether/how you can tell this from normal GRP

[father ted]

I hate to disagree ,old boy ,but SEAC stands for Sausage Egg And Chips,
let that be a lesson to you all.

p.s. Kevlar against GRP .... a) it's physically lighter b) has a little more 'give' in it (press on Kevlar and it will flex a bit more...although it's very strong) c) if you look at the fibres in the rough edges of GRP they are generally a lot more coarse..
i think this is right , i am more of an Aircraft 'sparky' than a composites man ( expected to fix everything from RB211s to bogs tho' )

>> Edited by father ted on Thursday 11th December 11:43

[pistolar]

Let me tell you a story, years ago a SEAC was delivered to The TVR Centre barnet and the customer was not happy with the paint finish, try as they might they couldnt get it right so the car was rebodied. I wonder if this is the car? I was told the story by an ex employee. The old bodyshell was cut in half, the back used to repair a car the front half i bought.

[AM400]

Check the airflow meter, is it the larger Jag unit as fitted to SEACS? and is the suspension fully or part rose jointed? These should be good indications and easy to see.

Andy.

[19560]

pistolar said:

Let me tell you a story, years ago a SEAC was delivered to The TVR Centre barnet and the customer was not happy with the paint finish, try as they might they couldnt get it right so the car was rebodied. I wonder if this is the car? I was told the story by an ex employee. The old bodyshell was cut in half, the back used to repair a car the front half i bought.

Doubtful. This was quite common. What father Ted did not mention was that the kevlar bobies were found to be less stiff and very difficult to make without ripples, hence "poor" paint finishes. The rebodied cars still had the SEAC shape.

[19560]

Keep digging Firefox. There still seems to be a major hole in your car's history. What size and offset are your wheels and tyres?

[rev-erend]

And are you overhead under hangers green or yellow.

Have you got a hydrolastic syspension bubble still or has it burst.

And what about long waits...

..


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..


..


..

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Have you had one yet ?

[streaky]

19560 said:

... What father Ted did not mention was that the kevlar bobies were found to be less stiff and very difficult to make without ripples, hence "poor" paint finishes. ...

Should this be in the 'Speeding, Plod and the Law' forum?

PS - yes, I know there are three 'b's in 'bobbies', I did go to Oxford - S

[firefox1712]

Pistolar -

And what colour was the front end that you bought? Are you still in touch with the ex-employee of ther TVR Centre?

Can't check on the other bits that others asked about. It did look a bit like rose jointed suspension to me, but then it might not be - my engineer just said it was fully adjustable race suspension. Airflow meter? - well I would't know one from a dustbin lid, and as the car is now back with me I can't tell you.

Tyres are 225/50 15, I think, from memory.

firefox

[firefox1712]

Rev-erend -

??????????

Oh yes - it also has two fuel tanks. Is that normal? Could this be why I can only get 30 litres or so in the tank - one is not feeding to the other?

Ho hum!
firefox