A little onboard video...
Discussion
They only got silly about TVR after Clarkson had some cross words with Peter Wheeler I believe it was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b1X9Tl_qe4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b1X9Tl_qe4
Hi Cedric,
Its Steve here. I'm glad you love the car I certainly enjoyed building it and racing it.
Nigel and Duncan (both of which I've know for around 25 years) certainly were instrumental in certain elements of the build, but the majority of the car was put together by Rick Ireland and myself over 4 years in my workshop at home. We built it to be an 'on the edge race car'. The engine is an all steel full race motor from the states and is good for 10,000rpm although I never revved it beyond 8,500. It must be an absolute bugger on the road, it will do 72mph in first gear! Its electric off the line, I never really pushed too much in qualifying, you didn't have to. One race at Silverstone I was a little too circumspect in practice and ended up 17th on a grid of pretty fast V8's including some pretty smokey Morgans. At the start I gave it full throttle through the gears and turned into Copse in 2nd place!!
We went to Santa Pod one day, it ran an 11 second quarter with a 130mph terminal, still in 3rd gear! The box has Rolltek dog internals, so you won't break it.
The alternator is from a Kuboto mini digger, and never gave any problem with charging, the car always started with no problem, other than the flame throwing trick on first start up. It always pulled a crowd first thing in the morning in the paddock when 'Steve was starting the Griff'. I'm not sure whether it was damaged in the crash or if Ian changed it when it was rebuilt, likewise for the battery and the radiator, which was quite a big item originally and I never really had any problem with cooling.
In terms of the car losing charge, it might be worth checking that the heated screen is not switched on (presuming it still has one). There is no light to say its on, but when you turn the thing on it pulls 45 amps for the first two and a half minutes before dropping to a constant 17 amps, which is quite a drain.
The car never had any sound or weather proofing round the doors, so it will leak, but the right weather seal should sort that out.
By the way, we named the car after our cat! He was a British Blue, a bit of a monster and was called Biff. He was always in the workshop with us often sleeping in the car whilst we were working on it, and I think it was Rick who commented one day, there are two Biff's in the garage, they are both British, both Blue and both bloody monsters, so the name just stuck!!
Hope you have a great time with the car. Don't sanitise it too much, I liked the 'hardcore' nature of it. Exhausting to drive hard for more than 30 minutes at a time but it was how I meant it to be.
Kind regards,
Steve Watton.
Its Steve here. I'm glad you love the car I certainly enjoyed building it and racing it.
Nigel and Duncan (both of which I've know for around 25 years) certainly were instrumental in certain elements of the build, but the majority of the car was put together by Rick Ireland and myself over 4 years in my workshop at home. We built it to be an 'on the edge race car'. The engine is an all steel full race motor from the states and is good for 10,000rpm although I never revved it beyond 8,500. It must be an absolute bugger on the road, it will do 72mph in first gear! Its electric off the line, I never really pushed too much in qualifying, you didn't have to. One race at Silverstone I was a little too circumspect in practice and ended up 17th on a grid of pretty fast V8's including some pretty smokey Morgans. At the start I gave it full throttle through the gears and turned into Copse in 2nd place!!
We went to Santa Pod one day, it ran an 11 second quarter with a 130mph terminal, still in 3rd gear! The box has Rolltek dog internals, so you won't break it.
The alternator is from a Kuboto mini digger, and never gave any problem with charging, the car always started with no problem, other than the flame throwing trick on first start up. It always pulled a crowd first thing in the morning in the paddock when 'Steve was starting the Griff'. I'm not sure whether it was damaged in the crash or if Ian changed it when it was rebuilt, likewise for the battery and the radiator, which was quite a big item originally and I never really had any problem with cooling.
In terms of the car losing charge, it might be worth checking that the heated screen is not switched on (presuming it still has one). There is no light to say its on, but when you turn the thing on it pulls 45 amps for the first two and a half minutes before dropping to a constant 17 amps, which is quite a drain.
The car never had any sound or weather proofing round the doors, so it will leak, but the right weather seal should sort that out.
By the way, we named the car after our cat! He was a British Blue, a bit of a monster and was called Biff. He was always in the workshop with us often sleeping in the car whilst we were working on it, and I think it was Rick who commented one day, there are two Biff's in the garage, they are both British, both Blue and both bloody monsters, so the name just stuck!!
Hope you have a great time with the car. Don't sanitise it too much, I liked the 'hardcore' nature of it. Exhausting to drive hard for more than 30 minutes at a time but it was how I meant it to be.
Kind regards,
Steve Watton.
Plainview said:
Hi Cedric,
Its Steve here. I'm glad you love the car I certainly enjoyed building it and racing it.
Nigel and Duncan (both of which I've know for around 25 years) certainly were instrumental in certain elements of the build, but the majority of the car was put together by Rick Ireland and myself over 4 years in my workshop at home. We built it to be an 'on the edge race car'. The engine is an all steel full race motor from the states and is good for 10,000rpm although I never revved it beyond 8,500. It must be an absolute bugger on the road, it will do 72mph in first gear! Its electric off the line, I never really pushed too much in qualifying, you didn't have to. One race at Silverstone I was a little too circumspect in practice and ended up 17th on a grid of pretty fast V8's including some pretty smokey Morgans. At the start I gave it full throttle through the gears and turned into Copse in 2nd place!!
We went to Santa Pod one day, it ran an 11 second quarter with a 130mph terminal, still in 3rd gear! The box has Rolltek dog internals, so you won't break it.
The alternator is from a Kuboto mini digger, and never gave any problem with charging, the car always started with no problem, other than the flame throwing trick on first start up. It always pulled a crowd first thing in the morning in the paddock when 'Steve was starting the Griff'. I'm not sure whether it was damaged in the crash or if Ian changed it when it was rebuilt, likewise for the battery and the radiator, which was quite a big item originally and I never really had any problem with cooling.
In terms of the car losing charge, it might be worth checking that the heated screen is not switched on (presuming it still has one). There is no light to say its on, but when you turn the thing on it pulls 45 amps for the first two and a half minutes before dropping to a constant 17 amps, which is quite a drain.
The car never had any sound or weather proofing round the doors, so it will leak, but the right weather seal should sort that out.
By the way, we named the car after our cat! He was a British Blue, a bit of a monster and was called Biff. He was always in the workshop with us often sleeping in the car whilst we were working on it, and I think it was Rick who commented one day, there are two Biff's in the garage, they are both British, both Blue and both bloody monsters, so the name just stuck!!
Hope you have a great time with the car. Don't sanitise it too much, I liked the 'hardcore' nature of it. Exhausting to drive hard for more than 30 minutes at a time but it was how I meant it to be.
Kind regards,
Steve Watton.
Hope you are keeping well Steve..Not seen you out for a while. The car is a big miss on the track where it belongs.Its Steve here. I'm glad you love the car I certainly enjoyed building it and racing it.
Nigel and Duncan (both of which I've know for around 25 years) certainly were instrumental in certain elements of the build, but the majority of the car was put together by Rick Ireland and myself over 4 years in my workshop at home. We built it to be an 'on the edge race car'. The engine is an all steel full race motor from the states and is good for 10,000rpm although I never revved it beyond 8,500. It must be an absolute bugger on the road, it will do 72mph in first gear! Its electric off the line, I never really pushed too much in qualifying, you didn't have to. One race at Silverstone I was a little too circumspect in practice and ended up 17th on a grid of pretty fast V8's including some pretty smokey Morgans. At the start I gave it full throttle through the gears and turned into Copse in 2nd place!!
We went to Santa Pod one day, it ran an 11 second quarter with a 130mph terminal, still in 3rd gear! The box has Rolltek dog internals, so you won't break it.
The alternator is from a Kuboto mini digger, and never gave any problem with charging, the car always started with no problem, other than the flame throwing trick on first start up. It always pulled a crowd first thing in the morning in the paddock when 'Steve was starting the Griff'. I'm not sure whether it was damaged in the crash or if Ian changed it when it was rebuilt, likewise for the battery and the radiator, which was quite a big item originally and I never really had any problem with cooling.
In terms of the car losing charge, it might be worth checking that the heated screen is not switched on (presuming it still has one). There is no light to say its on, but when you turn the thing on it pulls 45 amps for the first two and a half minutes before dropping to a constant 17 amps, which is quite a drain.
The car never had any sound or weather proofing round the doors, so it will leak, but the right weather seal should sort that out.
By the way, we named the car after our cat! He was a British Blue, a bit of a monster and was called Biff. He was always in the workshop with us often sleeping in the car whilst we were working on it, and I think it was Rick who commented one day, there are two Biff's in the garage, they are both British, both Blue and both bloody monsters, so the name just stuck!!
Hope you have a great time with the car. Don't sanitise it too much, I liked the 'hardcore' nature of it. Exhausting to drive hard for more than 30 minutes at a time but it was how I meant it to be.
Kind regards,
Steve Watton.
Neil.
Ha chaps, just told about the James May program and saw that it was Steve's Ex Monster.
Steve just pointed me to the thread.
Hi Cedric. Like Steve's say's it will be interesting running it on the road (I built mine when after seeing Steve's out in 2006 (and a few 2007 races), mine is pretty much the same as Steve's bar not using a dog box, and I have pretty much stopped trying to run on the road now.
Here's one of Steve in the Beast at Brands 2006 (Thoroughbredsportscars series).
Steve at Brands 2006 - TSCC
Most Griff's were 200's (about 70%), Steve's is a 200. Though most now have had the back cut off behind the doors or new shells, so they could get papers (for having the wide body - though from 2009 on they got even more anal and you now can only run with big tyre's with a look from one car that race with the weird looking mods and a 400 rear). I prefer to keep mine looking more original (mine still has the 200 rear), as that was they way it cam out of the factory.
Cheers
Jelly
Steve just pointed me to the thread.
Hi Cedric. Like Steve's say's it will be interesting running it on the road (I built mine when after seeing Steve's out in 2006 (and a few 2007 races), mine is pretty much the same as Steve's bar not using a dog box, and I have pretty much stopped trying to run on the road now.
Here's one of Steve in the Beast at Brands 2006 (Thoroughbredsportscars series).
Steve at Brands 2006 - TSCC
Most Griff's were 200's (about 70%), Steve's is a 200. Though most now have had the back cut off behind the doors or new shells, so they could get papers (for having the wide body - though from 2009 on they got even more anal and you now can only run with big tyre's with a look from one car that race with the weird looking mods and a 400 rear). I prefer to keep mine looking more original (mine still has the 200 rear), as that was they way it cam out of the factory.
Cheers
Jelly
Plainview said:
Hi Neil,
Yes I'm well thanks, just been very busy at work for the last couple of years as well as moving house. I've got a little Turner we've just put together, its a pretty standard engine so nothing like the Griff, just sorting out which series to run it in this year.
Sounds like something nice for julius thurgoods little championship or CSCC swinging 60's group 1 or classic K.. lovely little cars the Turners…Yes I'm well thanks, just been very busy at work for the last couple of years as well as moving house. I've got a little Turner we've just put together, its a pretty standard engine so nothing like the Griff, just sorting out which series to run it in this year.
Hopefully catch up in the paddock soon
N.
jellison said:
Ha chaps, just told about the James May program and saw that it was Steve's Ex Monster.
Steve just pointed me to the thread.
Hi Cedric. Like Steve's say's it will be interesting running it on the road (I built mine when after seeing Steve's out in 2006 (and a few 2007 races), mine is pretty much the same as Steve's bar not using a dog box, and I have pretty much stopped trying to run on the road now.
Here's one of Steve in the Beast at Brands 2006 (Thoroughbredsportscars series).
Steve at Brands 2006 - TSCC
Most Griff's were 200's (about 70%), Steve's is a 200. Though most now have had the back cut off behind the doors or new shells, so they could get papers (for having the wide body - though from 2009 on they got even more anal and you now can only run with big tyre's with a look from one car that race with the weird looking mods and a 400 rear). I prefer to keep mine looking more original (mine still has the 200 rear), as that was they way it cam out of the factory.
Cheers
Jelly
Not bad for a little 4 pot…Roger was quick off the line too!Steve just pointed me to the thread.
Hi Cedric. Like Steve's say's it will be interesting running it on the road (I built mine when after seeing Steve's out in 2006 (and a few 2007 races), mine is pretty much the same as Steve's bar not using a dog box, and I have pretty much stopped trying to run on the road now.
Here's one of Steve in the Beast at Brands 2006 (Thoroughbredsportscars series).
Steve at Brands 2006 - TSCC
Most Griff's were 200's (about 70%), Steve's is a 200. Though most now have had the back cut off behind the doors or new shells, so they could get papers (for having the wide body - though from 2009 on they got even more anal and you now can only run with big tyre's with a look from one car that race with the weird looking mods and a 400 rear). I prefer to keep mine looking more original (mine still has the 200 rear), as that was they way it cam out of the factory.
Cheers
Jelly
N.
Plainview said:
Hi Cedric,
Its Steve here. I'm glad you love the car I certainly enjoyed building it and racing it.
Nigel and Duncan (both of which I've know for around 25 years) certainly were instrumental in certain elements of the build, but the majority of the car was put together by Rick Ireland and myself over 4 years in my workshop at home. We built it to be an 'on the edge race car'. The engine is an all steel full race motor from the states and is good for 10,000rpm although I never revved it beyond 8,500. It must be an absolute bugger on the road, it will do 72mph in first gear! Its electric off the line, I never really pushed too much in qualifying, you didn't have to. One race at Silverstone I was a little too circumspect in practice and ended up 17th on a grid of pretty fast V8's including some pretty smokey Morgans. At the start I gave it full throttle through the gears and turned into Copse in 2nd place!!
Hello Steve, a pleasure to hear from you Its Steve here. I'm glad you love the car I certainly enjoyed building it and racing it.
Nigel and Duncan (both of which I've know for around 25 years) certainly were instrumental in certain elements of the build, but the majority of the car was put together by Rick Ireland and myself over 4 years in my workshop at home. We built it to be an 'on the edge race car'. The engine is an all steel full race motor from the states and is good for 10,000rpm although I never revved it beyond 8,500. It must be an absolute bugger on the road, it will do 72mph in first gear! Its electric off the line, I never really pushed too much in qualifying, you didn't have to. One race at Silverstone I was a little too circumspect in practice and ended up 17th on a grid of pretty fast V8's including some pretty smokey Morgans. At the start I gave it full throttle through the gears and turned into Copse in 2nd place!!
The car is indeed very purpose built, its very apparent in many details. I actually decided to keep the car as is quite a while ago and not adding stuff such as carpets and door insulation. It had quite a successfull run in your hands and changing the car too much would destroy more history than it would regain in my opinion.
As for on the road, it was quite a bit more manageable than I expected. Then again, it did receive a slightly slower steering rack after Ian's accident and Gregg Hekimian also suspects that it is down on power right now. It shouldn't really be belching flames at all and from the sound of it he suspects the ignition timing to be off. Once that's fixed it should stop pretending to be a Dragon and make the power the engine is advertised for. Seeing as to how powerful the car feels already this has me scared and excited at the same time
Plainview said:
The alternator is from a Kuboto mini digger, and never gave any problem with charging, the car always started with no problem, other than the flame throwing trick on first start up. It always pulled a crowd first thing in the morning in the paddock when 'Steve was starting the Griff'. I'm not sure whether it was damaged in the crash or if Ian changed it when it was rebuilt, likewise for the battery and the radiator, which was quite a big item originally and I never really had any problem with cooling.
A Kubota Mini Digger? Thats hilarious Thanks for clearing that up. The battery was actually good. The alternator must have broken late during my return trip from Manchester to Munich, as the car drove for hours without the Voltmeter indicating any problems. The battery itself was faultless I believe, it just couldn't really handle running the car without any charging going on for longer than about 2-2,5 hours, which became apparent during the BBC filming session. Thats hardly suprising I think. The alternator definitely is a goner, so it will be replaced by something else. Seeing as the car will also be used at night with full beams onThe radiator is a massive unit, I actually think its more that the fan is a bit undersized for street use. I did run into massive heat issues when having to stop and go during a dutch traffic jam and to a lesser extent during the filming because the engine was left running alot during short pauses of 10-30 seconds while the crew were coordinating the next shots or switching cars/drivers around. I think adding a second fan will likely solve the heat issues.
Plainview said:
In terms of the car losing charge, it might be worth checking that the heated screen is not switched on (presuming it still has one). There is no light to say its on, but when you turn the thing on it pulls 45 amps for the first two and a half minutes before dropping to a constant 17 amps, which is quite a drain.
I will check for that. If the screen is on, that would imply the switch is wired up incorrectly. It never felt warm to the touch, really. Then again the interior heats up so much it is hard to tell Plainview said:
By the way, we named the car after our cat! He was a British Blue, a bit of a monster and was called Biff. He was always in the workshop with us often sleeping in the car whilst we were working on it, and I think it was Rick who commented one day, there are two Biff's in the garage, they are both British, both Blue and both bloody monsters, so the name just stuck!!
Thats an adorable story! You don't happen to have a picture of the original Biff? I'd like to add it to the history file for posterity Plainview said:
Hope you have a great time with the car. Don't sanitise it too much, I liked the 'hardcore' nature of it. Exhausting to drive hard for more than 30 minutes at a time but it was how I meant it to be.
The car certainly won't be detuned 
Quite the contrary, sorting the engine out will very likely boost its power to more than it was when you had it, provided the flames do in fact indicate a fundamental flaw in engine timing. Other than that the only sanitizations are to make it road legal and a bit easier to live with.- relocating the fire extinguisher
- adding/changing seats (I'm taller and broader than you are, unlike Ian I couldn't even sit in your seat
)- stopping the front wheels from fouling
- sorting out some issues with the wiring (some of which were caused by the fouling wheels)
- adding minor stuff like reverse lights, a working speedo, hazard indicators, most of which has been completed already.
The rest is being kept as is unless the law forces me to change it. I suspect they might have a thing or two to say about the exhaust decibels, but here's hoping they are distracted by all the manly cuteness
Again, thanks a lot for your reply! Also, thanks for building such an exciting car. Driving it truly is an intoxicating experience.
jellison said:
Most Griff's were 200's (about 70%), Steve's is a 200. Though most now have had the back cut off behind the doors or new shells, so they could get papers (for having the wide body - though from 2009 on they got even more anal and you now can only run with big tyre's with a look from one car that race with the weird looking mods and a 400 rear). I prefer to keep mine looking more original (mine still has the 200 rear), as that was they way it cam out of the factory.
Hello!Yes, Steve corrected my mistake a while back when I contacted him over at ten tenths where I occasionally lurk. I understand you wanting to keep the original look and while I do also like the modsports 400's Nigel is producing, I prefer the more slender front of the 200/400's and would not have made any changes to the bodywork. Steve told me however that he changed it for aerodynamic purposes and I'm not going to change a gorgeous and very successful racecar at this point of time.
Your car is gorgeous as well by the way, you must be very happy with it
Do you run the same spec Hekimian Engine? Are you racing the car anywhere? I realize you'll probably be disappointed by hearing this, but I'm probably not going to race the car regularly. I might participate in certain single events, provided they're open or fit the specification of the car in its current state. Some friends of mine want me to participate in historic hillclimbs but I don't want to risk the car so I'm very likely sticking to circuits. If all goes well with the legalities I likely will participate at the sound of speed festival at the Salzburgring this year and the continental meet in zolder next year. Other than that I'll wait and see what catches my eye. Once I get some more experience with the car (which might be hard since there's not a lot of trackdays in germany and I'm not risking such a car on the Nordschleife), I'll see about maybe getting a few trophies somewhere
The weather here has improved to the point where I can get back to working on the car, so there might be some updates here soon.
Best regards,
Cedric
PS: Here's some footage of the engine starting up from cold after its been standing still for a bit. It gets a bit pyrotechnical
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZVzAmg7CJQ
From what Ian has told me, this behaviour is quite normal after letting the engine sit for a while. As mentioned above, the engine's builder Gregg disagrees, saying this should not happen at all.
Edited by Dimension on Friday 1st April 16:26
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