Talk me into a Chimaera!
Discussion
Anyway back to this TVR ownership/benefits thereof thing, there's me having a less-than-fantastic day today and feeling in a less than brilliant mood, stopped at my local BP to buy Kate another 50 quid's worth of her favourite tipple. And this lad pulls up next to me, a complete stranger and says 'top car mate, fantastic, top car'. And that was my day transformed, I left the garage grinning like a cheshire cat. And had a much happier afternoon. And Kate/Kylie/Danni (delete as appropriate and thanks for the laugh Phil) has cost me an arm and a leg and I don't care, there's just so much love around that car. And THAT is the TVR thing 
Chris71 said:
Shnozz said:
Chris71 said:
But ... it's probably no quicker in the real world (our apparently standard S2000 would chase a supercharged Elise in a straight line so I reckon it would have troubled a 400 and possibly others), less outright grip, significantly less nimble, less torsionally rigid, thirstier, more prone to niggles.
Chase a SC Elise perhaps, but unless Miss Daisy is in the passenger seat a standardish S2000 would be nowhere near. 0-100 in the S2000 is 4 seconds off the pace of a SC Elise and hardly surprising as its 187bhp/tonne -v- 234/tonne of a standard 220 Elise. That said, having driven S2000's I am a massive fan of the car. It's a Japanese TVR in my view. With a budget of £8k - £9k it's got to be a strong contender if used as an only car. Whilst both a 4L Chim and an S2000 may boast 240bhp, I'd expect the S2000 to have retained more of its ponies. I would also expect an S2000 to give a 4L Chim more than a hard time....
The Elise felt quicker, but it didn't pull out any significant gap. We did the same thing half a dozen times on the same stretch of road while accelerating away from low speed passes for a photo shoot. Given a longer stretch or a standing start (let alone a few bends) I'm sure the Elise would have proved decisive, but there was little to choose between them as it was.
KateV8 said:
Anyway back to this TVR ownership/benefits thereof thing, there's me having a less-than-fantastic day today and feeling in a less than brilliant mood, stopped at my local BP to buy Kate another 50 quid's worth of her favourite tipple. And this lad pulls up next to me, a complete stranger and says 'top car mate, fantastic, top car'. And that was my day transformed, I left the garage grinning like a cheshire cat. And had a much happier afternoon. And Kate/Kylie/Danni (delete as appropriate and thanks for the laugh Phil) has cost me an arm and a leg and I don't care, there's just so much love around that car. And THAT is the TVR thing
and that is it The TVR "thing". 
Shnozz said:
Being blunt, the performance of the 4 litre isn't strong when compared to even modern day hot hatches.
Hmmm, a bit strong I feel - I see the latest VXR Astra (arguably the most bonkers of the current hot hatch batch) posts a 16.5 sec 0-100. A healthy 400 should dip into the 13s...However, there's no escaping that when you try to pull away from even relatively 'modest' newish cars from say 90 mph in 5th on motorwa... erm, Autobahns, it doesn't go the way you'd expect still having a healthy power/weight advantage on most other traffic. Aerodynamics (if the weather's bad enough to have the roof on, a sane person wouldn't even try anyway) against outright power and the fact that you haven't got anywhere near what the engine makes at top end, from 3,000 rpm or so when the turbocharged saloon following you is right in the thick of its 'balloon' torque curve then come into play, and the low kerb weight counts for nought.
I'd say the Griff and Chim are somewhere inbetween 'normal' cars and the likes of Caterfields for contrast between acceleration/response at low speeds and how it fades at triple digit speeds - but then again, a lightweight, short wheelbase car is not the thing you'd choose for high speed antics to begin with...
While I agree that when you're used to performance cars, you might 'grow out of' a std 400 pretty soon, one shouldn't expect wonders in this regard from the bigger-engined variants. You'd need more power than the chassis can really handle to confidently engage in Autobahn battles, if that's your thing and it needs to be a TVR get a 4.5 Cerbie and tweak the induction/mapping...
bad company said:
When I took my Chim 500 on the autobahn I was expecting to be able to reach 150 mph +. Alas the steering got so light at 125 ish I thought it was ready to take off. 
I did get to 175 with the roof down in af F430 Spider tho.
My Chim was just scary at 120+ The cerb how ever is solid as a rock at 150 Just need to find enough space to press it on more need a run way i think I did get to 175 with the roof down in af F430 Spider tho.
So many awesome replies
Alright, so I should have worded the thread title better.
I guess I don't really need talking into a Chimaera. Few of the logical arguments make sense and I'm enough of a PHer and petrolhead to want one regardless
Thanks to everyone who has IM'ed me with offers of sale, offers of rides in theirs, and all of the above I think I've got back to everyone now! This sort of stuff reminds me what an awesome community we have 
I've done my homework and am fairly sure of what I want. I've just never actually driven in one! I'm also reasonably nervous of a ending up with a lemon which is why I would prefer one with forum history rather than from a random dealer who is just after a quick profit.
At the very least I'll try and get to the Kemble meet at the end of the month for a looksie!
Alright, so I should have worded the thread title better.
I guess I don't really need talking into a Chimaera. Few of the logical arguments make sense and I'm enough of a PHer and petrolhead to want one regardless
Thanks to everyone who has IM'ed me with offers of sale, offers of rides in theirs, and all of the above
I think I've got back to everyone now! This sort of stuff reminds me what an awesome community we have I've done my homework and am fairly sure of what I want. I've just never actually driven in one! I'm also reasonably nervous of a ending up with a lemon which is why I would prefer one with forum history rather than from a random dealer who is just after a quick profit.
At the very least I'll try and get to the Kemble meet at the end of the month for a looksie!
scotty_d said:
My Chim was just scary at 120+ The cerb how ever is solid as a rock at 150 Just need to find enough space to press it on more need a run way i think
What you need is an autobahn.The shame about my run with the Chim was there was clearly plenty of power left that I just couldn't use.
I've done 155 on the A7 autobahn in my old 400 Chimaera and that still had more to give.
My current Tuscan was scary at 120 but is now much better since having the winglets fitted.
Had a friendly race with a S2k also in Germany and he couldn't stay with my Chimaera.
I love all of the different TVr's that I've owned and really like others like the T350. That's such a great looking car.
Yes, once you get the TVR infection it's with you for life.
Chimaera's are great. I just bought another one.
My current Tuscan was scary at 120 but is now much better since having the winglets fitted.
Had a friendly race with a S2k also in Germany and he couldn't stay with my Chimaera.
I love all of the different TVr's that I've owned and really like others like the T350. That's such a great looking car.
Yes, once you get the TVR infection it's with you for life.
Chimaera's are great. I just bought another one.
A bit of rake (nose down) in the suspension/geo set up probably doesn't hurt. Mine was set up by Intrax (they said they thought it was already quite low at the front and someone had been 'at it' before them, later I realised this was because I had changed the no-longer-available-in-a-decent-pattern 205/60/15 front tyres for 205/55/15 as per later models) and as said, I really don't have any complaints about high speed stability. And that's from someone with a history of turbo Saabs...
How important (or otherwise) is the smaller front wheel aspect of the setup, by which I mean smaller in total, regardless of whether this is achieved by smaller rims and same size tyres, or same size rims and smaller front tyres? Does having same all around affect the high speed stability?
Gassing Station | Chimaera | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff