£10k - £12k Chimaera - will this be asking for trouble?
Discussion
pwd95 said:
I bet he's pulled the trigger... 
Not yet, but...
...I could very well be leaving a deposit on one subject to a proper test drive hopefully this Wednesday.
It's been an extremely busy weekend and I've certainly covered a fair few miles- although I did share the driving of my mate's Puma for quite a bit of it, which is always good fun in itself!
I've looked at several (8 in total I think!) Chimaeras, covering everything from bottom of the budget, average mileage examples, to almost fully refurbished, ultra low mileage garage queens- well North of my budget. But it's been a good eye opener, I've seen a pretty full spectrum of "chassis in great condition"!
I did however find one that looks pretty much perfect for me- loads of recent expenditure on the important bits (including new outriggers), decent mileage, couple of choice (in my opinion) upgrades, and rather incredibly; also one of my two first choice exterior/interior colour combinations!
Annoyingly, this happened to be the first one that I looked at- so despite spending the best part of an hour looking it over, I didn't take it for a test drive there and then on the basis that it would inevitably lead to me doing the one thing I was determined NOT to do- buy the first car I looked at...
But after looking at all of the others, I was rather kicking myself for my self-imposed attempt at doing things properly! When I left, we agreed that I'd go back for a proper test drive one evening this week if I'd decided it was the one I wanted, so I'll be calling up first thing tomorrow morning and arranging this.
Granted it's not exactly been the long, exhaustive, studious search I had originally intended- and this one is very slightly more than I had intended to spend (but that's always the case right?), but the relative assurance of all of the recent work (not to mention my ideal spec/upgrades) makes it incredibly attractive verses taking an educated punt on a cheaper example and hoping for the best.
So watch this space...
Oh and thanks again to everyone who has contributed on here- it really has been insanely useful, my head is currently swimming with TVR stuff, I'm almost looking forward to going back to work tomorrow!
Now you've had a good look, sleep on it and tomorrow at work you'll think of nothing else
I say take your time, this thread can go on as long as it takes, don't buy unless everything ticks your boxes and more importantly it drives well.
Get the right Tvr first time and you'll want to keep it forever,,,
If I was selling my Tvr and someone showed me the colour of his money first I'd happily let them have a good 30 mins test drive.
You want everything upto temps and running for sometime so you can be sure it's working as it should, then you want to leave it running on tickover whilst it's fully upto temps again for a good 5-10 minutes, an owner with no qualms will happily let you do that.
I'm sure your aware but it's always good to be reminded of doing the basics when looking at this or any other car.
You sound like you've done some due diligence and looking at more than one car is more than most of us do
Buy the best for your money and then make it even better over time.
I say take your time, this thread can go on as long as it takes, don't buy unless everything ticks your boxes and more importantly it drives well.
Get the right Tvr first time and you'll want to keep it forever,,,
If I was selling my Tvr and someone showed me the colour of his money first I'd happily let them have a good 30 mins test drive.
You want everything upto temps and running for sometime so you can be sure it's working as it should, then you want to leave it running on tickover whilst it's fully upto temps again for a good 5-10 minutes, an owner with no qualms will happily let you do that.
I'm sure your aware but it's always good to be reminded of doing the basics when looking at this or any other car.
You sound like you've done some due diligence and looking at more than one car is more than most of us do
Buy the best for your money and then make it even better over time.
ClassiChimi said:
Now you've had a good look, sleep on it and tomorrow at work you'll think of nothing else
I say take your time, this thread can go on as long as it takes, don't buy unless everything ticks your boxes and more importantly it drives well.
Get the right Tvr first time and you'll want to keep it forever,,,
If I was selling my Tvr and someone showed me the colour of his money first I'd happily let them have a good 30 mins test drive.
You want everything upto temps and running for sometime so you can be sure it's working as it should, then you want to leave it running on tickover whilst it's fully upto temps again for a good 5-10 minutes, an owner with no qualms will happily let you do that.
I'm sure your aware but it's always good to be reminded of doing the basics when looking at this or any other car.
You sound like you've done some due diligence and looking at more than one car is more than most of us do
Buy the best for your money and then make it even better over time.
Thanks, all good points. Just had a look at yours in your profile- that is quite some spec list! Looks superb.I say take your time, this thread can go on as long as it takes, don't buy unless everything ticks your boxes and more importantly it drives well.
Get the right Tvr first time and you'll want to keep it forever,,,
If I was selling my Tvr and someone showed me the colour of his money first I'd happily let them have a good 30 mins test drive.
You want everything upto temps and running for sometime so you can be sure it's working as it should, then you want to leave it running on tickover whilst it's fully upto temps again for a good 5-10 minutes, an owner with no qualms will happily let you do that.
I'm sure your aware but it's always good to be reminded of doing the basics when looking at this or any other car.
You sound like you've done some due diligence and looking at more than one car is more than most of us do
Buy the best for your money and then make it even better over time.
This one certainly seems to tick all of the boxes. My usual tactic after viewing a car is a mentally list in my head all of the negative points about it, that always seems a more objective way of comparing examples to me! But in this instance I was actually struggling to find many, unlike the other examples I looked at. I think the most I came up with was that the mileage was a bit higher- around 70k, vs 50k average of most of the others. But to me the mileage is only really an issue come resale time, and with any luck I'm hoping that situation won't arise!
We had the car running for a good 20 mins or so yesterday and all seemed fine, so will see how it is after a drive.
As for keeping the thread going, I suspect that once I've got one I will be back on here asking all manner of questions anyway!
Is there anything specific to the Chim that I should be looking out for on the test drive?
ChilliWhizz said:
Don't floor it unless all four wheels are pointing in the same direction 
That sounds like pretty solid advice right there!
Rang them back this morning and test drive booked in for Wednesday evening, they are holding the car for me until then on the basis that if it all checks out I'll leave a deposit.
Job for today is to talk to my insurers...
Does anyone have any advice on the most painless method of insuring one of these as a second car? My ideal situation would be to get a combined policy alongside my Accord estate (insured with Sky), whereby I can mirror my no claims- if this is even possible. Only slight hitch is I am half way through my current Accord policy, so I guess I'd have to cancel and take out a new one (not really a big deal though at 10+ years NCB).
My other thoughts were on a limited mileage classic policy (5k per year), but my (limited) research suggests a lot of these require the car to be garaged and preclude any commuting use?
I'll give them a call at lunch and see what they say, but any general advice much appreciated as always!
At 31 with 13 years NCB (although Sky only record up to 10) I'd like to think I should be able to get it fairly reasonable!
Call Classicline to dip your toe in the classic car insurance market.
They are a broker and have a lot of us insured because they come up very reasonable and sensible.
Generally they only do limited mileage, but can be persuaded.
The don't use NCDs, but they take account of your driving history.
They also cover track days if the urge to do more than 70mph grabs you.
01455 639000
Footman James is another popular one, but I don't have their number to hand
They are a broker and have a lot of us insured because they come up very reasonable and sensible.
Generally they only do limited mileage, but can be persuaded.
The don't use NCDs, but they take account of your driving history.
They also cover track days if the urge to do more than 70mph grabs you.
01455 639000
Footman James is another popular one, but I don't have their number to hand
^^^^^^ this 
Do yourself a favour Dave,,,,
Don't go and look at Phazed car,,,, and whatever you do don't go in it
I went to buy some wheels off him when I'd not had my car long and he showed me his car,, it was his olde 4.6 car but it had everything sorted,, my heart sank!!! I knew I had a long way to go but that day I opened my eyes to what a good Tvr can be,,
I didn't really need an engine re build and most certainly didn't need an MBE ECU system but I use man maths to calculate things,,,
There's nothing wrong with the Tvr engine management system but you can't get away from the fact it's old and the wiring can be an issue and it contains a number of parts which I feel need to be replaced at every service if you want to keep the car reliable.
So my man math works like this,,,,
Mbe install £2500 + vat
Now if someone was to say to me I'd garrantee your car working and starting every time over the next two years for £12 a month,,,,,, I'd bloody go for that!
I'm driving my car every day at every opportunity whilst the summers here, I've done nearly 11,000 miles since last October,
5000 miles in the last few months,,, that reliability is priceless let alone costing me about 12 quid a month spread over a period of time.
The important thing to take from such spec lists other than engine/Mbe
Is most of that is also actually cheep, done over a number of years it's Just service items in many ways,
I've got the car close to how I like it,, the cost slows down as you go,,,
More money for petrol,,
Don't get hung up over replacing everything, I've got a box of bits that could be put back on the car !
Do yourself a favour Dave,,,,
Don't go and look at Phazed car,,,, and whatever you do don't go in it
I went to buy some wheels off him when I'd not had my car long and he showed me his car,, it was his olde 4.6 car but it had everything sorted,, my heart sank!!! I knew I had a long way to go but that day I opened my eyes to what a good Tvr can be,,
I didn't really need an engine re build and most certainly didn't need an MBE ECU system but I use man maths to calculate things,,,
There's nothing wrong with the Tvr engine management system but you can't get away from the fact it's old and the wiring can be an issue and it contains a number of parts which I feel need to be replaced at every service if you want to keep the car reliable.
So my man math works like this,,,,
Mbe install £2500 + vat
Now if someone was to say to me I'd garrantee your car working and starting every time over the next two years for £12 a month,,,,,, I'd bloody go for that!
I'm driving my car every day at every opportunity whilst the summers here, I've done nearly 11,000 miles since last October,
5000 miles in the last few months,,, that reliability is priceless let alone costing me about 12 quid a month spread over a period of time.
The important thing to take from such spec lists other than engine/Mbe
Is most of that is also actually cheep, done over a number of years it's Just service items in many ways,
I've got the car close to how I like it,, the cost slows down as you go,,,
More money for petrol,,
Don't get hung up over replacing everything, I've got a box of bits that could be put back on the car !
QBee said:
Call Classicline to dip your toe in the classic car insurance market.
They are a broker and have a lot of us insured because they come up very reasonable and sensible.
Generally they only do limited mileage, but can be persuaded.
The don't use NCDs, but they take account of your driving history.
They also cover track days if the urge to do more than 70mph grabs you.
01455 639000
Footman James is another popular one, but I don't have their number to hand
Thanks for that, I'll give them a call first in that case. Limited mileage isn't a problem as I suspect even 5k will be plenty as a second car (I only do around 10k total at the moment anyway), it's more that it needs to cover the odd bit of commuting use too.They are a broker and have a lot of us insured because they come up very reasonable and sensible.
Generally they only do limited mileage, but can be persuaded.
The don't use NCDs, but they take account of your driving history.
They also cover track days if the urge to do more than 70mph grabs you.
01455 639000
Footman James is another popular one, but I don't have their number to hand
Will call and see what they say
ClassiChimi said:
^^^^^^ this
Do yourself a favour Dave,,,,
Don't go and look at Phazed car,,,, and whatever you do don't go in it
I went to buy some wheels off him when I'd not had my car long and he showed me his car,, it was his olde 4.6 car but it had everything sorted,, my heart sank!!! I knew I had a long way to go but that day I opened my eyes to what a good Tvr can be,,
I didn't really need an engine re build and most certainly didn't need an MBE ECU system but I use man maths to calculate things,,,
There's nothing wrong with the Tvr engine management system but you can't get away from the fact it's old and the wiring can be an issue and it contains a number of parts which I feel need to be replaced at every service if you want to keep the car reliable.
So my man math works like this,,,,
Mbe install £2500 + vat
Now if someone was to say to me I'd garrantee your car working and starting every time over the next two years for £12 a month,,,,,, I'd bloody go for that!
I'm driving my car every day at every opportunity whilst the summers here, I've done nearly 11,000 miles since last October,
5000 miles in the last few months,,, that reliability is priceless let alone costing me about 12 quid a month spread over a period of time.
The important thing to take from such spec lists other than engine/Mbe
Is most of that is also actually cheep, done over a number of years it's Just service items in many ways,
I've got the car close to how I like it,, the cost slows down as you go,,,
More money for petrol,,
Don't get hung up over replacing everything, I've got a box of bits that could be put back on the car !
I can appreciate all of that! I had a similar thing with my Starion, over the 7 years I owned it I gradually replaced all kinds of things (PAS pump, radiator, intercooler, brake system, bushes etc)- but it was always more the mechanical side of things, anything that improved reliability was generally done at the drop of a hat, the cosmetic things less so. It's easy to get carried away with older cars, eventually ending up with a kind of trigger's broom situation. I am a big fan of anything that improves usability/reliability though.Do yourself a favour Dave,,,,
Don't go and look at Phazed car,,,, and whatever you do don't go in it
I went to buy some wheels off him when I'd not had my car long and he showed me his car,, it was his olde 4.6 car but it had everything sorted,, my heart sank!!! I knew I had a long way to go but that day I opened my eyes to what a good Tvr can be,,
I didn't really need an engine re build and most certainly didn't need an MBE ECU system but I use man maths to calculate things,,,
There's nothing wrong with the Tvr engine management system but you can't get away from the fact it's old and the wiring can be an issue and it contains a number of parts which I feel need to be replaced at every service if you want to keep the car reliable.
So my man math works like this,,,,
Mbe install £2500 + vat
Now if someone was to say to me I'd garrantee your car working and starting every time over the next two years for £12 a month,,,,,, I'd bloody go for that!
I'm driving my car every day at every opportunity whilst the summers here, I've done nearly 11,000 miles since last October,
5000 miles in the last few months,,, that reliability is priceless let alone costing me about 12 quid a month spread over a period of time.
The important thing to take from such spec lists other than engine/Mbe
Is most of that is also actually cheep, done over a number of years it's Just service items in many ways,
I've got the car close to how I like it,, the cost slows down as you go,,,
More money for petrol,,
Don't get hung up over replacing everything, I've got a box of bits that could be put back on the car !
On a vaguely related note, does anyone have any experience of solar-powered trickle chargers? Or are they not really viable?
ClassiChimi said:
Mbe install £2500 + vat
Now if someone was to say to me I'd garrantee your car working and starting every time over the next two years for £12 a month,,,,,, I'd bloody go for that!
Lend me £3000 please Alun, and I will pay you back at £12 a month for two years....Now if someone was to say to me I'd garrantee your car working and starting every time over the next two years for £12 a month,,,,,, I'd bloody go for that!
You can tell Alun's not an accountant.....£12 a month is £144 a year, £288 for two years, £2880 for 20 years.
So £2500 plus VAT is 20 years and 10 months at £12 a month.
Probably still worth it for all the smiles it has given you
(stands back to await the torrent of abuse about accountants.....)
Squirrelofwoe said:
......
On a vaguely related note, does anyone have any experience of solar-powered trickle chargers? Or are they not really viable?
I never thought of running a TVR on solar power.....On a vaguely related note, does anyone have any experience of solar-powered trickle chargers? Or are they not really viable?
Where's Chimpongas/wind/sun when you need him?
Oh yes, probably languishing in a French jail I guess.....
QBee said:
Lend me £3000 please Alun, and I will pay you back at £12 a month for two years....
You can tell Alun's not an accountant.....£12 a month is £144 a year, £288 for two years, £2880 for 20 years.
So £2500 plus VAT is 20 years and 10 months at £12 a month.
Probably still worth it for all the smiles it has given you
(stands back to await the torrent of abuse about accountants.....)
Did I mention I am also an accountant?... You can tell Alun's not an accountant.....£12 a month is £144 a year, £288 for two years, £2880 for 20 years.
So £2500 plus VAT is 20 years and 10 months at £12 a month.
Probably still worth it for all the smiles it has given you
(stands back to await the torrent of abuse about accountants.....)
I've seen various people discussing the viability of solar powered trickle charger- with mixed results. Some people say they work great, others say they aren't worth it. But it seems to depend on the specific one used, obviously because of the varying amounts of power they produce.
Not having an external power socket, this would be an ideal solution if they do in fact work.
Edited by Squirrelofwoe on Monday 18th July 12:11
QBee said:
Welcome to the world of fixed assets that you don't have to depreciate...
They seem to be appreciating if anything.
Four years ago my 67,000 mile, 1999 Chim 400 retailed from a dealer at £10,000.
You will be lucky to get one for that now.
Exactly why I am at the 'now or never' point.They seem to be appreciating if anything.
Four years ago my 67,000 mile, 1999 Chim 400 retailed from a dealer at £10,000.
You will be lucky to get one for that now.
I seriously considered buying one when I qualified 7 years ago- I bottled it (as it would have been my only car and I decided I ought to save for a house) and purchased my DC2 Integra instead. The examples I was looking at back then were £6-7k and they weren't even the bottom of the barrel... The same condition cars now are the ones I've been looking at around £11k+
QBee said:
Call Classicline to dip your toe in the classic car insurance market.
They are a broker and have a lot of us insured because they come up very reasonable and sensible.
Generally they only do limited mileage, but can be persuaded.
The don't use NCDs, but they take account of your driving history.
They also cover track days if the urge to do more than 70mph grabs you.
01455 639000
Footman James is another popular one, but I don't have their number to hand
I rang for quotes from these two at lunch, based on the car being kept on the drive, 4k miles/year as a second car, including use for commuting. 31 years old, driving 13 years, no claims or convictions to date.They are a broker and have a lot of us insured because they come up very reasonable and sensible.
Generally they only do limited mileage, but can be persuaded.
The don't use NCDs, but they take account of your driving history.
They also cover track days if the urge to do more than 70mph grabs you.
01455 639000
Footman James is another popular one, but I don't have their number to hand
Footman James came out with a very reasonable quote, pleased with that. Classicline however were just slightly over double- and with a higher excess!
Check what you get with Classicline though - my cover includes breakdown (UK & Europe) track day cover and various other bits that elude me right now.
Welcome to the club though - bought mine in 2009 after 4 years of looking, not looking, looking etc. Looked at low mileage dealer showroom models, looked at dogs, looked at TVRCC owned ones, looked at a Boxster, looked at S2000, looked at Cater/fields, looked at Griffs etc.
Eventually I bought at the lower end of the market - mechanically sound, but cosmetically tired, but at least it was driveable and useable. It was a project for a while, carpets, hood, shocks, clutch, brakes, then headlamp conversion and custom paint job, and then last year had a full body off chassis refurb at RT Racing. It's at the higher end of valuations for a '96 400, and I've spent more than it's market value over the years - however it is a keeper, I have no debt secured on it, and it is no longer depreciating. £500 a year to tax & insure, another £1000 slush fund for service and "bits" plus whatever fuel I use.
The money I earned to spent on it has long gone, but it is now a relatively "cheap" toy annually to enjoy.
Welcome to the club though - bought mine in 2009 after 4 years of looking, not looking, looking etc. Looked at low mileage dealer showroom models, looked at dogs, looked at TVRCC owned ones, looked at a Boxster, looked at S2000, looked at Cater/fields, looked at Griffs etc.
Eventually I bought at the lower end of the market - mechanically sound, but cosmetically tired, but at least it was driveable and useable. It was a project for a while, carpets, hood, shocks, clutch, brakes, then headlamp conversion and custom paint job, and then last year had a full body off chassis refurb at RT Racing. It's at the higher end of valuations for a '96 400, and I've spent more than it's market value over the years - however it is a keeper, I have no debt secured on it, and it is no longer depreciating. £500 a year to tax & insure, another £1000 slush fund for service and "bits" plus whatever fuel I use.
The money I earned to spent on it has long gone, but it is now a relatively "cheap" toy annually to enjoy.
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