The proud boy owner of an old Chimaera pup
Discussion
Greetings all. First time user, first post, so feel free to berate me on the dos and donts that I did or didn't.
So in August last year, at the ripe old age of 20 and having just bought my first house and satisfied my responsibility meter, I decided it was toy time.
I've been a long-time sufferer of OTVRD (obsession with TVR disorder) which has afflicted me since childhood and is probably due in some part to my dad's VHS copy of 'Clarkson- Unleashed' which I used to watch on repeat; my poster car of choice at the time was the Dodge Viper and witnessing it get blown into the weeds by the otherworldly rocketship Cerb left a lasting impression.
However I'd decided that actually owning a TVR as my first sports car would be a ridiculous proposition beyond my means, so had settled for a Honda S2k and begun searching for the right example. It was actually a workmate called Pav (a jap car lover and Honda fanboy ironically) who was aware of my condition and had discovered an early Chim 400 on fleaBay with low mileage going for half the usual asking price of a decent example. eBay, suspiciously low price, for a low mileage car? Hmm... Something fishy here... It was based not far from me in Brizzle and Pav finally convinced me when he told me 'you go buy your S2000 Mike, and I'm sure it will be great, but then one day you'll pass a TVR coming the other way and you'll kick yourself.' So I gave the car the benefit of the doubt and arranged to meet the owner.
It conspired that the owner, Iain, a fascinating and thoroughly decent chap, was selling the TVR along with the rest of his life to go race powerboats in Ibiza or something similarly outrageous. He didn't have much history for the car other than that it was a barn find at some point in its life and after 9 years dry-stored and dormant had been rebuilt but never really finished, and at face value it wasn't in great shape (I'll elaborate on this below). At this point I was pretty much ready to call it a day, but then he went and started the bloody thing didn't he...
Of course it sounded fantastic. Incredible. THE BEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE. Iain was kind enough to let me go for a test drive and it really was a joy. Although he didn't really have any interest in finishing the car, along with his friend and mechanic Duncan (who IIRC had 7 Alfas and informed me that sometimes some of them worked), Iain had kept it in good mechanical condition. When it came to decision time and he was happy to go below the already disproportionate asking price, what else could I do...
As it appeared in the ad
So, home with me the car came and it was straight into the thick of things. First off, rapidly expiring MOT- Duncan was kind enough to set me up with a 'friendly' MOT tester who was familiar with the car, so I got myself a year of leeway to address some of the problems- first of which was the headlights. Both Iain and Duncan were completely bemused as to why they were pointed at the sky with no visible method of adjustment. I soon found out why- presumably years ago the adjuster screws had broken or the mounts on the reflector for the screws had been lost (only 2/6 of these left between both reflectors), and some cheeky sod had just sikaflex'd the reflectors to the back of the lenses, dropped them into the bodywork and sealed the whole lot in!! I ordered the bits I needed from Racetech and let me tell you, what a f
king pig of a job! I can only assume that in the future man will evolve to grow 6ft long arms with 3 elbows each, and TVR brilliantly predicted this and designed the Chimaera's headlight adjustment accordingly. Anyway, success was achieved, and no more lighting up the tops of the trees and blinding people in 3rd storey flats through their windows.
Nightmare job!!!
It's a fantastic looking thing, I'm in love with the colour and think it's fabulous even if the paintwork has seen better days; inevitable stone chips on the front, bizarre scratches on the boot lid and black sealant blobs on the bodywork in a few places. Nothing horrendous and to be honest, nothing that bothers me particularly as the car is always going to be used anyway. Interestingly the front grille seems to have been fashioned from chicken wire and is a bit of a bodge, but you know what- it works and I like it. This car is never going to win any concours competitions so I see no need to spend £££ on something else to do the same function. I may try and fashion a rubber surround for it though, as taking it out and putting it back in again to do the headlights really fks up the paintwork with the sharp edges.
She's a looker...
The roof, honestly, is in pretty st shape. The targa panel canvas is faded, torn and horrible, and the rear folding section has escaped it's Velcro fasteners and has a near opaque rear window. The seals on both parts are also well past their best and appear as though they'd have the weatherproofing abilities of a colander, although I did discover that some kind of invisible force field exists around the cabin as the MOT trip to Bristol (on day of expiry..) in torrential downpours yielded not a drop of the wet stuff in the cabin despite clear daylight in places between the seals and windows (no idea). A Steve Edwards hardtop conversion appeals.
Under the bonnet lies perhaps the biggest surprise... What's that big round thing? That's right, it's been carb converted. Carried out when the car was pulled out of the barn and rebuilt, along with Edelbrock cylinder heads and a new camshaft and valvegear. Whether this has provided any benefit/detriment I'm not sure, but I know that something in there is working because it sure makes a lot of noise. The one and only time I've been bothered to work out my fuel usage I reached a roughly calculated 13mpg over a period of part-cruising and part-fun. Not bad for a car weighing roughly 60% the amount of your average 50mpg repmobile. The engine bay looks rough at the moment, I'm planning to add some new heatshield, clean up and paint the rocker covers, re-wrap the exhausts and get a shiny new air cleaner.
A minor photobomb by the missus looking for the ejector seat button
And finally to the interior- probably the biggest element that was de-valuing this car. It simply was never finished. Completely redone after the barn find saga, what had been completed was actually to a really high standard (if perhaps in colours that would flatter an Austin Princess). Unfortunately the windscreen surround and drivers door trim weren't finished and were literally just left hanging. It had clearly been some time since the car had been in the hands of an owner with the intention of rectifying this, but I got in touch with a trimmers near me and took the car down. It turns out that the windscreen had to be removed to complete the trim, at which point it smashed into eleventy million pieces. Cue a long time in which the Tivver sat looking decidedly sorry for itself in the lockup whilst Gav from Autoglass wondered what a TVR Chimaera is and if he would be able to put a windscreen on it.
Get me out of here and on the road please!
No pictures of the interior before the trimming got done, but picture this with all the windscreen trim hanging off- not nice
However the car is back home now and providing bucketfuls of joy with that fabulous V8 roar. Only significant job left is to wire in the aftermarket speedometer which again was put in years ago but I don't believe has ever functioned. In terms of electronics the car is an absolute clusterfk. It appears to have been put together initially by Stevie Wonder, pulled apart by a herd of angry chimpanzees and then rebuilt in Bletchley park as an attempt to transmit uncrackable coded messages via the drivers-side door release. Under the dash and in the engine bay are a dizzying array of multicoloured wires, widgets and loose connectors which flap around completely devoid of any obvious destination. I'm embarrassed to say as an ex-sparky of sorts that as everything on the car seems to be working I'm too scared to touch any of it for fear of breaking it entirely. So the speedo is being dealt with by a proper auto sparky, and the unsightly spaghetti mess will remain until it stops working.
When I was doing a recce on the speedo I had the car on my crappy axle stands to check the diff transducer- I soon discovered that no matter how hard I try I cannot create enough space to work under the car, or even to see very well which has been a huge pain in the arse. I was able to conduct a brief assessment of the chassis, and the results are mixed. Whilst it doesn't seem to be in horrible condition the drivers side outrigger is looking a little worse for wear and in fact the corner 'plate' (is there a more accurate term?) has rusted through entirely. I'm hoping it's a weld-able job, but watch this space for news of a crippling bill.
It's particularly worrying as I do want to take the car on the track in the near future- Castle Combe is pretty local to me and I really want to get out there for a day, mostly just to get a better feel for the cars limits and the way it behaves on the edge of grip so that I can stop driving like miss daisy on the road. That said I have been bitten a couple of times- I've done karting ever since I was a kid and have always been a fan of enthusiastic driving but of course the Tiv is a different kettle of fish to anything I've driven before and I'm not naive enough to believe that I'll get by without some tuition at Combe and a lot more experience. The car came on 15 (15!!) year old rear tyres wrapped around 17" Dare wheels which although they've grown on me over time are still in st shape and will be removed as soon as I can get hold of a set of Dezent TIs (16" front, 17" rear, wrapped in nice-spec new tyres for the road which I'm very excited for). I did take the liberty though of replacing the old tyres on the Dare wheels with some part-worn Continental Sports which I'm told are sticky and useful for the track, so the intention is to get the new wheels on for the road and keep the old Dares as track wheels/tyres. I'm going to see if I can get an inspection by Neil Garner (local to me) pre-track day to see if the car is fit for it.
The wheels are going
Yes, this car is rough. It was rough for a long time before I bought it and it will probably stay rough in my ownership. I haven't got the time or the means to carry out a full restoration. But it will always get looked after, it will be kept on the road, and most importantly it will always be driven and enjoyed. As a Trevor nut I do wonder if I should feel guilty for keeping this car in a bad way, but in all honesty in the condition it was in I don't think it would have interested any would-be restorers and at the price I got I'm sure it was within the means of people who would have given it a far worse home than me.
So that's my introduction to TVR! So far it's been brilliant, tragic, enthralling, painful, life-affirming and eye-watering. All in the space of 6 months. Personally I feel like I did well on the car, it's perfect for me as a big boys toy without fretting too much about condition- a well-sorted Trevor maybe in the pipeline for later in life, I've always wanted an AJPV8 Cerb... The amount of hidden surprises has had me wondering if I'd been mugged off a bit, but it's still a fully functioning TVR and less than half the price of an equivalent clean (and original) one so I must have done alright on it, what do you think?
Also if there are any TVR serial number decipherers out there, the car was first registered July '93- it would be awesome to find out just how early a car it was, potentially one of the first 100?
I absolutely adore this car, and I hope that you guys can appreciate its rough charm. As stated I am TVR obsessed so expect me to be in these forums often, and I'm looking forward to meeting some PH'ers and sharing experiences. I'm hoping to start attending some meets in the South West/Wilts area (any info on this would be appreciated!).
Essay complete.
Mike
So in August last year, at the ripe old age of 20 and having just bought my first house and satisfied my responsibility meter, I decided it was toy time.
I've been a long-time sufferer of OTVRD (obsession with TVR disorder) which has afflicted me since childhood and is probably due in some part to my dad's VHS copy of 'Clarkson- Unleashed' which I used to watch on repeat; my poster car of choice at the time was the Dodge Viper and witnessing it get blown into the weeds by the otherworldly rocketship Cerb left a lasting impression.
However I'd decided that actually owning a TVR as my first sports car would be a ridiculous proposition beyond my means, so had settled for a Honda S2k and begun searching for the right example. It was actually a workmate called Pav (a jap car lover and Honda fanboy ironically) who was aware of my condition and had discovered an early Chim 400 on fleaBay with low mileage going for half the usual asking price of a decent example. eBay, suspiciously low price, for a low mileage car? Hmm... Something fishy here... It was based not far from me in Brizzle and Pav finally convinced me when he told me 'you go buy your S2000 Mike, and I'm sure it will be great, but then one day you'll pass a TVR coming the other way and you'll kick yourself.' So I gave the car the benefit of the doubt and arranged to meet the owner.
It conspired that the owner, Iain, a fascinating and thoroughly decent chap, was selling the TVR along with the rest of his life to go race powerboats in Ibiza or something similarly outrageous. He didn't have much history for the car other than that it was a barn find at some point in its life and after 9 years dry-stored and dormant had been rebuilt but never really finished, and at face value it wasn't in great shape (I'll elaborate on this below). At this point I was pretty much ready to call it a day, but then he went and started the bloody thing didn't he...
Of course it sounded fantastic. Incredible. THE BEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE. Iain was kind enough to let me go for a test drive and it really was a joy. Although he didn't really have any interest in finishing the car, along with his friend and mechanic Duncan (who IIRC had 7 Alfas and informed me that sometimes some of them worked), Iain had kept it in good mechanical condition. When it came to decision time and he was happy to go below the already disproportionate asking price, what else could I do...
As it appeared in the ad
So, home with me the car came and it was straight into the thick of things. First off, rapidly expiring MOT- Duncan was kind enough to set me up with a 'friendly' MOT tester who was familiar with the car, so I got myself a year of leeway to address some of the problems- first of which was the headlights. Both Iain and Duncan were completely bemused as to why they were pointed at the sky with no visible method of adjustment. I soon found out why- presumably years ago the adjuster screws had broken or the mounts on the reflector for the screws had been lost (only 2/6 of these left between both reflectors), and some cheeky sod had just sikaflex'd the reflectors to the back of the lenses, dropped them into the bodywork and sealed the whole lot in!! I ordered the bits I needed from Racetech and let me tell you, what a f
king pig of a job! I can only assume that in the future man will evolve to grow 6ft long arms with 3 elbows each, and TVR brilliantly predicted this and designed the Chimaera's headlight adjustment accordingly. Anyway, success was achieved, and no more lighting up the tops of the trees and blinding people in 3rd storey flats through their windows.Nightmare job!!!
It's a fantastic looking thing, I'm in love with the colour and think it's fabulous even if the paintwork has seen better days; inevitable stone chips on the front, bizarre scratches on the boot lid and black sealant blobs on the bodywork in a few places. Nothing horrendous and to be honest, nothing that bothers me particularly as the car is always going to be used anyway. Interestingly the front grille seems to have been fashioned from chicken wire and is a bit of a bodge, but you know what- it works and I like it. This car is never going to win any concours competitions so I see no need to spend £££ on something else to do the same function. I may try and fashion a rubber surround for it though, as taking it out and putting it back in again to do the headlights really f
ks up the paintwork with the sharp edges.She's a looker...
The roof, honestly, is in pretty s
t shape. The targa panel canvas is faded, torn and horrible, and the rear folding section has escaped it's Velcro fasteners and has a near opaque rear window. The seals on both parts are also well past their best and appear as though they'd have the weatherproofing abilities of a colander, although I did discover that some kind of invisible force field exists around the cabin as the MOT trip to Bristol (on day of expiry..) in torrential downpours yielded not a drop of the wet stuff in the cabin despite clear daylight in places between the seals and windows (no idea). A Steve Edwards hardtop conversion appeals.Under the bonnet lies perhaps the biggest surprise... What's that big round thing? That's right, it's been carb converted. Carried out when the car was pulled out of the barn and rebuilt, along with Edelbrock cylinder heads and a new camshaft and valvegear. Whether this has provided any benefit/detriment I'm not sure, but I know that something in there is working because it sure makes a lot of noise. The one and only time I've been bothered to work out my fuel usage I reached a roughly calculated 13mpg over a period of part-cruising and part-fun. Not bad for a car weighing roughly 60% the amount of your average 50mpg repmobile. The engine bay looks rough at the moment, I'm planning to add some new heatshield, clean up and paint the rocker covers, re-wrap the exhausts and get a shiny new air cleaner.
A minor photobomb by the missus looking for the ejector seat button
And finally to the interior- probably the biggest element that was de-valuing this car. It simply was never finished. Completely redone after the barn find saga, what had been completed was actually to a really high standard (if perhaps in colours that would flatter an Austin Princess). Unfortunately the windscreen surround and drivers door trim weren't finished and were literally just left hanging. It had clearly been some time since the car had been in the hands of an owner with the intention of rectifying this, but I got in touch with a trimmers near me and took the car down. It turns out that the windscreen had to be removed to complete the trim, at which point it smashed into eleventy million pieces. Cue a long time in which the Tivver sat looking decidedly sorry for itself in the lockup whilst Gav from Autoglass wondered what a TVR Chimaera is and if he would be able to put a windscreen on it.
Get me out of here and on the road please!
No pictures of the interior before the trimming got done, but picture this with all the windscreen trim hanging off- not nice
However the car is back home now and providing bucketfuls of joy with that fabulous V8 roar. Only significant job left is to wire in the aftermarket speedometer which again was put in years ago but I don't believe has ever functioned. In terms of electronics the car is an absolute clusterf
k. It appears to have been put together initially by Stevie Wonder, pulled apart by a herd of angry chimpanzees and then rebuilt in Bletchley park as an attempt to transmit uncrackable coded messages via the drivers-side door release. Under the dash and in the engine bay are a dizzying array of multicoloured wires, widgets and loose connectors which flap around completely devoid of any obvious destination. I'm embarrassed to say as an ex-sparky of sorts that as everything on the car seems to be working I'm too scared to touch any of it for fear of breaking it entirely. So the speedo is being dealt with by a proper auto sparky, and the unsightly spaghetti mess will remain until it stops working.When I was doing a recce on the speedo I had the car on my crappy axle stands to check the diff transducer- I soon discovered that no matter how hard I try I cannot create enough space to work under the car, or even to see very well which has been a huge pain in the arse. I was able to conduct a brief assessment of the chassis, and the results are mixed. Whilst it doesn't seem to be in horrible condition the drivers side outrigger is looking a little worse for wear and in fact the corner 'plate' (is there a more accurate term?) has rusted through entirely. I'm hoping it's a weld-able job, but watch this space for news of a crippling bill.
It's particularly worrying as I do want to take the car on the track in the near future- Castle Combe is pretty local to me and I really want to get out there for a day, mostly just to get a better feel for the cars limits and the way it behaves on the edge of grip so that I can stop driving like miss daisy on the road. That said I have been bitten a couple of times- I've done karting ever since I was a kid and have always been a fan of enthusiastic driving but of course the Tiv is a different kettle of fish to anything I've driven before and I'm not naive enough to believe that I'll get by without some tuition at Combe and a lot more experience. The car came on 15 (15!!) year old rear tyres wrapped around 17" Dare wheels which although they've grown on me over time are still in s
t shape and will be removed as soon as I can get hold of a set of Dezent TIs (16" front, 17" rear, wrapped in nice-spec new tyres for the road which I'm very excited for). I did take the liberty though of replacing the old tyres on the Dare wheels with some part-worn Continental Sports which I'm told are sticky and useful for the track, so the intention is to get the new wheels on for the road and keep the old Dares as track wheels/tyres. I'm going to see if I can get an inspection by Neil Garner (local to me) pre-track day to see if the car is fit for it.The wheels are going
Yes, this car is rough. It was rough for a long time before I bought it and it will probably stay rough in my ownership. I haven't got the time or the means to carry out a full restoration. But it will always get looked after, it will be kept on the road, and most importantly it will always be driven and enjoyed. As a Trevor nut I do wonder if I should feel guilty for keeping this car in a bad way, but in all honesty in the condition it was in I don't think it would have interested any would-be restorers and at the price I got I'm sure it was within the means of people who would have given it a far worse home than me.
So that's my introduction to TVR! So far it's been brilliant, tragic, enthralling, painful, life-affirming and eye-watering. All in the space of 6 months. Personally I feel like I did well on the car, it's perfect for me as a big boys toy without fretting too much about condition- a well-sorted Trevor maybe in the pipeline for later in life, I've always wanted an AJPV8 Cerb... The amount of hidden surprises has had me wondering if I'd been mugged off a bit, but it's still a fully functioning TVR and less than half the price of an equivalent clean (and original) one so I must have done alright on it, what do you think?
Also if there are any TVR serial number decipherers out there, the car was first registered July '93- it would be awesome to find out just how early a car it was, potentially one of the first 100?
I absolutely adore this car, and I hope that you guys can appreciate its rough charm. As stated I am TVR obsessed so expect me to be in these forums often, and I'm looking forward to meeting some PH'ers and sharing experiences. I'm hoping to start attending some meets in the South West/Wilts area (any info on this would be appreciated!).
Essay complete.
Mike
Oh yes I certainly got a laugh out of that.
Grew up carting,,,,, top man.
You'll love it then, you'll never feel totally comfortable on the roads if your like me but find a nice track and they ain't half bad all things considered.
Welcome and your cars looking cool buddy, air filter in the bay,, I'd try getting some ducting onto that with cold air to it.
You can adjust the pedals as well if you like left ft braking.
I drive pretty much all year round but it's a big maintenance task during the winter.
Do not go near snow or ice is my advice, drive within the car in the wet and it's safe ish
Great first post.
,
You'll love it then, you'll never feel totally comfortable on the roads if your like me but find a nice track and they ain't half bad all things considered.
Welcome and your cars looking cool buddy, air filter in the bay,, I'd try getting some ducting onto that with cold air to it.
You can adjust the pedals as well if you like left ft braking.
I drive pretty much all year round but it's a big maintenance task during the winter.
Do not go near snow or ice is my advice, drive within the car in the wet and it's safe ish
Great first post.
,
ClassicChimaera said:
Grew up carting,,,,, top man.
You'll love it then, you'll never feel totally comfortable on the roads if your like me but find a nice track and they ain't half bad all things considered.
Welcome and your cars looking cool buddy, air filter in the bay,, I'd try getting some ducting onto that with cold air to it.
You can adjust the pedals as well if you like left ft braking.
Sadly relegated to rental kart championships due to lack of time and I do miss the quick stuff.. A lot to be said for jumping in a load of ropey 4 strokes with some good mates and trying to throw them all at one apex at the same time though You'll love it then, you'll never feel totally comfortable on the roads if your like me but find a nice track and they ain't half bad all things considered.
Welcome and your cars looking cool buddy, air filter in the bay,, I'd try getting some ducting onto that with cold air to it.
You can adjust the pedals as well if you like left ft braking.
I'm not sure how the Chim bonnet vents do at getting chill air into the engine bay but I figured it a pretty convenient location (if they actually do that is
)Left foot braking is actually something I never managed to transfer to cars comfortably- many a bruised forehead practising in the daily
couple that with my woeful heel and toe technique some track time and tuition is definitely required to get me up to scratch! 
My bonnet vents usually have a flow of very hot heat being forced out of them.
Carts are where it's at. Fast slow, they are all lots of fun, great for honing your skills.
It is so alien to use left ft in a car because of the clutch. I never really do it on the roads but on track it's very useful.
I learnt by first just getting used to my left leg hovering over the brake pedal, I'd just dab it a lot like a cart brake, on off Ina split second, solely getting the feel for the amount of pressure required. I wouldn't even shot the throttle off
The left leg is not subtle because it's used to pressing a heavy clutch and it does take time. Learn it and driving one of these cars on track becomes very advanced
I'll say right now, I can't drive fast on the road in a Tvr, really difficult to stay in control. Funny that.
You should start taking pics of these electrics and stuff, someone on here will help you tie it all up.
Carts are where it's at. Fast slow, they are all lots of fun, great for honing your skills.
It is so alien to use left ft in a car because of the clutch. I never really do it on the roads but on track it's very useful.
I learnt by first just getting used to my left leg hovering over the brake pedal, I'd just dab it a lot like a cart brake, on off Ina split second, solely getting the feel for the amount of pressure required. I wouldn't even shot the throttle off
The left leg is not subtle because it's used to pressing a heavy clutch and it does take time. Learn it and driving one of these cars on track becomes very advanced
I'll say right now, I can't drive fast on the road in a Tvr, really difficult to stay in control. Funny that.
You should start taking pics of these electrics and stuff, someone on here will help you tie it all up.
CanoeSniffer said:
QBee said:
Will let you know when we are next at Castle Combe, but you will see it being arranged on a PH.....
Cheers! Do you generally wait for the warmer climes to head out there? I'm probably a few months of prep away so if the timing suits I for one prefer dry weather for track days in a TVR - I had a lucky escape at Snetterton driving on a drying track - touched a puddle at 90mph while touching the brakes going into the first corner and did 3.5 revolutions fully locked up and praying I wouldn't hit anything.......I didn't, but 10 minutes later a racing MG tried the same trick and virtually wrote the car off on the armco.
Here's a link to a bit of video shot by one of our number from the pit wall
linky
The link to the video itself is most of the way down page 7 of the thread, and is posted by one Mpoxon. The entire thread gives you a feel for the
of TVR ownership, fantastic read and made me giggle
First, just to say congratulations. Just think of all those boring hours not working on an S2K :/
Your essay got full marks from me.
Having now thoroughly looked up your Chimaeras skirt, so to speak, means your far more intimately connected to it than a 'normal' cars
As for the grill mine was similar on my first Chimaera, also a 1993.
I was told it was the early design, which I still think looks good.
You can just see from the pic below there was a U shaped rubber trim that was fitted around the wire mesh.
Really miss having a Chimaera for that wonderful rumble.
Looking forward to reading more.
All the best.
One small add, you sound very sensible but please be careful in the damp weather.
The back end can go in a split second if your a bit heavy footed this time of year. That's how I lost my first Tuscan.
Your essay got full marks from me.
Having now thoroughly looked up your Chimaeras skirt, so to speak, means your far more intimately connected to it than a 'normal' cars
As for the grill mine was similar on my first Chimaera, also a 1993.
I was told it was the early design, which I still think looks good.
You can just see from the pic below there was a U shaped rubber trim that was fitted around the wire mesh.
Really miss having a Chimaera for that wonderful rumble.
Looking forward to reading more.
All the best.
One small add, you sound very sensible but please be careful in the damp weather.
The back end can go in a split second if your a bit heavy footed this time of year. That's how I lost my first Tuscan.
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