What's orange, very rare and might be seen v soon?

[DoctorD]

You can have one guess what it is and where it will be this coming weekend..

[DoctorD]

As always things are a little unpredictable but the beast 'may' be let out of the cage soon. Can't say where because I don't want to dissapoint.

[DoctorD]

The beast is parked in the Supercar Paddock at Goodwood right now, unfortunately it won't be driven up the hill as planned because it's too new and has never properly turned a wheel.

Whilst it was nice to show it off at Goodwood yesterday the number of people who didn't know what it is or thought it was a Tuscan was astounding. I spent hours trying to keep kids from scratching it and people from pushing, poking and treating it like it was some kind of dispensible show car. Muppets!

Al is down there all of today, doing the same, but for anyone that attends he will start her up and play a few tunes...

[DoctorD]

Here goes...

[DoctorD]

Al and I had quite a discussion about the badge on the back and he's decided to make up a new badge with 'TVR Typhon' to replace it. It needs to say Typhon otherwise nobody will understand what it is and from the evidence at the weekend most people thought it was some kind of Tuscan or perhaps a T440R but I guess people thought a Typhon (assuming they've heard of it) would look more dramatic, with big wings etc.

Magazines getting their hands on it? Err, not likely! It's a thankless task lending cars to journalists and this time they will just have to wait for TVR to produce a demo.

[DoctorD]

Prime_Al has some more photos that he will post this evening, including some of the interior (I think) that look different and much better than the one at the Birmingham Show.

As far as driving impressions are concerned, can't say at the moment. It was hastily assembled to get it to Goodwood on time and it needs some work on the sequential change and a few other things to finish it off. Al is expecting to take (final!) delivery in about a weeks time.

Oh, ok I can't resist posting another photo that Al sent me this afternoon which I reckon should be turned into a t-shirt and best captures the view most people will have of the Typhon...



Sorry Al, I had to post it...

[DoctorD]

ccharlie6 said:

this is probably a silly question but, that exhaust system is there a smaller pipe inside or is that whole set of massive pipes actually the tail pipe because they must be at least 6" each

There is a resonator tube inside each of those pipes otherwise they are the size that you see and both sprout at equal lengths from the rear silencer box.

[DoctorD]

chughesrwc2003 said:

Are we going to get a review of this monster ?

When we collect it..!

Should be posting something sometime during next week.

[DoctorD]

chughesrwc2003 said:

Is it here yet? I'm not gettting it and I can't stand the wait

Believe it or not but NO we're still waiting to pick it up. The guys at TVR have been driving it around making 'sure' that everything works as it should and then they were going to take it over to Bruntingthorpe, drive it at serious speeds and then take it back for a bit of a repaint and final fettle. It's frustrating but better they get it right and properly sorted.

Apparently the powerband is like a 4.5 Cerbera, very driveable for a 600bhp car and the traction seems surprisingly good.

The good new for those of you waiting for your own Typhons is that the guys in the workshop are absolutley meticulous about their work and are seeking perfection with this car, so it should be worth the wait when we get to drive it.

[DoctorD]

Gagging order prevents us from saying anything, but there's no news to give really.

[DoctorD]

Gazboy said:

DoctorD said: Gagging order prevents us from saying anything, but there's no news to give really. Seriously!!! I've just read both threads, and this just comes across as a complete piss-take! Hasn't the car been in the 'almost ready' stahe for about a year? If you have a gagging contract, surely you also have a purchase contract stating that they will actually deliver the car within a specified time? How long have you been waiting since putting the deposit down? and is it refundable should you need/require it?

The reason for being tight-lipped is diminishing day by day, but I will leave it for Prime_Al to break the silence maybe sometime in January.

Quick answers to your questions though;

- Yes
- Yes, but...
- Yes and No
- More than 4 years
- Maybe, it's TVR after all.

[DoctorD]

I was just looking through some of our archives today for a feature we're doing on Lawrence Tomlinson, and I remembered back in 2003 when LNT owned road car #1, while ours was car #2 (but of course fully-supercharged and officially called a 'Typhon'). Then I remembered this post on PH and realised that the host we used for the images is no longer active.

So for posterity (and to save any more people contacting me to ask where they are), here are some of those original images taken at the 2004 Goodwood FoS when we showcased it in the Supercar Paddock - and got to drive it up the hill.

Ahh, happy days, until I remembered bl**dy Smolensky..

[DoctorD]

alphaone said:

Sadly it wont allow me to view them, I get this message :

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /wp-content/uploads/2012/10/TVR-Typhon-Supercharged-Goodwood-FoS-2004-G2.jpg on this server.

Really? I can see the images fine. It looks like Haymarket have a redirect (or blacklist) on the PH server to block any links which originate from SkiddMark. I will re-post them later on from a different URL.. (assuming of course even this sentence is visible since it contains the dreaded S...word)

(Nice one PH)

[DoctorD]

DonkeyApple said:

Fantastic to see some original pics. Thanks for putting them back up.

If it's any consolation after several years of sitting at Multipart after the company folded and two years slow work of refitting the drive train and ironing out basic niggles it is alive and well:

Hey, that's excellent - I'm really pleased to see it's running. Did you retain the supercharger? And how about the sequential gearbox? We were having problems coping with the torque from it's 620bhp engine, which is one of the reasons it was still at the factory when Smolensky walked in and decided to keep it for himself.

I can't remember if I ever posted on PH at the time, but after agreeing a price of £83k (way back in '03) the young oligarch looked at the accounts and realised TVR were selling it too cheaply, so he decided £135k was more appropriate. Since we'd spent dozens of hours (during the previous 3 years) helping develop it, we told him to take a running leap.

It all ended rather ignominiously when we had to threaten legal action to recover some of our costs (including travelling to shows like Goodwood). Such a shame he screwed more than just us, but I'm glad to see Typhon#1 has survived the charade..

[DoctorD]

That's brilliant news, as is often said, you're only ever a custodian of a car, rather than its owner.

p.s. actually those rear seats were specially designed to suit an 11-year old, and my (now 20 year old niece) was used as the model they were built around. I don't think she'd 'quite' fit anymore..

[DoctorD]

mr shifty said:

The images aren't showing because the host has chosen to prevent 'hotlinking' - where an image is hosted on one website but displayed on another. They will show up for some users, most likely those who have recently visited "S...word"

For those who can't see them, here you go:

Thanks Chris - this quite succinctly demonstrates the limitations of a walled social community, which significantly damages PH's reach in search and social channels. You only need look at the paltry number of external links to see evidence of this..