A little onboard video...

[Dimension]

... that, to me, signifies the beginning of an adventure

Bought my second TVR a while back and finally managed to drive it to its new home. What you're seeing here is disembarking the Ferry in Rotterdam and the following 17 Minutes. First time the car has touched continental Europe as far as I'm aware, which is why I recorded the occasion.

No music in this, only engine noise.

The drive went without any huge problems although it made me realize that I need to do something about the heat management because the water temps rocket in a traffic jam. Also, I burned my left foot into a crisp

Hope you enjoy the video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFL38KY290Y&fe...

[Dimension]

Glad you guys like it

Here's some pictures:




upon further research, it turns out that a chassis number starting with "200" does not mean it is a griffith 200. The documentation I saw points to the 1964 Griff 400's as having "400" chassis numbers while the 1965 cars (or at least some), such as mine, had "200" chassis numbers despite being Griffith 400's. The cars built prior to november 64, the regular 200's also all have "200" chassis numbers, which is where my initial confusion came from. Only learned this today

The gearshift is incredible. except for reverse, finding a gear is super easy, the loud CLUNK when engaging a gear is hugely satisfying. And yes, the car is very eager to show off its power. What you see in the video is only a small portion, I never gave it more than 60-70% gas and never revved it above 5000 or so, maybe even below 4500. Its a true monster of a motor.

The car is the old Steve Watton car, its been on pistonheads before so it may be an old aquaintance to some

It is currently undergoing some modifications to make it fully street legal in germany (lights, reverse lights, hazard lights, some electrical stuff). Cannot wait to get it back on the road!

Edited by Dimension on Wednesday 19th August 13:25

[Dimension]

Hello!

I was actually aware of that video and have also seen the pictures of the accident happening. The owner had the car rebuilt, albeit with a less nervous steering rack but after some deliberation decided to sell it to me as he did not see himself racing it anymore. Guy is among the friendliest people I met in my life by the way.

The engine is indeed a Gregg Hekimian Ford Engine and was dyno'd at 529hp at the flywheel. It is a firespitting monstrosity and I love it to bits

Best Regards
Cedric

[Dimension]

Rest assured that I'm only doing what I must in order to make it road legal and and drivable on the road. The goal is to keep it as close to its current state as it is, because in my view the current spec is the one it has gained its fame in, so thats how I want to preserve it.

Things I must do (that I'm aware of):
- Make the reversing lights work
- install Hazard lights
- possibly add some sound dampening to the exhaust
- replace the lamps for rightside traffic
- get the speedo and odometer working again (or replace)
- work the suspension and fenders so the wheels don't foul on the bodywork

Things I want to do:
- Fix the blowback flames out of the carburettor in order to fit an air filter and safely start the car with a closed bonnet
- replace the current cracked rear-view mirror with a new one
- install a passenger seat
- replace the harness with a new one and add one for the passenger seat
- test and if necessary replace the batteries. I have a feeling as if the batterie is rapidly losing charge, which causes problems with the starter motor.
- add heat insulation
- move the oil and/or water cooler in order to have space for a second fan for the water cooler. The car overheats too fast.
- relocate the fire extinguisher
- apply clearcoat in order to preserve the David Hives signatures.
- have it dipped to protect the original paintwork
- fix the back window seals
- replace the extra gauges with classic ones
- the car always displays as having between 27 and 37 l of fuel, regardless of whether its full or empty. fix that.
- fix the dickish "power on" button
- if possible, get the doors watertight
- add a glovebox
- replace broken battery container
- aquire keys for the lock or replace lock
- add a hidden killswitch or two

... geez I didn't think it would end up being so much. Guess I won't be bored the next few years

As an aside, apparently its a "he" and as far as I was told has been named "Biff" by Steve Watton, as in "Biff the Griff"

Edited by Dimension on Friday 21st August 14:19

Edited by Dimension on Friday 21st August 14:21

Edited by Dimension on Friday 21st August 14:24

[Dimension]

Hello!

What an eventful weekend.

Friday I was fooling about with the boys from the BBC, as the car will be featured on the next Season of James May's Cars of the People. Luckily they managed to get all required material before the car expired

What happened?

The alternator is horrifically underpowered. A nice chap who is an electrical engineer from lincolnshire and was touristing about the place stuck his head in and commented that it looked to be from a BMW... bike!

The theory I have is that the alternator actually expired back when I brought the car over to germany. It was very hot that day and I had everything running to keep the engine cool and also had the lights on for visibility reasons.

After that I noticed that voltage was very low whenever I wanted to start the car, so low in fact that it occasionally did not start at all. I initially blamed the battery, but now I know better.

also, the wiring loom is very fragile, thin cables that are only designed to last a daytime sprint race, with huge fuses to prevent them blowing all the damn time. The net result is that the car is a bit of a fire hazard.

Also, the front tires foul everywhere. And I mean everywhere. They foul on the cables for the lighting array, and have apparently eaten through the wires leading to the indicators, now they short-circuit as soon as I turn on the ignition. they also foul on oil lines, the radiator, and like 5 different parts of the bodywork.

New tyres have already arrived, I'm downsizing from 225/60 to 225/50 and see if they still foul. if they do,I'll have to limit the turning circle.

The alternator needs to be replaced with a bigger unit that is actually up to the job.

And I'm debating on wether to replace the faultiest, thinnest wires or go ahead and commission a new wiring loom altogether.

I'm currently somewhat bummed out about it all, but haven't given up hope quite yet.

[Dimension]

The aforementioned heat issues mean that I have to run the fan quite a bit. In the future I will actually fit a second fan so drain will increase. There is also the electric waterpump which is naturally constantly in operation. the rest is fuel pumps and the various lights, as well as miscellaneous stuff I usually don't turn on, such as auxillary oil pumps in the sump and the differential. there is no air con fitted. The battery lasts a few hours when full, but since the alternator is not working it will most definitely run out.

At some point I will also install a 12V outlet in an inconspicuous spot.

You say that the polo alternator is bolt on or can be fit with few modifications? Or what do you mean by "good fit".

[Dimension]

A mechanical driven pump cannot be used when the engine is not running. this means that I cannot in conjunction with an electrical fan cool the engine down after a drive. Since the alternator is defintely broken and the water pump definitely isn't, I see no good reason to switch out the water pump given the benefits.

I do not exactly know the output of the alternator, but plan to unbolt it and have it inspected/tested. It is however motorbike-sized, absolutely tiny. The output will be accordingly. A friendly electrician said that his estimate is well below 500 Watts.

Edited by Dimension on Wednesday 16th September 12:09

[Dimension]

Just a heads up/vicious plug!

The car can be seen on TV tomorrow on S2E3 of James Mays Cars of the People on BBC2 from 21:00h GMT. I am super excited to see what the finished result of about 3/4 day of filming is!

[Dimension]

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

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 on


The 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