Chimaera 500 work begins

[v8ndy]

Hi all, work has started!It began with the engine oil light that stayed on when starting up for the first time after being in the garage for the winter,
So its a full fat milk upgrade on everything! starting with a body off
Engine out and a good chance to try out the new engine to see where to cut

Edited by v8ndy on Wednesday 2nd June 00:39

Edited by v8ndy on Wednesday 2nd June 11:19

[v8ndy]

markreilly said:

Do you mind me asking did this Chimaera pass through either West country Bentley/TVR's hands in Exeter at some stage in its life,if so i nearly bought it.
do you have some pics you could post up particulary a nice shot of your dash board
thanks

Hmmm not sure, I`ll have a butchers through its history, the dash is out at the mo but i post some more pics

[v8ndy]

P.S Can I have my CD back? I left it in the autochanger (5 years ago)

[/quote]Would that be the kylie`s greatest hits CD
Its a Modular Mustang SVT Cobra engine, Dimension wise its not far from the TVR unit in height and length,
even width of the engine block except for the heads as you can see

Edited by v8ndy on Wednesday 2nd June 21:40

Edited by v8ndy on Wednesday 2nd June 21:51

[v8ndy]

[v8ndy]

Chassis removed from the body with not to much difficulty except that you always forget to
undo that one bolt! But this bolt was in the shape of the fuel hose Its amazing how far you
can stretch with one finger in a gushing fuel pipe and the other fiddling for something to stick in it

[v8ndy]

An hour cleaning and the chassis ain`t that bad: just the usual road rash but not bad after 10years

[v8ndy]

Say hello to ma little friend (in a Al Pacino stylee) the grinder!!
The top rails have been lowered to allow for the exhaust manifolds and relocate the mounting points for the top
arms

[v8ndy]

[v8ndy]

[v8ndy]

markreilly said:

Do you mind me asking did this Chimaera pass through either West country Bentley/TVR's hands in Exeter at some stage in its life,if so i nearly bought it.
do you have some pics you could post up particulary a nice shot of your dash board
thanks

best i can do fella

[v8ndy]

900T-R said:

Nice project - do you intend to do anything about the loss of stiffness caused by lowering the upper chassis rails where the engine sits? You might want to do some extra bracing over the engine as per the T4xx race cars...

The Chassis rail has been lowered by 40mm so i don`t expect to much strength has been lost but i`m already on with adding in extra chassis to cope with a massive increase power There`s no room to brace over the engine as in the Typhoon but i`ll brace the underside instead,

[v8ndy]

A second brace bar will be added between the new top suspension pick up points,

[v8ndy]

SILICONE KID said:

How did you manage to get the engine and what type of BHP will it have ..Is it far better than the LS engine .

I nearly went down the LS route and almost purchased an LS6, but which is the better GM or Ford? maybe thats another topic to be discussed in detail

[v8ndy]

Engine bay bodyshell started on sunday due to running out of steel for the chassis!!
Most of the extra room required was found by cuting away the heater ducts that run across the bulkhead

[v8ndy]

More chassis strength

[v8ndy]

Thanks to Tom for the heat shielding, There`s plenty left so i`m gonna use some on the tunnel
area to cut down on some of the heat soak from the exhaust

[v8ndy]

The chassis back from being stripped

[v8ndy]

[v8ndy]

Fresh off the powder coating machine

[v8ndy]

Extra reinforcement on the diff mounts, I`m not sure if this was really necessary but i could help
myself