1996 TVR

The time has come to sell my 1996 Cerbera 4.2 V8. I can't believe it's come to this but our recent house move forces a very reluctant sale.

This is a great car that is ready to be enjoyed immediately with no major issues to correct. Please don’t make me a silly offer but I’m quite open to reasonable ones around the asking price – give me a call or send me an email but read on for the full picture.

This is a well sorted example with 12 months MOT and tax until end of Jun 14.

I have owned this car since 2006 and it runs and drives beautifully. As someone who likes things to be right, the car has spent much of my ownership undergoing maintenance and restoration; It’s covered 12000 miles in the last 8 years. I have a big file of receipts, including a comprehensive list of all the work carried out/service and MOT history. The important bits are:

Recent history.

Last service was with a well known TVR specialist giving the car, and most importantly the engine, a clean bill of health. They advised a few minor issues including worn diff bushes. So over the last year or so, while I’ve been on a residential course and had little spare time, I have replace the diff bushes with poly ones (I kept the old sleeve as a trophy; what a job!) and refurbished the clutch slave and master cylinders with new seals. I have also just had the radiator re-cored after it sprung a leak. I have now completed over 1000 trouble free miles so it’s time to advertise.

Engine.

The performance from the engine is exactly as it should be and it sounds just like an AJP should. The last service 3000 miles ago adjusted the tappets and confirmed that the camshafts were in good order. It’s always run on Mobil 1 oil and Shell VPower. You can see from the pictures of the gauges that it has good oil pressure both on the move and at idle when it’s warmed up. There are no overheating issues. It starts easily from cold and uses very little oil.

Brakes.

Excellent stopping power from the AP racing callipers/discs and Mintex M1144 pads.

Chassis.

If you know about Cerberas you’ll know that the early/1996 cars’ chassis do not suffer from rust in the same way that later cars do. Apparently the later chassis were powder-coated after sitting outside in the Blackpool rain but the early cars’ chassis (like this one) were powder-coated straight away. That’s not to say that the powder-coat hasn’t flaked off in places but generally this chassis is very good. I have power-wire brushed the vulnerable areas and outriggers and painted with POR-15. The suspension arms have been shotblasted and painted also. I have also made some aluminium shields to protect the exposed areas in the front wheelarches. I cannot say that the chassis won’t need some work in the future but hopefully that’s a few years away yet.

Suspension.

The car is fitted with GAZ Gold Pro adjustable shocks and springs. Again due to the lack of use these have done very few miles since fitted and give the car a supple yet surefooted ride. Don’t confuse these with the GAZ Gold (not pro) shocks which had a number of well documented issues. They are adjustable for damping and also ride height. The C-spanner will be included with the car.

Wheels and tyres.

The car has Toyo Proxes T1-R all round with plenty of miles left on them and the 17 inch RL7 alloys have been refurbished. Unfortunately two of them have some slight curbing that you might want to correct.

Paintwork.

Based on all the work that’s been done, the way it drives and looking around at other cars for sale I think that this car is probably worth about £13k. However I managed to scrape the wheelarch driving out of my garage (see picture). Also I scraped the front valance on the jack while I was refurbing the suspension components. To make it the car really good I think you would probably want to have these areas repaired. There are a few other stonechips etc that you would expect on a car of this age but the vast majority of the Pearl Blue paintwork is very good and can easily be polished to a great shine.

I reckon you would need to spend around £800-£1000 having the front end resprayed and therefore, with this in mind, I have adjusted the price accordingly.

Interior.

Along with the engine the interior is this car’s strong point and doesn’t show its age at all. The owner before me replaced some of the dodgy hessian carpet door trim etc with a contrasting blue vinyl and it looks excellent. Everything works as it should except the air conditioning. Although the car is fitted for air conditioning and the pump and pipework etc are all present I removed the condenser and receiver/drier as they were past their best. They will be included with the car so you can check you have purchased the correct parts if you wanted to replace them and re-instate the air con. The windows work well as does the heated rear screen.

Stuff I haven’t already mentioned, starting from the front:

Phillips Vision headlights with relays to improve light output (much better than standard).

New oil cooler and pipes.

Oil cooler thermostat and remote filter housing with oil temp takeoff and new hoses.

ACT stainless and silicone water pipes.

Re-cored radiator (April 14).

Refurbished steering rack with new seals.

Stainless steel wheel nuts.

Ultrasonically cleaned injectors.

Leven technology wiper arms with curved wiper blades.

New external door opening buttons with waterproof covers.

Refurbished clutch slave and master cylinder with ATE Super Blue fluid.

Later 4.5 bellhousing and 4.5 AP Racing clutch (solved all the slave cylinder issues apart from the last one which I reckon was down to mixing DOT 4 and DOT 5.1 fluid).

Very smooth T5 gearbox with seals replaced.

The legendary Joospeed linked de-cats with standard silencer (great noise when pressing on but quiet on light throttle). Car comes with a new pair of cats and passed the last MOT no problem.

Custom oil temp gauge with TVR logo.

Doors and windows adjusted to minimise wind noise.

Properly balanced propshaft with new universal joints (made a big difference).

BTR diff with new pinion seal and poly bushes.

New fuel tank vent valve.

Custom rear lights (see pictures).

The performance is awesome, the noise is epic and you can get 25mpg if you take it easy. It runs best on Shell VPower. The around town manners are very good with good balance between the two cylinder banks and it won’t drop oil on your driveway.

The private number is now off the car and its back on its original P-reg plate.

There is no outstanding finance and as far as I am aware it has never been involved in an accident.