TVR Owners in NZ
Discussion
Currently a number of TVR owners in NZ attempt to keep in touch with each other via conventional email. As this can be difficult to maintain and obviously doesn't allow other owners to find us on the WWW I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread here so we can have a record of all owners, potential owners and enthusiasts of the marque. One day I'll get around to creating a website........
To get the ball rolling, my name is Jamie Heasman (you'd never guess that from my Nickname!) I'm an Englishman who has lived in NZ for the past six years. I'm married to a kiwi I met in London, Jane, we have two children, Charlotte and Katie and a smelly dog, Wilbur. I've owned a '92 4.3 Griffith, '94 5.0litre Chimaera, 4.2 '97 Cerbera (bought new) and now a 4.0litre HC Chimaera with a few minor modifications. I've been TVR-mad since I saw a Taimar Turbo overtaking a bus sideways outside my school in Fulham!
To get the ball rolling, my name is Jamie Heasman (you'd never guess that from my Nickname!) I'm an Englishman who has lived in NZ for the past six years. I'm married to a kiwi I met in London, Jane, we have two children, Charlotte and Katie and a smelly dog, Wilbur. I've owned a '92 4.3 Griffith, '94 5.0litre Chimaera, 4.2 '97 Cerbera (bought new) and now a 4.0litre HC Chimaera with a few minor modifications. I've been TVR-mad since I saw a Taimar Turbo overtaking a bus sideways outside my school in Fulham!
Actually there is one Cerbera in NZ that I know of. It's a lightweight 4.5 in (Swordfish) reflex blue and belongs to the chap who owns Cookietime. He purchased the car new and it was shipped prior to the frontal impact law changes. It took a two-day visit to the factory from the NZ compliance guy just to get the paperwork sorted out - you can imagine what it would be like now!
I still haven't found an iron-clad way of getting a TVR into the country. There is a possibility of an ex-Japan car being accepted but that all depends on the paperwork the car is shipped with. No type approval number on the de-registration documents, no importation. I too have heard about the motorsport exception and it's one I'd be willing to commit to if it meant being able to bring in a newer TVR. I miss my Cerbera sooooooo much.
As a stop-gap I'm toying with the idea of importing a restored 3000M or Taimar and then fitting a 4.2 or 4.5 AJP8 into it. Niiice.
I still haven't found an iron-clad way of getting a TVR into the country. There is a possibility of an ex-Japan car being accepted but that all depends on the paperwork the car is shipped with. No type approval number on the de-registration documents, no importation. I too have heard about the motorsport exception and it's one I'd be willing to commit to if it meant being able to bring in a newer TVR. I miss my Cerbera sooooooo much.
As a stop-gap I'm toying with the idea of importing a restored 3000M or Taimar and then fitting a 4.2 or 4.5 AJP8 into it. Niiice.
There are quite a large number from what I've seen. It's TVR's largest export market and at one time accounted for nearly a quarter of their production. Unfortunately, not speaking Japanese, I've found it difficult tracking down information on the 'net. I did find a link to a TVR car club though and there were pictures of their annual meeting which had a good dozen Cerberas, several Tuscans and plenty of Chimaeras and Griffiths. There were even a couple of Vixens too.
The big stumbling block with this route is that you won't know if your paperwork is in order until the car is de-registered and nobody is going to de-register the car before you've bought it! One possible option would be to purchase one that has been damaged as they tend to write them off with seemingly minor damage - perhaps it's a lack of GRP skills? Provided it's only body damage it's no great drama and you can get yourself a bit of a bargain.
Having said all this I keep hearing rumours about TVR returning to a certain large market. You don't need to be a genius to figure out which market - and if that happens they are going to have to crash test.
The big stumbling block with this route is that you won't know if your paperwork is in order until the car is de-registered and nobody is going to de-register the car before you've bought it! One possible option would be to purchase one that has been damaged as they tend to write them off with seemingly minor damage - perhaps it's a lack of GRP skills? Provided it's only body damage it's no great drama and you can get yourself a bit of a bargain.
Having said all this I keep hearing rumours about TVR returning to a certain large market. You don't need to be a genius to figure out which market - and if that happens they are going to have to crash test.
Unfortunately, a vehicle being imported/registered is either a low volume vehicle (or scratch built), or a modified production vehicle. So, unless a vehicle has been registered as a seperate marque in it's country of origin and is produced in numbers less than 200 per year, it won't be regarded as a LVV. If it's a modified production vehicle it will not only need to comply with the regular standards (including frontal impact) but additional LVV standards too!
If we could find someone in the UK willing to modify a TVR and re-register it as a seperate marque then we could be in business. Obviously this would involve setting up as a vehicle manufacturer which no doubt would be expensive! You could also assume according to the long-established laws of sod, that as soon as you had something like this in place, TVR would start crash testing and the LTSA would change their rules!
I suspect the report of Fazzaz having a Cerbera in their showroom was a mistake. I heard lots of such rumours and stories and it was basically down to peoples ignorance. I'm sure by now I'd have heard of it if there were another Cerbera around. I suppose Mr Cookietime could have lent them his car for a promotion as they were acting as TVR agents for a while. If you talk to these guys now though they'll tell you the whole thing was a waste of time and that TVR were a pain in the a*se to deal with - what a surprise!
I wonder what would happen if you managed to sneak in a Cerbera and removed all the chassis plates, badges etc and then took it to a sleepy little town with a compliance guy and claimed you'd built it in your shed......
If we could find someone in the UK willing to modify a TVR and re-register it as a seperate marque then we could be in business. Obviously this would involve setting up as a vehicle manufacturer which no doubt would be expensive! You could also assume according to the long-established laws of sod, that as soon as you had something like this in place, TVR would start crash testing and the LTSA would change their rules!
I suspect the report of Fazzaz having a Cerbera in their showroom was a mistake. I heard lots of such rumours and stories and it was basically down to peoples ignorance. I'm sure by now I'd have heard of it if there were another Cerbera around. I suppose Mr Cookietime could have lent them his car for a promotion as they were acting as TVR agents for a while. If you talk to these guys now though they'll tell you the whole thing was a waste of time and that TVR were a pain in the a*se to deal with - what a surprise!
I wonder what would happen if you managed to sneak in a Cerbera and removed all the chassis plates, badges etc and then took it to a sleepy little town with a compliance guy and claimed you'd built it in your shed......
I can't say for sure about this but I'm pretty sure the SVA and registering your vehicle as a marque are two different things. I thought the SVA was basically a process any car had to go through in order to be registered for the road - i.e. an inspection by an engineer. I think the issue is that the manufacturer is the one that has the right to put on a chassis number etc and therefore has to be 'registered' to do so. It may well be easier than I think but just another potential hurdle.
I know a while ago one TVR fanatic (and maker of very nices upgrades), Clive Reed, was considering producing upgraded Cerberas with things like decent suspension, bigger brakes, upgraded interiors (don't know how he could manage that as I think it's just perfect as is!), electric sunroofs (nice), traction control etc etc. He was planning on purchasing those cars at the bottom end of the scale, '96 and '97 cars and completely rebuilding the drivetrain and respraying them etc so they'd be just like new. If someone could do this and then register them as a different marque......
Incidentally, I think TVR used to produce cars under a different name in the early eighties (although I'm not sure why). I saw an early wedge when I was in Saudi Arabia and it was badged as a Martin which is obviously a reference to Martin Lilley. Perhaps if we could persuade them to register a few cars this way we could all be driving around in brand new Martin Typhons!
I'd also be up for entering a Cerbera into the odd motorsport event if I had one over here but I haven't heard anything about this regulation yet.
I know a while ago one TVR fanatic (and maker of very nices upgrades), Clive Reed, was considering producing upgraded Cerberas with things like decent suspension, bigger brakes, upgraded interiors (don't know how he could manage that as I think it's just perfect as is!), electric sunroofs (nice), traction control etc etc. He was planning on purchasing those cars at the bottom end of the scale, '96 and '97 cars and completely rebuilding the drivetrain and respraying them etc so they'd be just like new. If someone could do this and then register them as a different marque......
Incidentally, I think TVR used to produce cars under a different name in the early eighties (although I'm not sure why). I saw an early wedge when I was in Saudi Arabia and it was badged as a Martin which is obviously a reference to Martin Lilley. Perhaps if we could persuade them to register a few cars this way we could all be driving around in brand new Martin Typhons!
I'd also be up for entering a Cerbera into the odd motorsport event if I had one over here but I haven't heard anything about this regulation yet.
Hey Simon,
Do you still own your Rover P5B saloon? You probably don't remember but we exchanged emails nearly four years ago via the Rover V8 mailing list. You mentioned at the time - 'I've always had a hankering for a TVR, currently I have a modified Rover. I'd like to have a look at your car, I've only ever looked into the windows of parked ones.' And now you look out of the window of a TVR all the time!
I thought your name rang a bell!
Do you still own your Rover P5B saloon? You probably don't remember but we exchanged emails nearly four years ago via the Rover V8 mailing list. You mentioned at the time - 'I've always had a hankering for a TVR, currently I have a modified Rover. I'd like to have a look at your car, I've only ever looked into the windows of parked ones.' And now you look out of the window of a TVR all the time!
I thought your name rang a bell!
Roger A said:
Did you realise the Chimera was a legal import with its hi-volume type approval ??
Eh? I find that quite strange. ALL vehicles coming into NZ (that don't fall into the 200 or less total production for the manufacturer category) need to have passed off-set frontal-impact tests and the Chimaera most definitely has not. What the hell is Hi-Volume type approval? Chimaeras, whilst being the most popular TVRs are/were still produced in very small numbers - at their peak they probably didn't exceed 1000p.a
Perhaps Mr Fraser isn't quite up to date with the current regulations (which would be odd given that he is a compliance engineer!) or we have all been misled by the LTSA (which wouldn't surprise me!).
Roger, did you get any feedback from Neil?
I want to pick his brains at some point. I have an idea about how to get a TVR on the road. It's a bit drastic but not beyond the realms of possibility.
I want to know if you scratch-build a chassis and then mate it with components taken from a single manufacturer (body, engine, interior etc) would it be classed as a scratch-built car? If the answer is yes, would this still cover a 100% identical replica of a chassis made by a known factory or would it have to incorporate individual elements in the design?
It's not as big a task as you may think, swapping components from one chassis to another.
I want to pick his brains at some point. I have an idea about how to get a TVR on the road. It's a bit drastic but not beyond the realms of possibility.
I want to know if you scratch-build a chassis and then mate it with components taken from a single manufacturer (body, engine, interior etc) would it be classed as a scratch-built car? If the answer is yes, would this still cover a 100% identical replica of a chassis made by a known factory or would it have to incorporate individual elements in the design?
It's not as big a task as you may think, swapping components from one chassis to another.
I haven't heard whether the race-option has been put in force yet. If it's like any other LTSA law-changes it'll take a couple of years to go through after they've made up their minds!
My main reason for thinking about the chassis change is that I know where I can purchase a nearly new Tuscan for a very cheap price because it's not registered in NZ.
I know that you have to change 60% of the chassis AND bodywork in order for a production vehicle to be classed as a scratch-built but surely replacing the chassis completely with something constructed locally would have to have the same effect - a replica TVR if you like. It's a very grey-area and I'd love to know what someone like Neil thinks about it.
My main reason for thinking about the chassis change is that I know where I can purchase a nearly new Tuscan for a very cheap price because it's not registered in NZ.
I know that you have to change 60% of the chassis AND bodywork in order for a production vehicle to be classed as a scratch-built but surely replacing the chassis completely with something constructed locally would have to have the same effect - a replica TVR if you like. It's a very grey-area and I'd love to know what someone like Neil thinks about it.
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