TVR & Powerboats?!?!?

[cliff123]

Does anyone know anymore about this, other than the article in the Motoring Section of the Sunday Times (page 2) this weekend? Apparently our Mr Smolensky has an interest in super boats as well as cars, and is looking into the purchase of another company producing unique powerboats and thinking of putting a TVR engine in it! Does this mean TVR will start to make diesels, as surely petrol aint gonna be too good at sea, or am I missing something? Anyone know anymore? Or is it the 1st of April?

I aint kidding:
http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12389-1335743,00.html

>>> Edited by cliff123 on Wednesday 3rd November 10:41

[Tripps]

I heard something from the same source who told me about the possible motorbike company purchase.

He might just be trying to bolster his "toy" collection though...

[nubbin]

There are quite a few boats out there running Jaguar V12 petrol engines, also Lamborghini make "marinised" engines for powerboats. So it's not as daft as it sounds, and it would get the TVR name known in the high-powered and jet set world of power baoting - as good as Le Mans in terms of exposure!

[thegamekeeper]

He has apparently bought CCM motorcycles. I think he should get the toys working that he already bought before buying any new ones. possibly needs parental guidance

[cliff123]

That was kind of my thinking game keeper. Surely if he's buying all these companies left right and centre he isn’t really going to give his full attention to any, and hence they might not fulfil their potential. Though I obviously agree with his decision to attend to the quality issue, it would be nice to know more about future plans of fleet of TVR cars as we know that 500 is the limit the T350, which will be reached fairly soon. So what is going to replace it? Or are we to be just left with the Tuscan/Typhon soft and hardtop and the Sagaris. Not much of a range would you say? I hought the T350 was a lovely replacement for the Griff/Chim, even if the roof doesn’t fully come off! Oh well, I just hope whoever is number two at TVR is 100% committed and not doing another dozen things at the same time.

[trinitycall]

cliff123 said:

Does this mean TVR will start to make diesels, as surely petrol aint gonna be too good at sea, or am I missing something?

The Rumour in the hallowed halls of power is that plans are afoot to tax marine diesel (the red stuff) at the same rate as diesel used on land.

Accordingly, there's a flurry of activity in terms of renewed interest in petrol engines for powerboats in the UK.

The thought is that powerboat owners will turn to petrol engines for performance reasons(notwithstanding the safety implications) if the costs are the same as diesel.

Regards,

N

[IPAddis]

nubbin said:

There are quite a few boats out there running Jaguar V12 petrol engines, also Lamborghini make "marinised" engines for powerboats. So it's not as daft as it sounds, and it would get the TVR name known in the high-powered and jet set world of power baoting - as good as Le Mans in terms of exposure!

I used to go and watch a class 1 boat with twin Lambo V12's. It sounded outstanding! It's a great shame they all went to diesels (for reliability IIRC).

IAn A.

[simon@63]

thegamekeeper said:

He has apparently bought CCM motorcycles. I think he should get the toys working that he already bought before buying any new ones. possibly needs parental guidance

M.C.N. today reports - (dated 29th September)

'that an offer for CCM was lodged, by N.S., with the liquidators, but that it was withdrawn a few weeks later'

N.S. declined to speak to M.C.N.

I am sure I have since read, also in M.C.N., that CCM's founder has bought the company from the liquidators.

[motorvator]

cliff123 said:

Does this mean TVR will start to make diesels, as surely petrol aint gonna be too good at sea, or am I missing something?

Boat pictured in the article is a bladerunner 34 made by ice marine which as far as I know is only powered by two stroke outboard motors at the moment but possibly they are thinking of moving to inboard power.

Not sure if that's who he's aiming at but have a look round their web site and you'll see the synergies between the design concepts of TVR and them.

Fast powerboats still generally use petrol for the power to weight issues. The drive toward diesel was started in the class 1 racing when the rules were adapted to allow double the swept volume of diesel against petrol which allowed diesel to become competitive. That said the racing world still use the 8.2 litre Lambos, 8.2 Chevy (mercruiser) and more recently the 8.1 Ford blocks (again mercruiser).

At the danger of sounding a total there is a substantial difference between a marine engine versus Auto as they have to do totally different jobs. Marine will be largely called upon to give a high output running close to max revs for a sustained period not having the benefit of a gearbox and therefore tend towards a lower rev limit than auto. The necessary torque curve for the same reason cannot be compared.

I'm for it personally as I used to do a bit of racing and still do it for fun. So if he needs a test driver give me a call perleeeeeease

[AlexRWD]

motorvator said:

At the danger of sounding a total there is a substantial difference between a marine engine versus Auto as they have to do totally different jobs. Marine will be largely called upon to give a high output running close to max revs for a sustained period not having the benefit of a gearbox and therefore tend towards a lower rev limit than auto. The necessary torque curve for the same reason cannot be compared.

I visited Honda HQ fairly recently, and quite a few of their outboard motors are v closely related to their car engines, or so my guide told me.

[motorvator]

Ah yes but the Honda four stroke outboards are not getting anywhere near the power outputs of the two stroke outboards from Merc / Yam / Suzuki etc and their p/w ratio is terrible which is what made the recent F1 versus Superbike versus Boat a bit of a silly comparison really.

Don't know too much about these new generation four strokes but my mercruiser 502 is based around the chevy auto engine and realistically having rebuilt it three times about the only common item is the block, just about everything else is bespoke to it either due to the demands placed upon it or the 'orrible salt water environment it has to operate in

[motorvator]

Ted, if this goes ahead do we get our own forum for powerboats where we can have more of the brilliant power versus sail arguments

[kojak69]

IPAddis said:

nubbin said: There are quite a few boats out there running Jaguar V12 petrol engines, also Lamborghini make "marinised" engines for powerboats. So it's not as daft as it sounds, and it would get the TVR name known in the high-powered and jet set world of power baoting - as good as Le Mans in terms of exposure! I used to go and watch a class 1 boat with twin Lambo V12's. It sounded outstanding! It's a great shame they all went to diesels (for reliability IIRC). IAn A.

Me too. The Lambo's sounded awesome. A lot better than the diesel seatech's.

[dickieandjulie]

cliff123 said:

That was kind of my thinking game keeper. Surely if he's buying all these companies left right and centre he isn’t really going to give his full attention to any, and hence they might not fulfil their potential. Though I obviously agree with his decision to attend to the quality issue, it would be nice to know more about future plans of fleet of TVR cars as we know that 500 is the limit the T350, which will be reached fairly soon. So what is going to replace it? Or are we to be just left with the Tuscan/Typhon soft and hardtop and the Sagaris. Not much of a range would you say? I hought the T350 was a lovely replacement for the Griff/Chim, even if the roof doesn’t fully come off! Oh well, I just hope whoever is number two at TVR is 100% committed and not doing another dozen things at the same time.

I believe the reason for limited production numbers is the use of Single Vehicle Approval Scheme rules to avoid the need for crash testing etc. That would also explain wht there are a number of models essentially built around the same chassis/engine combo but with different body styles. Reading the government stuff they state that maximum is 200 though I thought it was 500 units per annum.