Chim or Tuscan

[stuartianmac]

Hi,

I have the not unfavourable dilemma of choosing a second car.

I had my mind set on a Chim, maybe on a 98S or newer, for about £12-13k, but I was at a car show at the weekend, and at the TVR area it was a Tuscan that really caught my eye.

For the money, I could get a good Chim, but the budget (or around £1k more) would stretch to a Tuscan, but clearly without quite as many to choose from. Now I know the age old adage is never get the cheapest car, but the Tusc's available for that money (despite there not being many cheaper) seem to be far newer than the Chims in that range, and with far less miles. I saw 2 that were 2001X/Y, and with sub 20k miles.

Now admittedly they are Speed6 rather than Rover-derived V8, but the perf figures look very similar on paper.

Questions are:

How do tuscs of this age compare in terms of reliability to a older chim, if equally well cared for
Are the big things that go wrong more expensive on a Tusc than a Chim
Is the tuscan choice far more risky
Am I being a numpty, and should I only consider a tusc if I have more cash
Erm... what should I do I guess.

Thanks to all in advance
Stu

[900T-R]

In case of an early Speed 6 car (even with engine rebuild/updates) I'd want to keep £5-6 K in the piggy bank to cover engine work that may be necessary at some point. Not the same ownership prospect as a similarly priced Griffmaera IMO from a financial POV.

[JR]

Buy a very good Chim. It should hold it's value well and in a year or two if you like TVRs change for an S6 car when you have more money.

[stuartianmac]

Thanks for that. OK, so I take it from that that an early (c. 2000?) Speed6 can potentially be seriously problematic. When you say its not the same ownership prospect, do you mean that its definitely more negative to go tusc?

[BIG DUNC]

All things being equal, I would expect a Chim to be much cheaper to run than a Tuscan. I expect that the Tuscan being more modern would be the much better car ( other than possible engine and / or financial issues ).
Of course, you get good & bad Chims, and good & bad Tuscans, and you will never know what would have happened had you bought the other one.
Get yourself to a local TVRCC meet and talk to a few owners.

[stuartianmac]

OK, thanks. Yea I guess I knew that deep down already. I think I was looking for someone to say no its cool, when in reality I knew it would not be!

That was my original plan, so would be a good idea to stick to it I reck.

Or....

Cerbs! I see more cerbs than tuscs around for my price bracket, but they are slightly older, although not as old as the tuscs, and slightly more miles. Is that a similar story? I mean, AJP8 was new in the late 90's (?) so is that also one to be avoided unless you have the requisite funds for a likely full rebuild etc.?

[JR]

IMHO the Tuscan is the nicer car in many ways but it sounds like you're stretching your budget too far. The Tuscan appears to cost people about 50% more to run due to more bespoke parts.

[900T-R]

stuartianmac said:

Cerbs! I see more cerbs than tuscs around for my price bracket, but they are slightly older, although not as old as the tuscs, and slightly more miles. Is that a similar story? I mean, AJP8 was new in the late 90's (?) so is that also one to be avoided unless you have the requisite funds for a likely full rebuild etc.?

Well, as for Cerbs the running costs (if it's a good'un) are less of an unknown - the bad news is, they're generally agreed to be twice as high typically, compared to an RV8 car...

[Daftlad]

JR said:

Buy a very good Chim. It should hold it's value well and in a year or two if you like TVRs change for an S6 car when you have more money.

Top class advice.

[lowest]

I've had a Chim and currently own a Tuscan, they're very different cars and although I miss the grunt of the V8 (mine was a 4.5) the speed six is a beautiful engine when on full song and out performs the V8 by along way (above 100mph the speed 6 leaves even a 5L Griff for dead which was proven recently with both me driving the Griff and the Griffs owner driving the Griff).
I've personally had no engine issues with my speed 6, bought it new in 2006 and it's done almost 26,000 which has included 13 track days.
Have you driven either?

[900T-R]

JR said:

IMHO the Tuscan is the nicer car in many ways

Horses for courses - in my experience, a Mk 1 Tuscan with its ultra-quick steering rack and tendency to tramline on those big wheels and tyres - most are on 18"s) is just a touch of the unnerving side of being an involving drive, whilst a good Chim feels spot on to me (as the Tamora on its base 16" wheels reportedly is, too). It's definitely a case of try before you buy.

[stuartianmac]

Erm... I guess thats the problem...

I am embarrassed to say I have not driven either car!

I have just joined the club, and I plan to go along to the next meet, but its all a bit weird and intimidating, being in my situation i.e. green as owt, and without a motor!

I mean, if it was me, and my pride and joy, would I let a novice like me go for a spin?!

[CLN1]

Stuart you have email

Colin

[JR]

900T-R said:

JR said:

IMHO the Tuscan is the nicer car in many ways

Horses for courses - in my experience, a Mk 1 Tuscan ...and tendency to tramline on those big wheels and tyres - most are on 18"s) is just a touch of the unnerving side of being an involving drive, whilst a good Chim feels spot on to me (as the Tamora on its base 16" wheels reportedly is, too). It's definitely a case of try before you buy.

As an aside in this thread I'm not a fan of very big wheels. If a TVR is bought with 18" wheels it is however fairly straight forward to swap them for 16" and keep the 18s for re-sale.

[custardkid]

Any TVR, unless your really lucky its going to be a fair bit more expensive to run than a hatch, even if its just because you spend soo much money on polish and shiny bits.

visit an indie and for every 2 spd6 rebuilds in there seems to an older v8 having a rebuild, so i wouldn't say griffs & chims are indistructable, but they probably will generally be cheaper to run.

when i was looking i started off looking at chims, stretched the budget to look at cerbs and ended up stretching the budget further and falling in love with a tuscan. it is a more modern car and as such looks, feels and performs differently. (yes i know some griffs etc are as fast/faster)

if you can afford it (or are prepared to make sacrefices) go for the tuscan, but be prepared to spend £3k on tyres/servicing/fixing/maintainance each year (before tax & insurance) hopefully it wont cost that much, some dont, some do.

one thing is for certain when it come to nothing has the same sense of occation as a TVR!

Custard
(dont do long posts..... must see the doctor)

[Ali-D]

I'd never been in a TVR until i went to my nearest recommended dealer. I already new what i wanted, the question was should i or shouldn't i. I read a lot of topics on hear, which if you do you will get as much information as you want. Not all of it will be what you want to hear, but after six months of looking, reading, test driving and basically teasing myself i bought a 2000 W Tuscan from the dealer. I got a years warranty, it had been serviced by them from nearly new, it had had the required rebuild and had a few recommended modifications i.e. largere rear screen. I also made sure i joined the AA for recovery and the facility to take the car to any where in the uk. That was in december last year. Since then, touch wood, the only thing that went wrong was the seal on the slave cylinder went, pouring oil all over the road. I got the car back to my house and the dealer collected the car the next day without a problem. It was repaired in 3 days for no cost and has been running excellently since (Famous last words).

Basically, try it, do your homework, buy it, treat it correctly i.e. warm up correctly. And take the relevant precautions, buy from a reputable dealer, with a good warranty and enjoy yourself immensely!!

Good luck,
Nev

[softtop]

Are you coming to the North West meet on Tuesday coming? Maybe Colin could bring you over and then you will see what a Tuscan is like when driven with the handbrake on