PH Fleet: TVR Chimaera 4.0
TVR pondering ... sounds expensive
A few stone chips need seeing to
So, the list, let’s start with that. I still need to get the rear roof section replaced (a cost-effective solution from a local supplier has been suggested, life commitments mean I’ve done nothing further thus far) and if I’m going to get the rear section done then maybe the top section should be looked at too? I need some tyres, they will soon be sorted, but my wheel centre caps are fading and need replacing too. The windscreen is lightly chipped and I’d like to replace it (insurance perhaps?) purely for aesthetic reasons.
I would like to get some paint applied to cover some stone chips and scuffs and I have plans to install a more modern headunit and perhaps some rear speakers too. On that note I must thank PHer Tiscali who offered me the Pioneer DEH-P77MP I wanted at a reasonable price and I hope to purchase it from him very soon. Don’t get me wrong, if I polished my car up and parked it at a Sunday Service you’d stand and admire it because it looks so good. These jobs are to please a particularly fussy owner who can’t decide if he wants the perfect example of a (standard) Chimaera 4.0 or of he wants a car he can use without too much worry as it isn’t concours … decisions, decisions.
Happy (yet fussy) owner
2013 has been a bit of an odd year for the TVR. I’ve used it a lot but over short distances so the annual mileage is lower than normal, especially after I left it at home and took a borrowed Jaguar to Le Mans, but in terms of reliability it has been superb. Turn-key for 12 months with nothing more than a top-up of the oil a few weeks ago. It seems to prefer living in the carpark underneath my flat too, whereas my previous garage was damp and cold the carpark is warm and dry with good air circulation and the car is bone dry and seems to enjoy the warmer temperatures too with the battery remaining strong even after three weeks of inactivity.
It’s all going very well indeed. Speaking of the carpark, I have yet to set a car alarm off with the TVR despite more than 105db of unsilenced V8 starting up against a wall and rumbling around on a regular basis, yet while I was reversing a (sports exhaust equipped) Cayman the other day I set the alarm off on the Kia something-or-other parked alongside. Incredible and, if I'm honest, a little disappointing. 7/10, must try harder Mr Chimaera, we have British honour to uphold after all.
As this happy owner signs off I’ll leave you with a question. Do I spend a few quid getting all of my OCD niggles sorted or should I just get the MOT, service and chassis done leaving the rest to do as and when I can? I just can’t decide, but will take all the help and advice I can get!
FACT SHEET:
Car: 1999 TVR Chimaera 4.0
Run by: Garlick
Bought: December 2009
Purchase price: £12,995
Last month at a glance: New home, summer sun, unfairly shunned
Previous reports
Winter hacks, daily use, new exhausts and thoughts of selling
Summer suits the TVR and Garlick has been making the most of it
The sun is shining and neither car has a roof, happy days
I will be keeping mine going, doing the necessary little jobs, but if I did some of the bits I'd really like to do (couple of stone chips, new exhaust, new seats, wheel refurb) then I'd be less inclined to want to use it just to pop to the shops, for instance. It would end up as a special treat, whereas every trip is an event at the minute. It will end up as the car that is just for weekends, but not yet...
ps nice picture
Just use it. 
The only certainty after replacing the windscreen and having the stone chips painted is that they will both soon get chipped again.
Then just drive it and enjoy it.
OCD niggles about cars never end and only get worse, you never get to a stage where you are genuinely happy with it and the OCD goes away. That's why it's a disorder.
Drive it, enjoy it, revel in its fine patina...
oh, and even my DEH-P77MP has that well-used but not neglected look - I did have a P88RS-II at some point as a replacement but it didn't work properly, I happily put the old one back in and never looked back...
Then just drive it and enjoy it.
OCD niggles about cars never end and only get worse, you never get to a stage where you are genuinely happy with it and the OCD goes away. That's why it's a disorder.
Lovely looking TVR as it is.
Just use it. The only certainty after replacing the windscreen and having the stone chips painted is that they will both soon get chipped again.
Then just drive it and enjoy it.
OCD niggles about cars never end and only get worse, you never get to a stage where you are genuinely happy with it and the OCD goes away. That's why it's a disorder.
If you don't, you will never truly be able to enjoy it because there will always be stuff in the back of your mind that will detract from your enjoyment of the car. You'll spend your life trying to convince yourself that the niggles don't matter to you, and I suspect that's a trick you'll never entirely manage.
The only problem, of course, is that if you then want to use the car thereafter, you have to be prepared to maintain the same level of financial commitment to your OCD ways. Otherwise it becomes a garage queen, and frankly, nobody wants that - least of all with a Tiv, which was built to be anything but. So if you do go down the OCD route, you have to make a promise to yourself to keep doing so, to keep sorting those niggles and foibles as and when they crop up, and to make sure that you keep re-applying that Waxoyl and taking the utmost care of the car possible. At the end of the day, though, that's the only way you should be treating it if your plan really is to keep it forever, as it'll pay dividends in 5, 10, 15 years' time.
This approach will take time and dedication, and most of all money - but if you can pour in all of the above, you'll end up with a Chim you have no reservations about, and that you can enjoy to its fullest whenever the sun peeks through the clouds.
And if you're in any doubt that I'm right, know this: it's the approach I'm taking with the BX, a car which is a considerably worse starting point and worth far less in pure financial terms. If I can do it, so can you.
Agree you need to try harder, remember the first one I did in the Tuscan- a Fiesta parked in Acton at about 6am. A more immature yet satisfying bit of fun I can't think of.
Now I have my own TVR I will admit there is nothing better than doing a tunnel run in a noisy v8, so my POV would be use the damn thing, thats what they are for. I would definitely get the chassis waxoyled and the mot done then get out there and enjoy it.
Although I have now got to replace a burst water pump pipe as it is not driveable at the moment.
Get the bare necesseties done and wait for next spring for the niggles.
BUT don't forget to use it in the winter too
When the time came to move on due to lack of opportunity to drive it, it sold in 3 days so hardly a risky proposition.
Whatever else you may do, get the chassis treated properly - it never used to be that expensive to get it done professionally.
Wheel centres are easy to change and cheap so do them.
If the screen annoys you while driving it's probably an MOT failure,if so get it changed. Otherwise leave it until necessary.
Why do you need a radio? In 18,000 miles I had a CD on for about 50 of them and never used the radio.
The exhaust is the ICE.
My 'normal' cars always have the radio or cd playing.
Live with it and love it that way - not by polishing it every half hour.
OCD never made a car better to drive.
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