A Japanese TVR – a brave pill?
Discussion
Great write up. Top work that man!
I had a 4.0 HC for three years. It was Cooper Green with tan / green interior and all the Leven alloy interior parts.
Regret selling it, especially as I regularly see a very similar car near me.
As said above, keep yours and it shouldn’t lose value now.
Keep the updates coming! Great colour BTW.
I had a 4.0 HC for three years. It was Cooper Green with tan / green interior and all the Leven alloy interior parts.
Regret selling it, especially as I regularly see a very similar car near me.
As said above, keep yours and it shouldn’t lose value now.
Keep the updates coming! Great colour BTW.
As above almost! I had a JDM Cooper Green Griffith 4.0 HC until recently, same square plate recess as the raspberry, and a chassis that had never seen salt.
They seem to be quite highly revered in Japan rather than everyday cars so lower mileages are pretty normal - mine had 20,000 miles on when it came back to the UK in 2017-ish. It'll be very very similar to mine with the 4.0 HC - apart from the body. Aircon and no PAS? Was probably sold as a Chimaera Clubman.
If the speedo is still in km you'll be getting good at quick km/mile conversions in your head same as I was
They seem to be quite highly revered in Japan rather than everyday cars so lower mileages are pretty normal - mine had 20,000 miles on when it came back to the UK in 2017-ish. It'll be very very similar to mine with the 4.0 HC - apart from the body. Aircon and no PAS? Was probably sold as a Chimaera Clubman.
If the speedo is still in km you'll be getting good at quick km/mile conversions in your head same as I was
Thanks for the comments! I will definitely keep an up to date log of the stuff going on - one of the next weekend jobs is probably sorting out some new speakers and maybe fitting my manifolds before it goes for its service - so I shall definitely document the processes.
I suspect mine is a Clubman as the trim and factory features all match up. I have the full Japanese service history but no friends that can read Japanese so I'd love to meet someone who can help me find out more about the car. I know it spent most of its life in Tokyo based on the translations of some of the garage addresses. I bet these TVRs were a blast on the Tokyo toll roads!
Those BBS wheels really suit the Griff! Reckon there'll be another for you?
andy43 said:
It'll be very very similar to mine with the 4.0 HC - apart from the body. Aircon and no PAS? Was probably sold as a Chimaera Clubman.
If the speedo is still in km you'll be getting good at quick km/mile conversions in your head same as I was
Exactly that spec! Although the AC was deleted by HHC and the kit sold on and fitted to a customer wanting AC in a Tuscan. Haven't had the temptation to re-add it yet, I think I'd appreciate having heated seats more! The km/h to mph conversion definitely scared me a few times past camera vans at first. Having TomTom Go or Waze on Carplay helped a lot with that in the first few tours in it, but I'm pretty confident with it now. I did ask HHC when I first bought the car about getting Caerbont to send me a calibrated MPH unit with HHC fitting it to retain the value, but apparently Caerbont would want the gauge for 2-3 months, which for me is not an option. After living with it, it's really not bad at all.If the speedo is still in km you'll be getting good at quick km/mile conversions in your head same as I was
I suspect mine is a Clubman as the trim and factory features all match up. I have the full Japanese service history but no friends that can read Japanese so I'd love to meet someone who can help me find out more about the car. I know it spent most of its life in Tokyo based on the translations of some of the garage addresses. I bet these TVRs were a blast on the Tokyo toll roads!
Those BBS wheels really suit the Griff! Reckon there'll be another for you?
marky911 said:
I’ll keep an eye out for you as I’m a fellow Geordie.
Give me a wave and I'll give you some burbles - I normally have to pass by the Quayside to get to my office on the occasion I venture out You do get used to km-mile calcs on the fly.
The japanese paperwork is weird - they even have their own year system so 2021 would be a completely different year in Japan.
I did find somebody to translate some of mine including the auction sheet, nothing too serious was mentioned fortunately - that's the hard bit, finding somebody who can understand it. For the life of me I can't remember how or who I asked. If the paperwork on mine was genuine they really seem to look after the cars well - it had annual service sheets and so on.
Removed most of the AC on mine too - no point having it really in the UK.
The Griff was either a B340 (5 litre) or a B275 (4 litre HC) in Japan, basketweave ally dash and everything else the same as the UK cars apart from the rear plate.
Chim was similar I think but TVR did have a factory in Malaysia where they built Chimaeras - there's a way to work out where they were made, think it's the VIN plate says Malaysia on it. The japanese market was a reason for the factory being over there but they did export some cars back to the UK too.
My wheels were cheapo Lenso fakes but the BBS/OZ splits are my favourite Griff wheel design. That was my second Griff - but you never know!
The japanese paperwork is weird - they even have their own year system so 2021 would be a completely different year in Japan.
I did find somebody to translate some of mine including the auction sheet, nothing too serious was mentioned fortunately - that's the hard bit, finding somebody who can understand it. For the life of me I can't remember how or who I asked. If the paperwork on mine was genuine they really seem to look after the cars well - it had annual service sheets and so on.
Removed most of the AC on mine too - no point having it really in the UK.
The Griff was either a B340 (5 litre) or a B275 (4 litre HC) in Japan, basketweave ally dash and everything else the same as the UK cars apart from the rear plate.
Chim was similar I think but TVR did have a factory in Malaysia where they built Chimaeras - there's a way to work out where they were made, think it's the VIN plate says Malaysia on it. The japanese market was a reason for the factory being over there but they did export some cars back to the UK too.
My wheels were cheapo Lenso fakes but the BBS/OZ splits are my favourite Griff wheel design. That was my second Griff - but you never know!
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