RE: Cerbera 500
Discussion
The original press car (the one that Clarkson drove on his Top Gear report) was reputed to have a 5.0litre engine. I last saw it for sale in the national press about a year ago and it was advertised as having a 5.0litre AJP engine.
Al Melling apparently built various sized engines around the AJP8 concept including a 3.0litre for Formula 3000 which was an idea to help TVR with the cost of producing their own engine. Of course this never happened as TVR invented their own very successful racing championship. Al later went on to adapt the concept into a motorcycle engine (Norton Nemesis) and a multi-valve high revving 2.0litre for a still-born supercar project of his own.
I'm sure there are all sorts of special versions of this engine around. Someone as keen as Mr Ravenscroft would never leave it alone. There will be only two ways to prove this of course, one is on a dyno and the other is to take a spanner to it!
Al Melling apparently built various sized engines around the AJP8 concept including a 3.0litre for Formula 3000 which was an idea to help TVR with the cost of producing their own engine. Of course this never happened as TVR invented their own very successful racing championship. Al later went on to adapt the concept into a motorcycle engine (Norton Nemesis) and a multi-valve high revving 2.0litre for a still-born supercar project of his own.
I'm sure there are all sorts of special versions of this engine around. Someone as keen as Mr Ravenscroft would never leave it alone. There will be only two ways to prove this of course, one is on a dyno and the other is to take a spanner to it!
The Cerbera advertised in the Autotrader was at Steve Howard's place Thames Valley Racetech last week being serviced and having Tuscan race throttle-bodies fitted. He described the car as the best Cerby he's ever seen! I saw the adjustable suspension mounting points, totaly different from standard. By all accounts the car is mega quick.
The rumour I heard was that the Clarkson car had a 4.5 Tuscan race engine which would explain why it was soooo fast. The first road test of the Cerbera in 'Performance Car' shows an engine with Tuscan racecar throttle-bodies and inlet trumpets so that could well have been a race engine as well.
The rumour I heard was that the Clarkson car had a 4.5 Tuscan race engine which would explain why it was soooo fast. The first road test of the Cerbera in 'Performance Car' shows an engine with Tuscan racecar throttle-bodies and inlet trumpets so that could well have been a race engine as well.
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You are wrong.
TVR has raced a Cerbera with an AJP8 engine in the british GT series some years ago. HHC has a little pic on their homepage, because they raced it for one season.
I have seen one race car in flesh at the factory and have also seen the Homologation car finished in TVR purple, but this car looks very different from the advertised one. It has had massive breaks, 18 inch alloys and a heavily modified bonnet with new air intakes.
Hope that brings a little bit sunlight into the discussion.
Christof
The car advertised states that it was homolagated for the privilege insurance series, the AJP8 cerbera was homologated in 1996 before it was the privilege series.
The car in question was run by the factory for two seasons before being sold to Colin Blower with HHC backing and continuing to do well in the series.
The purple car that you mention is the only factory built homologation car as we only needed to build one road car, this was equiped with Brembo brakes and had a full rollcage and no back seats, 18" O.Z. race wheels with single center nut fixing.
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Lee J
Whilst on the subject of factory 'funnies' whilst investigating the 400HC lump in my V8S, HHC alluded to a 500HC V8S (circa 94) out there! is there such a beast? and if so what else was updated to accept the increase in HP?
Just curious
Harry
I must say that I have not heard of the 5 litre S that you are talking about, the S was before my time but I know a few pepole that would know about it if it was a factory built car and not a converted one.
I will get back to you on that when I know a bit more.
The car advertised states that it was homolagated for the privilege insurance series, the AJP8 cerbera was homologated in 1996 before it was the privilege series.
Can i ask why it took so long to sell the car (homologated in 1996) 1998 R Reg & and if the car was never raced was it standing in the factory for that long?
Yes 5 litre V8S's do exist, I know of at least two that were made on special order. Both of them were for 'friends of the factory' (long term TVR owners) who wanted the classic shape of the S and improved passenger legroom (as opposed to a Griff/Chimeara). One in BRG and lives in the north-east the other is I believe red.
davidy
davidy
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The Cerbera advertised in the Autotrader was at Steve Howard's place Thames Valley Racetech last week being serviced and having Tuscan race throttle-bodies fitted. He described the car as the best Cerby he's ever seen! I saw the adjustable suspension mounting points, totaly different from standard. By all accounts the car is mega quick.
The rumour I heard was that the Clarkson car had a 4.5 Tuscan race engine which would explain why it was soooo fast. The first road test of the Cerbera in 'Performance Car' shows an engine with Tuscan racecar throttle-bodies and inlet trumpets so that could well have been a race engine as well.
Did Performance Car or Autocar not a take the Cerbera to a rolling road because they thought it had a race engine and it had the correct quoted power?
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The car advertised states that it was homolagated for the privilege insurance series, the AJP8 cerbera was homologated in 1996 before it was the privilege series.
Can i ask why it took so long to sell the car (homologated in 1996) 1998 R Reg & and if the car was never raced was it standing in the factory for that long?
Sorry if I did not make myself clear, but only one car was made for homologation and it is not the one at the begining of this thread, that car is not what it claims to be.
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Yes 5 litre V8S's do exist, I know of at least two that were made on special order. Both of them were for 'friends of the factory' (long term TVR owners) who wanted the classic shape of the S and improved passenger legroom (as opposed to a Griff/Chimeara). One in BRG and lives in the north-east the other is I believe red.
davidy
I would be interested to find out more about these cars as I have been talking to people in TVR Development, production and records to find out and no one has ever heard of a 5 litre engine being fitted to an S at the factory, so the conclusion was that if there are any 5 litre S's they must have been modified after leaving the factory.
I am not saying that "specials" have not been built at the factory as they have, but in this case no one has heard of this case.
The S specials that were built were a handful of 4 litre HC's, a big bore 3.2 V6, a Cosworth Turbo with Hewland transaxle and 11 2litre supercharged Rover V8 S's for the Italian market.
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In what area(s)?By the way, is it possible to spend 2-3 months at TVR for a training session?
Thom, I work on the interior and exterior styling of TVR's, are you a student looking for a placement?, and if so what subject are you studying i.e. transport, product, industrial design.
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Lee J
One of the 5 litre V8S's was built for a friend of your boss, the guy previously had a 4.3 litre V8S. If you want to know more I suggest you talk to the boss.
davidy
This sounds quite interesting I will have to ask Peter when I see him, no doubt he will be in our department at some point tomorrow.
Out of interest how did you come to know about these cars?.
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Thom, I work on the interior and exterior styling of TVR's, are you a student looking for a placement?, and if so what subject are you studying i.e. transport, product, industrial design.
Lee J,
Mechanical engineering represents the bulk of my studies: material behaviours under stress (temperature, physical efforts, cycles of wear, etc)
I also study what we call here "numeric modelling", which means (roughly) computer simulating.
My curriculum of course also includes courses in Design (functional analysis);
CAD software used: CATIA V5
English spoken, Sir
, German a bit rusty (if ever you care)Thom, if you are interested in a placement I can enquire in Development as they quite often take students on over the summer and also on full year placements.
We do have a few students here at the moment so you would have to give me some idea of when you would be interested in a placement and I could then find out if we could take you on.
We do have a few students here at the moment so you would have to give me some idea of when you would be interested in a placement and I could then find out if we could take you on.
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Thom, if you are interested in a placement I can enquire in Development as they quite often take students on over the summer and also on full year placements.
We do have a few students here at the moment so you would have to give me some idea of when you would be interested in a placement and I could then find out if we could take you on.
Can I believe what I read?!
Erm...I feel very embarassed (while extremely glad), let me explain you my situation.
My curriculum includes, during the third semester of my studies, a training session.
That will be for the second half of this year, namely between september and december 2002.
Actually, the system here wants it that my school and the company retain a topic on which the student will work during the training session: that's what embarrasses me, because here in France there's a mentality of sending students to big manufacturers (Renault et al); what is more, I have absolutely no idea of how it works among 'small' manufacturers with their engineers...
According to what we're told, moulding a French engineer deals with loads of management capabilities and theory, whereas English engineers are more technically competent.
I hope you understand what I mean
Anyway I'd be extremely happy to come to Blackpool and help to do anything...with a litle bit of luck maybe I can afford the expensive English life (bedroom, food)
I'll have a (persuasive) chat with my advisor, I don't want to miss that opportunity!
>> Edited by thom on Tuesday 5th March 20:13
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