TVR Cerbera in The Netherlands, Target Motorsport?
Discussion
Dear TVR enthusiast en Cerbera owners,
A quick introduction about myself is probably the best way to begin.
I'm Christoph, living in The Netherlands, midshipman in the Royal Dutch Navy and I'm quite a British car enthusiast.
For a couple of years I have been owning a MGB GT, one of the first things I did was a cosmetic / body restoration and last winter I did a full engine rebuild / tune up. Probably around 120 / 130 BHP right now, not to bad for a B-Series Engine, right?
For some time my interest for TVR's and especially the Cerbera is growing rapidly!
Only I still have some questions in my mind about buying and owning a Cerbera in the near future.
About buying a Cerbera, I'm still in doubt of what the best possibility is. There is a TVR seller in The Netherlands called Target Motorsport, it's not a TVR specialist but he has a quite a number of TVR's for sale. Is anyone familiar with Target Motorsport and would like to share his experience?
The other option is of course going to the UK and have a look at same nice examples, in that case I'm wondering if I would specify my choice on the Cerbera's for sale at the most known TVR specialist or that I should have a look a the cars of private sellers...?
Further I'm wondering if there any Dutch owners present that would like to explain or tell about getting a UK Cerbera registered in The Netherlands. Are there any specific points that need attention or is quite easy?
I'm looking forward to some replies!
With best regards,
Christoph
A quick introduction about myself is probably the best way to begin.
I'm Christoph, living in The Netherlands, midshipman in the Royal Dutch Navy and I'm quite a British car enthusiast.
For a couple of years I have been owning a MGB GT, one of the first things I did was a cosmetic / body restoration and last winter I did a full engine rebuild / tune up. Probably around 120 / 130 BHP right now, not to bad for a B-Series Engine, right?
For some time my interest for TVR's and especially the Cerbera is growing rapidly!
Only I still have some questions in my mind about buying and owning a Cerbera in the near future.
About buying a Cerbera, I'm still in doubt of what the best possibility is. There is a TVR seller in The Netherlands called Target Motorsport, it's not a TVR specialist but he has a quite a number of TVR's for sale. Is anyone familiar with Target Motorsport and would like to share his experience?
The other option is of course going to the UK and have a look at same nice examples, in that case I'm wondering if I would specify my choice on the Cerbera's for sale at the most known TVR specialist or that I should have a look a the cars of private sellers...?
Further I'm wondering if there any Dutch owners present that would like to explain or tell about getting a UK Cerbera registered in The Netherlands. Are there any specific points that need attention or is quite easy?
I'm looking forward to some replies!
With best regards,
Christoph
Hi, before getting on to this forum and talking to actual owners I was tempted be the TVR's at Target. Most of them are already in their possesion for a long time and I do not think they are the best cars around. I went to them to look at a tuscan and I still remember the guy revving the engine from cold. No TVR affectionado would ever do that!
It depends If you want a good car or a cheap car that could cost a lot in repairs... the less recent TVR's they have are not the nicest ones...
Contact somebody from the dutch TVR club If you need any help to check out a model or contact the guy from TVR Belgium, he might have a few for sale.
Good luck!
It depends If you want a good car or a cheap car that could cost a lot in repairs... the less recent TVR's they have are not the nicest ones...
Contact somebody from the dutch TVR club If you need any help to check out a model or contact the guy from TVR Belgium, he might have a few for sale.
Good luck!
The business model of Target seems to be to buy any and all specialist cars they can get at a good price, then sell them on at a still quite low price (by EU standards) without any real assessment or preparation having taken place in the interim. What you see is what you get. Their main USP is that you get to look at a lot of cars all in the same place on 'your' side of the Channel without having to travel all over the UK to look at advertised cars.
It stands to reason though that the really good cars will change hands within the TVR/PH community and are unlikely to be gobbled up by the container load by a trader of this persuasion...
All in all it can't hurt to look at a place like this if you know exactly what to look for and do your homework, and are prepared to do all the preparation work that a dealer like Fernhurst, Racing Green, Bespoke Performance or Nimag (although I understand the latter don't really buy TVRs to put up for sale anymore) would spend on its cars before putting them up for sale, yourself. I'd always check the history of a specific car with HPI, DVLA and on here before pulling the trigger.
Whether their mark up is reasonable for bringing the cars to The Netherlands and storing them in one place, will be a matter of personal judgement.
It stands to reason though that the really good cars will change hands within the TVR/PH community and are unlikely to be gobbled up by the container load by a trader of this persuasion...
All in all it can't hurt to look at a place like this if you know exactly what to look for and do your homework, and are prepared to do all the preparation work that a dealer like Fernhurst, Racing Green, Bespoke Performance or Nimag (although I understand the latter don't really buy TVRs to put up for sale anymore) would spend on its cars before putting them up for sale, yourself. I'd always check the history of a specific car with HPI, DVLA and on here before pulling the trigger.
Whether their mark up is reasonable for bringing the cars to The Netherlands and storing them in one place, will be a matter of personal judgement.
Buy the best car you can afford. Ensure you buy a car that's had lots of non-servicing expenditure over last 2 or 3 yrs. Five or six grand of it or you are likely to have big bills.
I'd recommend that you look for a known car from a piston header or a good specialist retailer (there are one or two eg James agger).
The Cerbera is generally the most expensive model of Tvr to run. It's nothing like an mgb. 400 plus bhp puts it in the premier league of performance stats.
I'd recommend that you look for a known car from a piston header or a good specialist retailer (there are one or two eg James agger).
The Cerbera is generally the most expensive model of Tvr to run. It's nothing like an mgb. 400 plus bhp puts it in the premier league of performance stats.
I know very little about cars and servicing so, when I buy, I like the confidence of knowing that the car has been looked after, is being sold by someone knowledgeable about the make and, ideally, where the car can continue to be maintained and / or serviced.
Fortunately, there are several really good dealers in the UK or people selling privately, who can put you in touch with whichever garage looks after their car.
I think that I'd be nervous of buying a TVR from a garage that knows little about the marque or will be of little or no use, should anything go wrong.
Good luck in your search!
Fortunately, there are several really good dealers in the UK or people selling privately, who can put you in touch with whichever garage looks after their car.
I think that I'd be nervous of buying a TVR from a garage that knows little about the marque or will be of little or no use, should anything go wrong.
Good luck in your search!
Hi christoph. I live in Helmond and bought a 4.2 AJP TVR Cerbera at Target. What you see is what you get at Target. It is a cash and carry. I do feel that they buy cars in the UK with a damage on the paintwork or with a dodgy interior so they can buy it cheap. It does not have to be a bad car, but to my opinion you can buy a nicer car for the same amount of money in the UK. I did have lots and lots of problems with my car. I did sent it to the UK for an engineconversion and this is stil a drama after more than 3 years. I am totally left alone and I have someone else now doing all the work all over again. Tears are coming back to my eyes when I think of all the money that has gone into it and the fact that my car had been standing in snow and rain for 1,5 years in the UK. The Cerb is a wonderful car, but take your time to find the right one. The V8 is a wonderful performing engine. But overhere there are (almost) no guys willing and wanting to service these engines as they should be serviced. Getting a car through the Dutch RDW is not that difficult. I did it myself. I can write a book about it, but it is not for sale.
^^^^ I can confirm much of the above. A friend's '98 Cerbera 4.5 engine was a dead man walking after 75,000 miles even though it was brought here in 2003 and had been 'serviced' at high cost at all the usual places here. Erwin Oussoren (highly recommended, together with Bertil Evers for general servicing he's the one I'm using for engine work from now on) opened it up and found that a) there was a lot of sludge in the engine from using the wrong engine oil and b) the original tappet shims from the factory were still there!!!! That's right, even though it has to be done yearly, no one ever set valve clearances on this engine even though the history file showed servicing bills in the high four figure range...
Small wonder the car felt a bit off-colour performancewise when I first drove it...
Needless to say that this engine is a bit more worn than it would've needed to be at this stage and although it runs well now, a 4.7 rebuild by Erwin is on the cards for the future...
Erwin and his partner who buys and sells TVRs from the UK have a website www.tvrsportscars.nl . The premises they work from may look not all that but I can highly recommend Erwin for servicing and troubleshooting on RV8, S6 and AJP8 engines
Small wonder the car felt a bit off-colour performancewise when I first drove it...
Needless to say that this engine is a bit more worn than it would've needed to be at this stage and although it runs well now, a 4.7 rebuild by Erwin is on the cards for the future...
Erwin and his partner who buys and sells TVRs from the UK have a website www.tvrsportscars.nl . The premises they work from may look not all that but I can highly recommend Erwin for servicing and troubleshooting on RV8, S6 and AJP8 engines
flyingdutchie said:
Hi christoph. I live in Helmond and bought a 4.2 AJP TVR Cerbera at Target. What you see is what you get at Target. It is a cash and carry. I do feel that they buy cars in the UK with a damage on the paintwork or with a dodgy interior so they can buy it cheap. It does not have to be a bad car, but to my opinion you can buy a nicer car for the same amount of money in the UK. I did have lots and lots of problems with my car. I did sent it to the UK for an engineconversion and this is stil a drama after more than 3 years. I am totally left alone and I have someone else now doing all the work all over again. Tears are coming back to my eyes when I think of all the money that has gone into it and the fact that my car had been standing in snow and rain for 1,5 years in the UK. The Cerb is a wonderful car, but take your time to find the right one. The V8 is a wonderful performing engine. But overhere there are (almost) no guys willing and wanting to service these engines as they should be serviced. Getting a car through the Dutch RDW is not that difficult. I did it myself. I can write a book about it, but it is not for sale.
Such a shame. I saw the other conversion which like yours was done so badly. Idea was great, execution poor. Hope you end up with a fab LS cerb in the end. 900T-R said:
... the original tappet shims from the factory were still there!!!! That's right, even though it has to be done yearly, no one ever set valve clearances on this engine even though the history file showed servicing bills in the high four figure range...
How can you possibly tell that they are the original shims? All shims are identical apart from the thickness and there is no possible way to tell what shims were in there from the factory. Someone is spinning you a line...Well according to the info I got it was quite obvious that nothing ever had been touched underneath the cam covers, and the clearances were so far out it was untrue - which would at least explain the 'before' and 'after' difference in engine behaviour (I've driven it myself about 80 miles before the work, and 400 miles after to get the car new outriggers at Central TVR/TVR Power Bodyshop)...
Also from the list of work needed on inspection (& performed by Bertil Evers) it was safe to say that the general condition of the car (a very nice, unmolested dark blue '98 4.5 on original RL7s) did not quite tally with the invoices that came with it...
Also from the list of work needed on inspection (& performed by Bertil Evers) it was safe to say that the general condition of the car (a very nice, unmolested dark blue '98 4.5 on original RL7s) did not quite tally with the invoices that came with it...
Edited by 900T-R on Friday 23 November 09:48
just give Marc at TVR Belgium in Deinze a call and ask him, they are the only real specialist in the Benelux for all TVRs, all the owned a Cerbera AJP8 him self and they are the only real specialist in Benelux and i think even in Continental Europe. They service (and more) Cerbera's from NL, Belgium, Lux. France and so on. I have seen some with UK registration there as well.
Just ask him.
Just ask him.
flyingdutchie said:
Hi christoph. I live in Helmond and bought a 4.2 AJP TVR Cerbera at Target. What you see is what you get at Target. It is a cash and carry. I do feel that they buy cars in the UK with a damage on the paintwork or with a dodgy interior so they can buy it cheap. It does not have to be a bad car, but to my opinion you can buy a nicer car for the same amount of money in the UK. I did have lots and lots of problems with my car. I did sent it to the UK for an engineconversion and this is stil a drama after more than 3 years. I am totally left alone and I have someone else now doing all the work all over again. Tears are coming back to my eyes when I think of all the money that has gone into it and the fact that my car had been standing in snow and rain for 1,5 years in the UK. The Cerb is a wonderful car, but take your time to find the right one. The V8 is a wonderful performing engine. But overhere there are (almost) no guys willing and wanting to service these engines as they should be serviced. Getting a car through the Dutch RDW is not that difficult. I did it myself. I can write a book about it, but it is not for sale.
Really sorry to hear about your issues with your Cerbera as I was very very close to going down the same route as you with my Cerbera but in the end went to TVR Power as they had a proven record with engine rebuilds along with a warranty. I hope you get you car back soon and it gives you many happy miles.Gassing Station | Cerbera | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff