It's Alive.........
Discussion
Well, after more weeks than I care to remember I finally picked the Cerb up from Austecs last night:bounce::bounce:
Admittedly most of the delays where down to parts supply, but at least I have him back now. The only downside is that Austec rebuilt the heads and now I have to run the car in for the next 500 miles odd :( Bugger!
Austec stripped the engine and confirmed that the bottom end was perfect, so they rebuilt the heads(?) and its now all back together. Despite the car having a new clutch before I bought it, Paul replaced the clutch as they had the engine out anyway and I only had a 1000 or so miles left on the old one. I even found Paul valeting the car himself when I turned up last night, top man :)
I mentioned briefly on another thread that Paul had made some observations about the engine in my car. I was hoping to get this confirmed by the factory or the 1st owner before I blabbed, but said confirmation hasnt materialised so I will divulge what I know so far;
Car was originally supplied to a very wealthy American 'friend' of Peter Wheeler who told the 1st owner he would make sure this car was 'a bit special'. Turns out that the engine itself has 'GT' stamped on the block in front of the engine number, which got chins scratched. On further inspection it turns out my engine has bigger pistons than normal and also it has Tuscan Challenge race cams which together, I assume, would explain the questioned power outputs.
Once Ive run the engine in its going back into Austec for an oil change/check over and then Mark Adams (do you know about this Mark?;)) and Paul are going to re-check the mapping. Apparantly Mr Lamont's wares are also going to be installed at this point in time and then the car is going back on the rollers (before and after figures no doubt)
After that I shall be off the Surrey Rolling Road for a comparison to the SRR Cerb day figures, just so we have a level playing field.
OK, off for another drive, only another 470 miles to go :banghead:
Admittedly most of the delays where down to parts supply, but at least I have him back now. The only downside is that Austec rebuilt the heads and now I have to run the car in for the next 500 miles odd :( Bugger!
Austec stripped the engine and confirmed that the bottom end was perfect, so they rebuilt the heads(?) and its now all back together. Despite the car having a new clutch before I bought it, Paul replaced the clutch as they had the engine out anyway and I only had a 1000 or so miles left on the old one. I even found Paul valeting the car himself when I turned up last night, top man :)
I mentioned briefly on another thread that Paul had made some observations about the engine in my car. I was hoping to get this confirmed by the factory or the 1st owner before I blabbed, but said confirmation hasnt materialised so I will divulge what I know so far;
Car was originally supplied to a very wealthy American 'friend' of Peter Wheeler who told the 1st owner he would make sure this car was 'a bit special'. Turns out that the engine itself has 'GT' stamped on the block in front of the engine number, which got chins scratched. On further inspection it turns out my engine has bigger pistons than normal and also it has Tuscan Challenge race cams which together, I assume, would explain the questioned power outputs.
Once Ive run the engine in its going back into Austec for an oil change/check over and then Mark Adams (do you know about this Mark?;)) and Paul are going to re-check the mapping. Apparantly Mr Lamont's wares are also going to be installed at this point in time and then the car is going back on the rollers (before and after figures no doubt)
After that I shall be off the Surrey Rolling Road for a comparison to the SRR Cerb day figures, just so we have a level playing field.
OK, off for another drive, only another 470 miles to go :banghead:
joospeed said:
of course you know those 500 miles are going to be hell ..
Dont you just know it, Jools! Ive told myself Im going to use the car over the next couple of weeks, come Hell or high water, until the running in is done.
If we ever get to a meetng together again mate, you're more than welcome to take him for a blast up the road as I welcome your opinion
Good news, looking forward to hearing about the post MA/PA tweeking too 
.
Out of interest when you say bigger pistons, do you mean bigger bore or just skirt
. If its a bigger bore have you worked out the actual capacity .
Harry
says harry who will try to look for the mythical 'GT' markings when cerbie hunting
. Out of interest when you say bigger pistons, do you mean bigger bore or just skirt
. If its a bigger bore have you worked out the actual capacity . Harry
says harry who will try to look for the mythical 'GT' markings when cerbie hunting
Glad youve got your mitts on the beast again Nick.
Interesting that your car is a bit special, but I'm not urprised that the factory haven't been terribly forthcoming. All the engineers that have driven mine have questioned it's provenance - it's a bit quick for a 4.2! I begged Blackpool to tell me more, but was charged £45 for a photocopied sheet of paper with a list of nothing more that original colour and interior plus when and where it was serviced.
They flatly refused to confirm or deny anything to do with its heritage, quoting the data protection act at me... Even when I said I didn't care who the first owner was, just that I was curious about the spec of the engine they still kept quiet. I'm not aware of any secial stamps on the engine, all I have to go on is the subjective opinion of the engineers and the fact that the car was first registered "N1 AJP" which has its own connotations....
Anyway, glad you've got her back, enjoy!
Interesting that your car is a bit special, but I'm not urprised that the factory haven't been terribly forthcoming. All the engineers that have driven mine have questioned it's provenance - it's a bit quick for a 4.2! I begged Blackpool to tell me more, but was charged £45 for a photocopied sheet of paper with a list of nothing more that original colour and interior plus when and where it was serviced.
They flatly refused to confirm or deny anything to do with its heritage, quoting the data protection act at me... Even when I said I didn't care who the first owner was, just that I was curious about the spec of the engine they still kept quiet. I'm not aware of any secial stamps on the engine, all I have to go on is the subjective opinion of the engineers and the fact that the car was first registered "N1 AJP" which has its own connotations....
Anyway, glad you've got her back, enjoy!
Could well be wrong here, and probably am, but....
When the 4.2 Cerbera came out, wasn't there talk
of an even more powerful one which was provisionally called the GT version? I seem to remember seeing Top Gear or something when someone was saying how gorgeous the (4.2) Cerbera was, but they would wait for the GT version.
Then the 4.5 came out and the 'GT' part was obviously dropped.
Maybe if yours is a very early 4.5 this is why it has 4GT on the block?
Anyone else remember similar, or did I dream it?
Hi Nick, Glad you have the car back at long last.
I was on my way to Bolney for the Sussex Ferrari meet around 6:40pm on Wednesday night and picked up your tail on the Brighton Road, so I knew you had it back before I read your post on here just now!
I've not been on here much of late, work has been a mare of late - plus I had yesterday out to go and watch the F1 testing at Silverstone.
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