how responsive is yours?

[AlVal]

I think I know why my car doesn't "feel" that fast - its the responsiveness, at lower revs, anything below 3000 , you press the pedal and its at least a second before the car actually does something, at higher revs its more responsive, but the comments Ive heard in reviews about the engine feeling so directly and instantly linked to the accel pedal dont seem to currently ring true for mine, It's going in for an overall checkover thursday, and tappet service, hopefully London TVR are good folks (fingers crossed) and will get it working in top form, I really feel sure I'm going to be coming back here after and beaming about the great performance!

as well as power, I'll be very interested to see what they have to say about the suspension setup, right now it feels way too willing to get out of shape at speeds/bends which non-performance oriented car's wouldnt sweat over.

Admittedly its on falken grb 16" tyres, Im sure that can be improved on, I need to get reading some threads here on good suspension setups including wheels, I find bosscerberas arguments for the sp12s (or other wheels that share similar credentials in terms of size/weight) rather convincing. Often best handling isn't with large rims though, does the cerbera really perform best with 18s? sorry, im rambling here and covering all kinds of stuff in a single post..

[carl_w]

Big wheels are for bling

Get some decent tyres, and some decent aftermarket suspension set up by someone who knows what they're doing. The original dampers were specced by a two step process: (1) What have we got on the shelf? (2) What can we get cheap?

[dempsey]

Sounds like you might simply just need a remap. Mine had a couple of low down flat spots until I had it remapped - it's now just a wall of acceleration.

[ancol]

the geo may be out also, but that should/needs to be reset when you have your shocks done

[JensenA]

Anyone can get in a hot hatch type car and drive them quick. A cerb is very different for some reason, you have to get to learn the car. You also find that when you look at the speedo, you are often going a lot faster than you think you are. 100mph feels like nothing.

[Byker28i]

AlVal said:

I think I know why my car doesn't "feel" that fast - its the responsiveness, at lower revs, anything below 3000 ...

You need to look at the graphs of a 4.2


Mines been recently tuned and feels much better now below 3000 revs so I'm guessing your feels the same. It used to be driveable below 3k and manic above, but then I'm used to torque curves like that on my Kawasaki motorbike

[Byker28i]

AlVal said:

I'll be very interested to see what they have to say about the suspension setup, right now it feels way too willing to get out of shape at speeds/bends which non-performance oriented car's wouldnt sweat over.

Then something isn't right. I'm amazed by how much grip and feel mine has. It's highly predictable but just wallows and rolls a little too much for my liking but that's getting fixed next week with new shocks.

The obvious place to look is suspension setup, tyre choice and pressures. I'm running eagle F1's on 17" rims with original shocks. I run 24psi all around which it seems to like. I know others juggle up or down by a few psi.

Not being rude, but is it your driving technique? Get all your speed changes done before the corner, then use the throttle to nicely balence the car through the corner, then power out the bend (only when straightened up mind).

[Mr M]

AlVal said:

I think I know why my car doesn't "feel" that fast - its the responsiveness, at lower revs, anything below 3000 , you press the pedal and its at least a second before the car actually does something, at higher revs its more responsive, but the comments Ive heard in reviews about the engine feeling so directly and instantly linked to the accel pedal dont seem to currently ring true for mine, It's going in for an overall checkover thursday, and tappet service, hopefully London TVR are good folks (fingers crossed) and will get it working in top form, I really feel sure I'm going to be coming back here after and beaming about the great performance!

as well as power, I'll be very interested to see what they have to say about the suspension setup, right now it feels way too willing to get out of shape at speeds/bends which non-performance oriented car's wouldnt sweat over.

Admittedly its on falken grb 16" tyres, Im sure that can be improved on, I need to get reading some threads here on good suspension setups including wheels, I find bosscerberas arguments for the sp12s (or other wheels that share similar credentials in terms of size/weight) rather convincing. Often best handling isn't with large rims though, does the cerbera really perform best with 18s? sorry, im rambling here and covering all kinds of stuff in a single post..

I'v felt the same about my first and second gears but advice from the forum is to use pedal travel more. I also have two conical induction things which are supposed to make alot of noise but I'm going to remove them and put the car back to standard. You could check the history to see if its been re-mapped. Mine has by someone so I'm looking to set that back to what it should be as original. I thnk if it's bewen mucked about with alot it's best to get it back to standard form . just my opinion though.

[FUBAR]

Depends who did the remap. If it was one of the known tuners(Austec, TCS etc) then the remap should be an improvement. If its someone who's bought an Emerald and thought he'd 'have a go at it' then yes, get it back to normal or mapped again by one of the above-mentioned tuners.

[AlVal]

JensenA said:

Anyone can get in a hot hatch type car and drive them quick. A cerb is very different for some reason, you have to get to learn the car. You also find that when you look at the speedo, you are often going a lot faster than you think you are. 100mph feels like nothing.

you're absolutely right, I know its a cliche, but it definitely seems true with the cerb, I'm frequently looking at the speedo once im in in second gear after I've launched and noticing im up at much higher speeds than expected, im happy to report at higher revs in 3rd she definitely feels fast.

[Phil_Edge]

Just to echo some of the earlier comments - 4.5 here with exactly the same "features"... flat spots under 3k, and from all I've read - yes, its the way it is. Remap addresses this though and makes the car "friendlier" at lower revs, smoothing everything out.

[V8Cerbera]

I'm on SP12's and I must say that I personally feel that the ride has improved a massive amount and the back end feels more 'planted'

And as for how responsive is it? Sorry, it's not the best video in the world but... it's about this responsive (turn your pc speakers up).

http://www.youtube.com/petrolsniffer

[grahamn]

V8Cerbera said:

I'm on SP12's and I must say that I personally feel that the ride has improved a massive amount and the back end feels more 'planted'

And as for how responsive is it? Sorry, it's not the best video in the world but... it's about this responsive (turn your pc speakers up).

http://www.youtube.com/petrolsniffer

Love the sound.................of the brakes

[V8Cerbera]

grahamn said:

V8Cerbera said:

I'm on SP12's and I must say that I personally feel that the ride has improved a massive amount and the back end feels more 'planted'

And as for how responsive is it? Sorry, it's not the best video in the world but... it's about this responsive (turn your pc speakers up).

http://www.youtube.com/petrolsniffer

Love the sound.................of the brakes

Gorgeous aren't they... blasted things

[grahamn]

V8Cerbera said:

grahamn said:

V8Cerbera said:

I'm on SP12's and I must say that I personally feel that the ride has improved a massive amount and the back end feels more 'planted'

And as for how responsive is it? Sorry, it's not the best video in the world but... it's about this responsive (turn your pc speakers up).

http://www.youtube.com/petrolsniffer

Love the sound.................of the brakes

Gorgeous aren't they... blasted things

Hope you get them sorted before the wedding. Don't want the bride arriving at the church to the sound of squealing brakes.

[Mr M]

Mr M said:

AlVal said:

I think I know why my car doesn't "feel" that fast - its the responsiveness, at lower revs, anything below 3000 , you press the pedal and its at least a second before the car actually does something, at higher revs its more responsive, but the comments Ive heard in reviews about the engine feeling so directly and instantly linked to the accel pedal dont seem to currently ring true for mine, It's going in for an overall checkover thursday, and tappet service, hopefully London TVR are good folks (fingers crossed) and will get it working in top form, I really feel sure I'm going to be coming back here after and beaming about the great performance!

as well as power, I'll be very interested to see what they have to say about the suspension setup, right now it feels way too willing to get out of shape at speeds/bends which non-performance oriented car's wouldnt sweat over.

Admittedly its on falken grb 16" tyres, Im sure that can be improved on, I need to get reading some threads here on good suspension setups including wheels, I find bosscerberas arguments for the sp12s (or other wheels that share similar credentials in terms of size/weight) rather convincing. Often best handling isn't with large rims though, does the cerbera really perform best with 18s? sorry, im rambling here and covering all kinds of stuff in a single post..

I'v felt the same about my first and second gears but advice from the forum is to use pedal travel more. I also have two conical induction things which are supposed to make alot of noise but I'm going to remove them and put the car back to standard. You could check the history to see if its been re-mapped. Mine has by someone so I'm looking to set that back to what it should be as original. I thnk if it's bewen mucked about with alot it's best to get it back to standard form . just my opinion though.

My remap was Austec yes. Since this post my dealer has suggested it's a better drive with the remap and the conical induction add ons. Sorry too take any light away from the main thread but it seems to suggest all the advise on learning to use the throttle should be heeded.

[medieval]

Probably not entirely relevent regarding acceleration and handling but I have to confess that coming from RV8 griffs and wedges etc where low down torque was fully available at any point,I noticed my driving style was quite lazy and I would rely on limited gear changes and just straight grunt.

This syle does not seem to work with the Cerb which is more demanding and does require, to my mind, longer rev ranges, greater use of throttle time etc to get the best from the car. My driving style is now changing and the car is certainly more rewarding each time I take it out.

It may just be a learning curve rather than an issue with the car. good luck with it anyway.

[southendpier]

medieval said:

Probably not entirely relevent regarding acceleration and handling but I have to confess that coming from RV8 griffs and wedges etc where low down torque was fully available at any point,I noticed my driving style was quite lazy and I would rely on limited gear changes and just straight grunt.

This syle does not seem to work with the Cerb which is more demanding and does require, to my mind, longer rev ranges, greater use of throttle time etc to get the best from the car. My driving style is now changing and the car is certainly more rewarding each time I take it out.

It may just be a learning curve rather than an issue with the car. good luck with it anyway.

Owners manual recommends keeping the engine spinning at a decent revs to make it work properly. Unlike some other V8s.