Week and a bit in, first thoughts and a couple of Q's
Discussion
First thought's WOW What a car! Nothing like I have ever driven before, and I have driven some v. nice stuff! Still getting used to pulling away smoothly as clearly it doesn't have the low torque of the Chimaera but by God does it make the Chimaera look like a very slow car indeed! Hard to believe that the Chim will likely now become the Sunday pootle about in the sun car where as before it was the spirited drive! I love the handling of the Cerb, and he weight of the steering and the way I can just put it exactly where I want on the road, it is the most amazing driving experience! Still not brave enough for full throttle yet! 
Couple of questions though.
1. Where is the actuator for the interior lights? Sometimes when I shut the door they don't go out, the door is firmly closed though.
2. Of course getting used to a new car is all part of the fun and the Cerb seems to get warmer, water temp wise, quicker than the Chimaera. It runs around the 90 - 100 mark normally, dipping below 90 on a motorway run and just over 100 in slow traffic, fans come in ok and temp drops quickly with them running. Is that the right ball park? I know gauges vary, just trying to get a feel for it.
Cheers.
Couple of questions though.
1. Where is the actuator for the interior lights? Sometimes when I shut the door they don't go out, the door is firmly closed though.
2. Of course getting used to a new car is all part of the fun and the Cerb seems to get warmer, water temp wise, quicker than the Chimaera. It runs around the 90 - 100 mark normally, dipping below 90 on a motorway run and just over 100 in slow traffic, fans come in ok and temp drops quickly with them running. Is that the right ball park? I know gauges vary, just trying to get a feel for it.
Cheers.
Hi Mark,
No idea about Q1, I always have my interior lights switched off so never would be an issue for me.
The temp sounds about right. I don't think it's the actual temp, they tend to read 10-15 deg higher than they really are, something to do with the routing of the connection to the guage. If you hear the fans coming on then I am sure everything is fine.
No idea about Q1, I always have my interior lights switched off so never would be an issue for me.
The temp sounds about right. I don't think it's the actual temp, they tend to read 10-15 deg higher than they really are, something to do with the routing of the connection to the guage. If you hear the fans coming on then I am sure everything is fine.
Hi
Temp gauge is very much a useless feature of the car. Repeatable, but not very accurate.
Better is to listen for the fans comming on. 95 and 98degC I believe. You can use the fans comming on to callibrate the water temperature on the dial.
This worried me so much I rerouted the cable on the water temp gauge away from the manifolds but it made no difference. Eventually I took the dial apart and calibrated the temperatures to match the fans comming on.
Failing this you can use the diagnostic software to calibrate.
Unfortunately the dials are rather poor quality and calibrating is pretty much carefully removing the swaged front, moving the pointer and replacing the front.
At least mine now point to the appropriate temperature
Temp gauge is very much a useless feature of the car. Repeatable, but not very accurate.
Better is to listen for the fans comming on. 95 and 98degC I believe. You can use the fans comming on to callibrate the water temperature on the dial.
This worried me so much I rerouted the cable on the water temp gauge away from the manifolds but it made no difference. Eventually I took the dial apart and calibrated the temperatures to match the fans comming on.
Failing this you can use the diagnostic software to calibrate.
Unfortunately the dials are rather poor quality and calibrating is pretty much carefully removing the swaged front, moving the pointer and replacing the front.
At least mine now point to the appropriate temperature
Cheers Guys, as I thought, and the same as the Chimaera, as long as the gauge always reads the same it's easy to look out for anomalies.
I know the fans are working because when I pulled up in the drive I thought I heard a low flying helicopter, but it was the fans that had just kicked in
I know the fans are working because when I pulled up in the drive I thought I heard a low flying helicopter, but it was the fans that had just kicked in
Hi Mark, great to hear that you are enjoying the Cerb! It truely is an awesome car (meant in the true sense of awesome, i.e. awe inspiring performance, rather than the trite Yank interpretation, "gee, this gum tastes awesome, man"). You seem to have the best of both worlds now - drop top TVR motoring and also some exhilirating Cerb performance!
You'll love the performance - build up to it! One great example is to find a nice quiet open road (preferably on a private test track, officer), select 3rd gear and accelerate HARD from 30 mph + as this will give you a great feel for how the motor develops it's power (and under conditions that "should" reduce the chances of wheelspin), the AJP engines will pull from low rev's (the issue you describe on pulling off is probably due to the very light flywheel effect - you will need to give a bit of throttle to stop it stalling when pulling off, but after that you should be able to pull on minimal throttle openings from 1000rpm or less); then start to really build up to about 4000 rpm, then it really takes off, changing it's nature as it screams round the tacho - the engine seems to pick up acceleration HARD and the exhaust note changes to a real howl, then you get the "beeeeep", change up, and do it again in 4th!!! The great thing about the Cerb is that you shoudl still get very strong acceleration deep into 4th gear also - it just doesn't seem to relent!!!!
Regarding temperature - one popular mod is to have the "Joo - chip". I initially got Joo (ex TCS, now at RaceProved) to fit a modified chip that gets the fans to kick in earlier (and for a shorter duration), and this can also be part of a remap (you need to check to see if your's has had the remap done - well worth it in terms of drivability and also extra performance through the rev range). I drive mine in heavy traffic, and it's also done a few summer trips in central London traffic - and been OK.
ENJOY!
You'll love the performance - build up to it! One great example is to find a nice quiet open road (preferably on a private test track, officer), select 3rd gear and accelerate HARD from 30 mph + as this will give you a great feel for how the motor develops it's power (and under conditions that "should" reduce the chances of wheelspin), the AJP engines will pull from low rev's (the issue you describe on pulling off is probably due to the very light flywheel effect - you will need to give a bit of throttle to stop it stalling when pulling off, but after that you should be able to pull on minimal throttle openings from 1000rpm or less); then start to really build up to about 4000 rpm, then it really takes off, changing it's nature as it screams round the tacho - the engine seems to pick up acceleration HARD and the exhaust note changes to a real howl, then you get the "beeeeep", change up, and do it again in 4th!!! The great thing about the Cerb is that you shoudl still get very strong acceleration deep into 4th gear also - it just doesn't seem to relent!!!!
Regarding temperature - one popular mod is to have the "Joo - chip". I initially got Joo (ex TCS, now at RaceProved) to fit a modified chip that gets the fans to kick in earlier (and for a shorter duration), and this can also be part of a remap (you need to check to see if your's has had the remap done - well worth it in terms of drivability and also extra performance through the rev range). I drive mine in heavy traffic, and it's also done a few summer trips in central London traffic - and been OK.
ENJOY!
Thanks Mike, all good info, and yes, I am loving it!
Actually brought the Chiamera in to work this morning, bizarrely as it's wet, but just thought it safer
Will contact previous owner and check if it's had the mod you suggest, but I seem to remember a conversation saying it was all standard in that dept.
Really looking forward to the full bore drive, had a bit of a play yesterday, just a case of building myself up to it!
Actually brought the Chiamera in to work this morning, bizarrely as it's wet, but just thought it safer
Will contact previous owner and check if it's had the mod you suggest, but I seem to remember a conversation saying it was all standard in that dept.
Really looking forward to the full bore drive, had a bit of a play yesterday, just a case of building myself up to it!
Glad you are enjoying it. Re the rain, I've always found my Cerb pretty good in the wet (given the sort of car it is), you can trickle it along with low revs and have comparatively low torque trying to break traction, my old Chim 450 was in comparison much happier to make a bid for freedom, the shorter wheelbase as well I suspect played its part in feeling more twitchy. Of course at the moment you will still "know" you Chim much better and that will bring it's own confidence, but I reckon in time given the choice of the two when raining you might just reach for the Cerb keys 
touching cloth said:
Glad you are enjoying it. Re the rain, I've always found my Cerb pretty good in the wet (given the sort of car it is), you can trickle it along with low revs and have comparatively low torque trying to break traction, my old Chim 450 was in comparison much happier to make a bid for freedom, the shorter wheelbase as well I suspect played its part in feeling more twitchy. Of course at the moment you will still "know" you Chim much better and that will bring it's own confidence, but I reckon in time given the choice of the two when raining you might just reach for the Cerb keys
TC - I also used to own a silver 450 Chim. Great car.Gazzab said:
touching cloth said:
Glad you are enjoying it. Re the rain, I've always found my Cerb pretty good in the wet (given the sort of car it is), you can trickle it along with low revs and have comparatively low torque trying to break traction, my old Chim 450 was in comparison much happier to make a bid for freedom, the shorter wheelbase as well I suspect played its part in feeling more twitchy. Of course at the moment you will still "know" you Chim much better and that will bring it's own confidence, but I reckon in time given the choice of the two when raining you might just reach for the Cerb keys
TC - I also used to own a silver 450 Chim. Great car.
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