New Chim 500 yesterday - the good and the bad
Discussion
98S, 26k, Imperial Blue / Mag
1st owner 2 years, 2nd owner 11 years, now mine !
You CAN tell the difference between a 430 and 500
, especially 90-140 (hypothetically of course.... )
On the upside, it appears to have a sports exhaust and def has a battery isolation switch, both on my list of things to do...
When looking for a car in future, I'll take more notice of the music installed... this one just a r/cassette. Now, it's got a JL XD400/4 amp, JL C2 -600 rear speakers, JL C3-650s in the front, Alpine CDA117R head unit and a CHA5634 changer. Stinger cabling and power kit - all lovely, but £1700 i hadnt budgeted for......
Inevitably, there are other issues :
wiper motor is shot - the supplying dealer has agreed to cover this, so no tears
bonnet hinges also shot - the bonnet came with the special alignment option, that is a wine cork in place of the front bung and when open the bonnet is flapping about in every plane like you wouldnt believe. I don't accept that's what they're like - my 4.3 certainly wasn't.
targa top is frayed and seals shot - at least it's not too expensive to fix and certainly not a big deal
one concern though, I'll need to keep playing with the car at speed to try and work it out. In moderate - high speed long fast corners initial turn in is way too sharp, feels like the inside cornering front wheel is almost digging in. Doesn't inspire confidence, for sure - and again, I don't recall this issue on my prev. 4.3.... Strangely though, in a straight line, it feels much more stable than my old 4.3, all the way up to the hypothetical 140+..
Booked in to see Doug at David Gerald on the 26th - hoping he can tell me what's up with the handling. Might well be an excuse for polybushes and SH drop links.
After that it will be going to DT at TVR power - I'm interested to know if I've got a 260 or a 280bhp 500 and from there what we can do to wake it up a bit
As I think we all know (and some admit) these RV8's are not especially quick. I still think my Boxster RS60 (303bhp / 1275kgs) was as quick if not quicker and certainly handled better. I'm quite sure they're capable of nothing like 165+ even when new, not that you'd want to in one.
But a lot of fun at the price....
1st owner 2 years, 2nd owner 11 years, now mine !
You CAN tell the difference between a 430 and 500
, especially 90-140 (hypothetically of course.... )On the upside, it appears to have a sports exhaust and def has a battery isolation switch, both on my list of things to do...
When looking for a car in future, I'll take more notice of the music installed... this one just a r/cassette. Now, it's got a JL XD400/4 amp, JL C2 -600 rear speakers, JL C3-650s in the front, Alpine CDA117R head unit and a CHA5634 changer. Stinger cabling and power kit - all lovely, but £1700 i hadnt budgeted for......
Inevitably, there are other issues :
wiper motor is shot - the supplying dealer has agreed to cover this, so no tears
bonnet hinges also shot - the bonnet came with the special alignment option, that is a wine cork in place of the front bung and when open the bonnet is flapping about in every plane like you wouldnt believe. I don't accept that's what they're like - my 4.3 certainly wasn't.
targa top is frayed and seals shot - at least it's not too expensive to fix and certainly not a big deal
one concern though, I'll need to keep playing with the car at speed to try and work it out. In moderate - high speed long fast corners initial turn in is way too sharp, feels like the inside cornering front wheel is almost digging in. Doesn't inspire confidence, for sure - and again, I don't recall this issue on my prev. 4.3.... Strangely though, in a straight line, it feels much more stable than my old 4.3, all the way up to the hypothetical 140+..
Booked in to see Doug at David Gerald on the 26th - hoping he can tell me what's up with the handling. Might well be an excuse for polybushes and SH drop links.
After that it will be going to DT at TVR power - I'm interested to know if I've got a 260 or a 280bhp 500 and from there what we can do to wake it up a bit
As I think we all know (and some admit) these RV8's are not especially quick. I still think my Boxster RS60 (303bhp / 1275kgs) was as quick if not quicker and certainly handled better. I'm quite sure they're capable of nothing like 165+ even when new, not that you'd want to in one.
But a lot of fun at the price....
Glad you like your new car 
but speeds up to 140 with an insecure bonnet 
your not smoking funny fags are you 
is this post going to be followed by...... I need a bonnet for a Chimaera and does my insurance cover me for taking out a cyclist with said item? 
and yes the bonnet should be solid around the hinge area not flopping about
but speeds up to 140 with an insecure bonnet your not smoking funny fags are you is this post going to be followed by...... I need a bonnet for a Chimaera and does my insurance cover me for taking out a cyclist with said item? and yes the bonnet should be solid around the hinge area not flopping about 
linleyw said:
one concern though, I'll need to keep playing with the car at speed to try and work it out. In moderate - high speed long fast corners initial turn in is way too sharp, feels like the inside cornering front wheel is almost digging in. Doesn't inspire confidence, for sure - and again, I don't recall this issue on my prev. 4.3.... Strangely though, in a straight line, it feels much more stable than my old 4.3, all the way up to the hypothetical 140+..
Possibly Geometry is out. My Chim was perfect but then I had a bit of an off when my brakes were cold and didnt slow me down going into a roundabout (driver error). This resulted in me going sideways over a big kerb and parking myself on a grass verge. No damage other than the geo appears to have been bashed out of alignment by going over the kerb. I now get much sharper initial turn in followed by a little understeer going round anything other than a moderate bend so I'm taking it gently right now !. She'll be going for a full setup shortly.
Had a chat with Doug at david Gerald about the steering. My prev 4.3 was non PAS, the new one has the PAS. The PAS is a quicker rack (forgot about that) which may partly explain it. And it's got bridgestones at the front, fuldas at the back, which won't be helping.
going into David Gerald on the 26th to find out what's what as regards geo & alignment, bushes, a/roll bars etc.....
going into David Gerald on the 26th to find out what's what as regards geo & alignment, bushes, a/roll bars etc.....
Simon says said:
........... but speeds up to 140 with an insecure bonnet your not smoking funny fags are you is this post going to be followed by...... I need a bonnet for a Chimaera and does my insurance cover me for taking out a cyclist with said item?
Nah ................ more like I was sitting by the side of the road waiting for the Police/Ambulance to turn up and I was listening to my new stereo, much better than the old one, well worth the £1700, thankfully the cyclist up the road somewhere in a hedge could also hear it, so it wasn't money wasted your not smoking funny fags are you is this post going to be followed by...... I need a bonnet for a Chimaera and does my insurance cover me for taking out a cyclist with said item? 
FWIW, I wasn't aiming to show off about the hi-fi, the point i was making was that (maybe it's just me) when sourcing a car, it never occurred to me to worry about the hifi system fitted - as seen, it makes a big difference to the overall cost. Yes, i could've spent £400-£600, but would still have ended up with a poor result
linleyw said:
now c'mon Ribs and Simon, behave
empty motorway conditions.... don't tell me you never do
touch wood, i've never sustained nor caused any injuries and my license would be my problem, if I was ever to exceed the national speed limit obviously
Its not the speed empty motorway conditions.... don't tell me you never do
touch wood, i've never sustained nor caused any injuries and my license would be my problem, if I was ever to exceed the national speed limit obviously
its the fact the bonnet is insecure at those speeds that's a big old lump of fibreglass with plenty of air rushing underneath trying to push it off just a heads up not a b
hing 
if you remove the bonnet and place upside down on a blanket you can normally fix the loose fittings/box section in an afternoon if it's the hinges that are shot they are here too https://delta.securesslhost.net/~shenglt/catalog/p... neither Ribol or myself are nasty men 
Edited by Simon says on Friday 13th May 12:23
linleyw said:
now c'mon Ribs and Simon, behave
empty motorway conditions.... don't tell me you never do
touch wood, i've never sustained nor caused any injuries and my license would be my problem, if I was ever to exceed the national speed limit obviously
Admission of guilt on a public forum though... hmm...empty motorway conditions.... don't tell me you never do
touch wood, i've never sustained nor caused any injuries and my license would be my problem, if I was ever to exceed the national speed limit obviously
gavgavgav said:
After spending all that on the Hi-fi, can you hear it?
Ummm, not without cranking it up and appearing even more of a menace/chav/w*nker (take your pick)than I already do... it seems that one of the previous owners fitted a sports exhaust, or I've got a big hole somewhere... (don't even go there)and thanks for the heads-up guys, I realised on reflection that's what you meant, likewise thanks for the parts sources
new TVR, new set of issues to overcome.....
Edited by linleyw on Friday 13th May 13:55
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