TVR driving holiday to Devon & general ramblings!
Discussion
Hi,
I hope everyone is well and enjoying this lovely weather!! Haha!
I’ve just come back from a superb holiday, driving round Devon for a week in the Chimaera. I was a little unsure about whether to take the TVR, but in the end we decided to give it a go. It’s only a bit of rain!! We had great fun, the car was perfect, no issues whatsoever and was a real joy. The whole of Devon appears to be a ghost town at this time of year, there is literally no one around, but it made for some good driving. Unfortunately a lot of the attractions were closed for winter, but we still enjoyed driving around the countryside. Driving around Dartmoor is amazing, like the New Forest, but bigger and more hills and rivers! We were pretty lucky with the weather, it rained heavily overnight, but it stayed dry throughout the day (mostly), but even so, the roads were soaked! But the TVR didn’t mind it. You really don’t notice you’re driving an old handbuilt British car, it's got comfy seats, a hot heater and it never mists up. My old VX220 was a nightmare in the wet, the windscreen was constantly misted up and the heater never got hot!!
We did manage to find ourselves down some very small and narrow roads on a few occasions, which was a bit nerve wracking! I definitely didn’t want to drive into a hedge, or up a muddy bank to get past a tractor coming the other way!! On one occasion the road we were on turned into a tiny country lane with a mound of grass in the middle, which got taller as we went on. In the end I could hear it rubbing underneath the car! At the end of the road I pulled over to have a look under the car, and my new splitter had acted as a lawn mower and was full of grass, mud and gravel, but was still well held in place!!
The car stayed completely dry, inside the cabin and the boot, all week, which I was very happy about. The boot stayed closed (I just fitted a new boot lid catch as the old one kept popping open) and the new starter motor I’d just fitted operated flawlessly all week. The only downside was the amount of petrol I used!! £££!
I did see another TVR, a Griffith in Dartmouth, which unfortunately was being loaded onto a trailer. It turns out the oil pressure sender had failed and it had emptied all its oil out! It was on the way to MB Motorsport (whose premises I drove past by chance one day) to be fixed.
I’m looking forward to some sunshine now though!! Didn’t get the roof off once all week! Now, must crack on with giving the car a good dose of much needed TLC. It’s due a bloody good clean inside and out and underneath, then it’s into the dehumidified garage to thoroughly dry out. I’m probably going to get the alignment and suspension checked out too, hit a big pot hole last night right by my house. It was in a puddle, but turns out it’s very deep. Car seems ok, doesn’t pull on acceleration or braking, but I want to get it checked out to be sure.
Roll on summer!
Dan
PS. I'll get some pics uploaded soon!
I hope everyone is well and enjoying this lovely weather!! Haha!
I’ve just come back from a superb holiday, driving round Devon for a week in the Chimaera. I was a little unsure about whether to take the TVR, but in the end we decided to give it a go. It’s only a bit of rain!! We had great fun, the car was perfect, no issues whatsoever and was a real joy. The whole of Devon appears to be a ghost town at this time of year, there is literally no one around, but it made for some good driving. Unfortunately a lot of the attractions were closed for winter, but we still enjoyed driving around the countryside. Driving around Dartmoor is amazing, like the New Forest, but bigger and more hills and rivers! We were pretty lucky with the weather, it rained heavily overnight, but it stayed dry throughout the day (mostly), but even so, the roads were soaked! But the TVR didn’t mind it. You really don’t notice you’re driving an old handbuilt British car, it's got comfy seats, a hot heater and it never mists up. My old VX220 was a nightmare in the wet, the windscreen was constantly misted up and the heater never got hot!!
We did manage to find ourselves down some very small and narrow roads on a few occasions, which was a bit nerve wracking! I definitely didn’t want to drive into a hedge, or up a muddy bank to get past a tractor coming the other way!! On one occasion the road we were on turned into a tiny country lane with a mound of grass in the middle, which got taller as we went on. In the end I could hear it rubbing underneath the car! At the end of the road I pulled over to have a look under the car, and my new splitter had acted as a lawn mower and was full of grass, mud and gravel, but was still well held in place!!
The car stayed completely dry, inside the cabin and the boot, all week, which I was very happy about. The boot stayed closed (I just fitted a new boot lid catch as the old one kept popping open) and the new starter motor I’d just fitted operated flawlessly all week. The only downside was the amount of petrol I used!! £££!
I did see another TVR, a Griffith in Dartmouth, which unfortunately was being loaded onto a trailer. It turns out the oil pressure sender had failed and it had emptied all its oil out! It was on the way to MB Motorsport (whose premises I drove past by chance one day) to be fixed.
I’m looking forward to some sunshine now though!! Didn’t get the roof off once all week! Now, must crack on with giving the car a good dose of much needed TLC. It’s due a bloody good clean inside and out and underneath, then it’s into the dehumidified garage to thoroughly dry out. I’m probably going to get the alignment and suspension checked out too, hit a big pot hole last night right by my house. It was in a puddle, but turns out it’s very deep. Car seems ok, doesn’t pull on acceleration or braking, but I want to get it checked out to be sure.
Roll on summer!
Dan
PS. I'll get some pics uploaded soon!
Edited by zed4 on Saturday 8th February 14:36
Thanks for writing that up Dan, very enjoyable, I like to read this kind of stuff. I'm glad you're making good use of your Chim this time of year. I know what you mean about having the place to yourself in winter, much more fun than people would think. It's great to hear how rugged and reliable a TVR can be in the real world. The car's looking great BTW.
Nice one Dan, its good to hear a story like that every now and then rather than
out rigger problems or how many extra horses I can get this wk, there all good but pistonheads seems dull some days as its slag or be slagged off and nothing much else. Where's the love gone, lol.
Nice pics.
out rigger problems or how many extra horses I can get this wk, there all good but pistonheads seems dull some days as its slag or be slagged off and nothing much else. Where's the love gone, lol.
Nice pics.
Oh, and I nearly forgot to say, having bumped around the Devon roads for a few days, I have concluded that my car is too low. So I'm going to find someone locally who can set the ride height correctly, corner weight the car and set up all the alignment properly.
May as well remove all the wishbones and get them powdercoated properly. I did paint them with epoxy mastic paint, but they're not that pretty really!
May as well remove all the wishbones and get them powdercoated properly. I did paint them with epoxy mastic paint, but they're not that pretty really!
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