Why was the 5.0 ditched in favour of the 450?

[Midge]

Was the 5.0 Chimaera ditched because the 450 is a better all round car or are there more sinister reasons ie too much power for the chassis?

[2 Sheds]

the 450 uses a standard Land Rover lump (with slight head & cam mods )so easy to supply and less work for TVR .
Tim

[Paul]

It was also the best selling Chimaera and helped TVR differentiate between the "harder edged" Griff and the "softer" Chimaera (intentional use of quotes - not trying to re-start the Griffmaera wars...)
I found my 450 more useable than a mate's 'lumpy' 500, but that was probably more down to individual car setup than any real difference in the tractability of the powerplant....

[shadowninja]

going on what paul said, I get the feeling it was a marketing thing to make it easier for customers to decide what to buy by making a clearer distinction. iirc the chimaera 500 was available on special order

[JonRB]

I think it was simply a case of the 5L engine being difficult to source / too expensive to produce. As has been previously stated, the 400 and 450 are fairly standard engines whilst the 500 is a bit special. Killing the 500 is a nice way of weaning people off the Rover lump by effectively making the Chimaera less potent ready for its eventual demise. It can't be long now before production ceases. Or has it ceased already?

[anonymous-user]

I think they stopped making the 5.0 because they ran out of parts to make them.

I think the Chimaera is still available as a built to order.

Lee

[shpub]

Paul said: It was also the best selling Chimaera

I think you may find that there are more 4 litre Chimaeras than anything else...

[RichB]

Actually it was because TVR felt that Chimaera owners couldn't handle the full 5 litres Rich...

[Gaffer]

Chim production finished a few months back.

[donatien]

I visited the factory in June. The last of the Griffs were going down the line along with the Chimps and Lisa told me you could still specify a 5.0 as an option.

[jellison]

I'm sure they will make one if someone ask.

Nice to have one though.....

[paul]

shpub said:

Paul said: It was also the best selling Chimaera

I think you may find that there are more 4 litre Chimaeras than anything else...

Very true, but only because the 400 (and 400HC which I suppose qualifies as a 4 litre) was produced for longer than the 450. Certainly around '98 & '99, my dealer was selling more 450's than any other variant TVR was making. It was my understanding that this was the case throughout the dealer network and I suspect continued through to the end of production.

[shpub]

But the Chimera sales for this period took a big tumble anyway so the 450 is not that common overall in the scheme of things.