Maybe this is a daft question to be asking here

[moreplay]

Hi, im Andy and i've been driving old crappy but sporty cars for years now, mainly because i can fix almost all stuff myself and have never bought into the idea of spending thousands on a car which is going to be worth half what i payed for it in 2 years.
But now!!!! i feel the time has come to actually have a car which i can be proud of and cherish.
I have a soft spot for british made sports cars mainly from the days of driving spitfires of which i had two that i restored myself (ooohh the rust, still have nightmares).
TVR is a name which has always said to me amazing but never going to happen, But now think the car for me is a chimaera, the sound the looks everything is right.
So my daft question on a site full of chimaera owners is.. am i doing the right thing or is there some other like car that would be recomended.. Thinking of spending around the £7000 (not a greatly wealthy man).
Thanks for reading this and would be grateful for any advice/responce.
Andy

[hut49]

moreplay said:

Thinking of spending around the £7000 (not a greatly wealthy man)

Good luck. With this budget (and the comment in brackets) you'll need to go into this with eyes open wide, probably someone else's if you have no TVR experience. You could strike lucky and get an amazing amount of car for your money or it could all end in tears as a string of must-do fixes part you with thousands of pounds of heard-earned. It's always difficult to advise how much to budget for such unplanned repairs but I suspect you will need to be able to take a hit of 2-3k on top of a reasonable, say 1k, for routine servicing without regretting the day you ever got tempted by the v8 burble.

[TVRobin]

I have had three Spitfires and a Dutton Phaeton. The Chim is a logical progression. It says that you have grown up but haven't! I am having so much fun in mine having bought it drunk on e-bay for £5300. This turned out to be more luck than judgement! Having a few teething problems but have not been put off at all. Every time I start her my knees go week. I say go for it!
Regards, Robin.

[chugger]

go for it mate, i'm picking up my first Chim 500 tomorrow and can't wait, yes it may cost but hell, its worth it!

[Griffter]

If you're prepared to do work yourself, you can run a RV8 TVR for hundreds a year - not thousands. Parts are widely available from non-TVR sources as most of what goes wrong is Ranger Rover, Vauxhall or fabricated. In short there's an alterntive source for just about everything. Beware bodywork and chassis restoration which requires a lot of time, space and facilities to DIY - mechanically though there's not a lot to be afraid of. I think running a wisely-bought Chimaera on a budget for competent DIYer is entirely reasonable.

[fenderbender]

If you have FULLY restored Spits (body off) you should have no problem at all with looking after a Chim. The car is a fundamentally simple combination of bulletproof oily bits fitted into a well designed steel frame chassis, the whole topped off with a RUST FREE shell. The latter should be a big attraction!! If you want extra fun you can - like the Spit, TR series and Land Rover - take the body off, strip everything down and restore / replace / refurbish / clean / paint / polish everything up to your own preferred standard. In my experience the only difficulty is the lack of a proper works workshop manual containing in one volume all the detailed stuff you would expect to find out easily. The Steve Heath "bible" is a good starting point but is vague on important details like recommended torque and timing settings, and the photographs are poorly reproduced in print. If you used the proper Standard-Triumph factory manual on your Spits you will know what I mean about detail...!!

Best of luck, tell us how you get on and ENJOY!

[tvrchim]

Andy,

Just PM you good luck with your search.

Steve.

[R673SRV]

I went through a stage of hating my Chim but absence makes the hart grow fonder. As soon as I got her all fixed up she worked her magic. I will never regret having purchased her again.

If as you sound you are, good with mechanics you will be fine. As was said earlier, most of the parts that go wrong are Land Rover or Vauxhall and very easy to fine thanks to this web site.

Good luck and enjoy.