Fingers crossed...TVR Power fitting their Super-charger
Discussion
In case anyone was thinking of having it done, I've bitten the bullet and booked my 4L in for TVR Power's Super-charger jobby next Saturday.
This should be mighty "interesting"...to see what comes out of the garage 2 weeks later.
You never know - it might even actually then do the 0-60 in somewhere near the 4.9secs advertised on many websites.
If anyone is/was thinking about it then let me be the guinea pig, get it done, pay up and then pick my brains with a PM.
Ian
This should be mighty "interesting"...to see what comes out of the garage 2 weeks later.
You never know - it might even actually then do the 0-60 in somewhere near the 4.9secs advertised on many websites.
If anyone is/was thinking about it then let me be the guinea pig, get it done, pay up and then pick my brains with a PM.
Ian
RedCabbage said:
What is your insurance increase like?
Dunno, frankly I'm scared to ask! I'm going to wait until they tell me to come and pick up the car before I ring round and sort something out.
The wife aint gonna be happy...
softtop said:
Do we know how many are out there now?
As far as I am aware this will be the first one that TVR Power has done for re-sale...obviously they have the proto-type car but other than that none.
Of course, I suspect there are Chimaeras out there that have been Super-charged by indies or 'home-built'.
In fact I took the car to another (nearer) TVR specialist who also said he could do it - but that I would be the proto-type. The price was just a little to high though - all over considerations having been satisfied.
cmr2payne said:
Good luck matey, Im sure you will be happy with the job, The one that came on the Swiss trip with us was awesome. Really Really fast
Really excited now...care to give me comparison ie how it compares to (say) 5L Griffs/Elise or any thing else?
What cars went on the Swiss trip and how did the Chim compare acceleration wise?
IM said:
RedCabbage said:
What is your insurance increase like?
Dunno, frankly I'm scared to ask! I'm going to wait until they tell me to come and pick up the car before I ring round and sort something out.
You didn't check the insurance first? Brave man! I hope it works out OK for you, but my experience is that many insurers won't consider forced induction conversions or NOx, and the ones that do charge a premium for it. I think it will be *far* harder to insure a supercharged 4L car than a standard 5L one of similar performance. Hope you prove me wrong, but if I were you I'd start ringing round now.
GreenV8S said:
IM said:
RedCabbage said:
What is your insurance increase like?
Dunno, frankly I'm scared to ask! I'm going to wait until they tell me to come and pick up the car before I ring round and sort something out.
You didn't check the insurance first? Brave man! I hope it works out OK for you, but my experience is that many insurers won't consider forced induction conversions or NOx, and the ones that do charge a premium for it. I think it will be *far* harder to insure a supercharged 4L car than a standard 5L one of similar performance. Hope you prove me wrong, but if I were you I'd start ringing round now.
The car is actually insured by my wife with me as a named driver as females get insurance cheaper. I currently pay £398 for both of us to drive Fully Comp with Full No Claims Bonus and we are both over 40. I have restricted the annual mileage to 8000 on the policy. I am budgeting for an increase of (perhaps) £1,000 PA.
Whaddya think?
IM said:
...
The car is actually insured by my wife with me as a named driver as females get insurance cheaper. I currently pay £398 for both of us to drive Fully Comp with Full No Claims Bonus and we are both over 40. I have restricted the annual mileage to 8000 on the policy. I am budgeting for an increase of (perhaps) £1,000 PA.
Whaddya think?
The car is actually insured by my wife with me as a named driver as females get insurance cheaper. I currently pay £398 for both of us to drive Fully Comp with Full No Claims Bonus and we are both over 40. I have restricted the annual mileage to 8000 on the policy. I am budgeting for an increase of (perhaps) £1,000 PA.
Whaddya think?
I'd hope that it wouldn't be that drastic! Best thing would be to talk to an insurer that's a proper risk assessor (so they can work out each case individually) to get the best figure. I wonder what a Cerb would cost to insure for you and your lady? Would seem daft for a less powerful supercharged Chim to cost more than a Cerb!
Logically it should still be less than a 500 Chim since it will be more drivable (so safer) having a weaker bottom end power delivery (no supercharging effect), yet more power than a standard 500 as the bhp rises all the way to the redline
. I think that should apply as its basically a factory conversion as TVR Power were owned by TVR during its development. Fingers crossed though, as what do I know, I'm just waffling
I considered all options on my 4.0. The best option IMO is to upgrade to the 5.0. As GreenV8S said, many insurance companies will not touch forced induction. Mine didn't so ruled that out. Cost £4000 for me to change over to a 290bhp 5.0 engine AND i did most of the work myself. Would love to hear news about the blown 5.0!!!
Jon.
Jon.
RichardD said:
Would seem daft for a less powerful supercharged Chim to cost more than a Cerb!
Logically it should still be less than a 500 Chim since it will be more drivable (so safer) having a weaker bottom end power delivery (no supercharging effect), yet more power than a standard 500 as the bhp rises all the way to the redline
Logically it should still be less than a 500 Chim since it will be more drivable (so safer) having a weaker bottom end power delivery (no supercharging effect), yet more power than a standard 500 as the bhp rises all the way to the redline
I hope you're right, but my experience is that insurers consider cars that have been modified to increase their performance as a far higher risk than a comparable standard car. There's a sliding scale, and by the time you've got the sort of performance hike you need to justify the complexity of a supercharger conversion, alarm bells are going off. Modifications involving forced induction or NOx are particularly unwelcome in their own right with most insurers I've dealt with. It's only speculation, but imo the insurance issues are probably the reason that super-/turbocharger upgrades haven't been more common. The engineering solutions have been known for donkey's years.
Having said all that, if the OP has budgeted for the insurance to rise by a factor of three then I would have thought they would be able to find cover at that price if they ring around. There will only be a small proportion of insurers willing to entertain the idea though, and you have to be prepared for the possibility that none of them decide you're an acceptable risk.
My experience of insurance companies and mods has been similarly bad, and I didn't go as extreme as forced induction/NOx. Taking my 4.5 Chim to 300bhp resulted in my insurance company cancelling the policy because they refused to cover me any more, and some increasingly frantic calls to find anyone else prepared to take me on. Only found two companies that would cover me full stop, and one of those was £6k. Adrian Flux are your guys - they actually understand cars and the quote was (vaguely) sensible.
Yet I could go out tomorrow and buy a Tuscan or Cerb and I'd have no problem getting cover with near on 100bhp more. Am I the only person this makes no sense at all to?
Yet I could go out tomorrow and buy a Tuscan or Cerb and I'd have no problem getting cover with near on 100bhp more. Am I the only person this makes no sense at all to?
My experience of insurance companies and mods has been similarly bad, and I didn't go as extreme as forced induction/NOx. Taking my 4.5 Chim to 300bhp resulted in my insurance company cancelling the policy because they refused to cover me any more, and some increasingly frantic calls to find anyone else prepared to take me on. Only found two companies that would cover me full stop, and one of those was £6k. Adrian Flux are your guys - they actually understand cars and the quote was (vaguely) sensible.
Yet I could go out tomorrow and buy a Tuscan or Cerb and I'd have no problem getting cover with near on 100bhp more. Am I the only person this makes no sense at all to?
Yet I could go out tomorrow and buy a Tuscan or Cerb and I'd have no problem getting cover with near on 100bhp more. Am I the only person this makes no sense at all to?
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