Do I need my head read ?

[jagpaul99]

After a few years of normal car ownership, 7 Series bmw, Jag S-type sport etc, I made the fatal move of going into my local TVR dealership last week. And what confronted me was a Bright Yellow 5ltr 2000 Chimaera with very few miles on it

Now considering getting back into TVR's again.

My last one was a 4ltr 94 Chim, great car but it went wrong constantly. Sure it was cursed to be honest. I mean I only had it 5 weeks when a bloody tree fell on it at work, and that was just the beginning !

But as I am sure every one here knows, when you go through tunnels etc with the windows down , the noise, performance, the looks everything is amazing !!! And at the time I was 21, talk about feeling like the dogs you know whats

But are the newer Chims any better or worse than the older ones ?? I have heard the 5ltr V8's an be fragile ??? But are they any better made than my old 94 chim for arguments sake ? Is there anything to look out for these days with them, as I have lost touch a little over the last few years with them.

One other thing is I dont have a garage, we live on a farm in the middle of nowhere and was thinking of a cover ?? Is this realistic ?

Any insights or ideas very welcome.

[tvrchim]

I have never had a problem with my 5ltr, and its thrashed to within an inch of its life everytime i take it out.

GO FOR IT.

[Andychim400]

Looking at your profile I'd guess your local dealer is HHC.

That's a cracking car, in pristine condition. Previously owned by an active member of the NETVRCC who's just chopped it in for a rather nice Tuscan II Vert.

Don't think the 5 litres are known to be fragile although you do hear of the odd bend crank, but they're few and far between.

Mine's a 4 litre and have run it for 2 years or so without any major head-aches. Only let me down once and that was just a battery failure.

I do keep it in a garage, although many keep them outside without problems...just make sure the hood is waterproofed regulary and invest in a good quality cover...sure someone will be a long in a tick who will know the merits of the various covers.

Just do it.

Cheers
Andy

[victormeldrew]

jagpaul99 said:

... I have heard the 5ltr V8's can be fragile ??? ...

My 5ltr had a bit of a problem when it ingested some rather large fragments of debris - the air filter had become disconnected and the engine was doing a Dyson imitation. Thanks to some sloppy work when my headlight conversion was done (they didn't clean up afterwards) lots of sizeable fibreglass bits were sucked up - I found a couple too large to fit down the intake trumpets sloshing about the plenum, which had jammed the throttle wide open twice (once at 140mph). It's impossible to know what happened first, but the catalogue of problems included a fractured piston skirt, chunks of piston in the sump, bent valves, leaking head gasket, dropped liners, one lobe wiped off the cam. Sounds fragile?

Consider that the car was running in that condition for months. The damage only came to light when a sheared engine mount allowed the top pulley to chew through the swirl pot and I lost all coolant. That may or may not have led to the head gasket leak, but it was only at that point that I noticed that one of the headers was glowing red (the bent exhaust valve wasn't seating) and started stripping down to check the damage. My best guess is that the worst damage was done in the first throttle jam incident, which was a year earlier.

So this fragile engine had been running with no discernable difference for a year with fairly severe internal damage. Hardly fragile; more like unstoppable.

[spend]

T5 could have a more sinister inference then Phil? Sounds like Arnie will be bidding for the film rights on your book.

Dave