Other V8 in the Griff
Other V8 in the Griff
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Discussion

Waveboy14

Original Poster:

276 posts

273 months

Thursday 6th May 2004
quotequote all
Just wondering if anyone on here swapped the RV8 for another unit, because I got an last night:

Why not put the M5's V8 in the Griff? (Only with the purpose of extra horsepower.)

The guys who did not swap there lovely engine; did you thought the same thing at some point and did you figure out if it is possible?

Some food for thought, I think ...

Trefor

14,780 posts

312 months

Thursday 6th May 2004
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One advantage of the Rover V8 is it's light weight. I suspect a BMW v8 would weigh a lot more. Compact size is another benefit.

Something like a BMW straight six would be a better bet, with 330odd real horsepower. It's not the same as a V8 though

Pvapour

8,981 posts

282 months

Thursday 6th May 2004
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Trefor said:
One advantage of the Rover V8 is it's light weight. I suspect a BMW v8 would weigh a lot more. Compact size is another benefit.

Something like a BMW straight six would be a better bet, with 330odd real horsepower. It's not the same as a V8 though


Actually, I was looking at this the other day whilst cleaning the engine bays of both, I even got the tape measure and started measuring, the M5 engine appears to fit width wise in the Chimaera bay, so I would have thought length should'nt be a problem, weight I am not sure about but I beleive it is an all alloy lump so should'nt be any heavier than the RV8.

The nightmare would be the electrics I think

Boosted LS1

21,200 posts

289 months

Thursday 6th May 2004
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For once I'm not going to say anything!

tvrinbfg

1,460 posts

313 months

Thursday 6th May 2004
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TVR put the AJPV8 4.2 in two different Griffiths circa 1995-96. They found that the car had too much power and the short wheelbase couldn't handle the power.

Nano2nd

3,426 posts

285 months

Thursday 6th May 2004
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Boosted LS1 said:

For once I'm not going to say anything!


i am LS1!!!!

Waveboy14

Original Poster:

276 posts

273 months

Thursday 6th May 2004
quotequote all
tvrinbfg said:
TVR put the AJPV8 4.2 in two different Griffiths circa 1995-96. They found that the car had too much power and the short wheelbase couldn't handle the power.


Is that a rumour or a fact that it can handle the power (+/- 350 real horses?)? Because the reason for not building the Speed Twelve was alledgedly that one couldn't handle it on the road.

Mark my words, but it wouldn't surprise me if the ancestor to be of the new Typhon will have come close to a Speed Twelve for the road!

Waveboy14

Original Poster:

276 posts

273 months

Thursday 6th May 2004
quotequote all
pvapour said:
Actually, I was looking at this the other day whilst cleaning the engine bays of both, I even got the tape measure and started measuring, the M5 engine appears to fit width wise in the Chimaera bay, so I would have thought length should'nt be a problem, weight I am not sure about but I beleive it is an all alloy lump so should'nt be any heavier than the RV8.

The nightmare would be the electrics I think

Thanks for the reply! Now I'm pretty sure someone is going to try this. Not?

Let us know!

GreenV8S

31,014 posts

313 months

Thursday 6th May 2004
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It may be that more power would make it too hard for the uneducated masses to drive, but there are cars out there putting out substantially more than standard without any major handling vices. I worked out the power-to-weight of my (slightly modified) V8S and it wasn't that far off a typical standard Cerbera. The story that TVR introduced the 'new' model because the 'old' one wouldn't handle the extra power seems to crop up again and again, personally I don't think it is as simple as that.

Pvapour

8,981 posts

282 months

Thursday 6th May 2004
quotequote all
Waveboy14 said:

pvapour said:
Actually, I was looking at this the other day whilst cleaning the engine bays of both, I even got the tape measure and started measuring, the M5 engine appears to fit width wise in the Chimaera bay, so I would have thought length should'nt be a problem, weight I am not sure about but I beleive it is an all alloy lump so should'nt be any heavier than the RV8.

The nightmare would be the electrics I think


Thanks for the reply! Now I'm pretty sure someone is going to try this. Not?

Let us know!


think i'll stick with the two

shpub

8,507 posts

301 months

Friday 7th May 2004
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GreenV8S said:
It may be that more power would make it too hard for the uneducated masses to drive, but there are cars out there putting out substantially more than standard without any major handling vices. I worked out the power-to-weight of my (slightly modified) V8S and it wasn't that far off a typical standard Cerbera. The story that TVR introduced the 'new' model because the 'old' one wouldn't handle the extra power seems to crop up again and again, personally I don't think it is as simple as that.


Yes Pete

1. How many transmissions have you been through?
2. How many trailing arms have you broken?
3. Your suspension is not exactly standard?
4. You are not exactly an everyday driver in terms of experience and skill (complement)!

Drive a Cerbera and you get to a level of performance without making many of the sacrifices and mods that you have made and as a result it tends to be more forgiving and even flatter an average driver. That's the difference.

snorky

2,322 posts

280 months

Friday 7th May 2004
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I know where there is a Cerbera being fitted with an M3 engine and g/box ( 6 speed )......anyone else spotted that one....

greenv8s

31,014 posts

313 months

Friday 7th May 2004
quotequote all
Yes Steve but the only reason I had to do these things was because I took an existing car and increased the power output substantially. There have been lots of knock-on effects, and my approach has been to tackle these problems as they crop up. My comments were about the suggestion that the older cars are inherently insuitable for such significant power increases. I don't agree, and I think the older cars could have been developed a lot further than they have, if TVR had wanted to. There's no engineering reason not to put (say) a 500 BHP engine in a Griffith, granted you will need to have transmission and brakes to cope with the extra torque and power and you will need to use a different suspension setup and so on, but there's nothing wrong with the fundamental design or construction that would prevent you from doing it.

I'm not saying its a *sensible* thing to do. Clearly anyone after such a big performance increase would generally be better off buying a later/more powerful model which will be cheaper and more reliable than a heavily modified early model. All I'm saying is that the suggestion that the older chassis fundamentally can't take the power of the later models is wrong.

shpub

8,507 posts

301 months

Friday 7th May 2004
quotequote all
I think we are in violent agreement in that upgrade the power significantly and everything else needs to be looked at. The key point is that the original chassis is not capable of taking this increase without those mods and maintain a level of safety and driveability. Yes TVR could have done them but there was no incentive as usually the sales of the older cars were zero compared to the new ones which meant the upgrades and mods could be incorporated into the new cars. The Griff design is similar to that of the Cerbera but there are a lot of changes and differences which make the improvement.

I think the TVR solution was to engineer the car to take the increased power but they went the take the basic concept and adapt the design as opposed to constant evolution. To be honest, I think this was the right approach because they have to build cars for Mr Average (who ever that is).

As for the mods... seen similar issues on the 520 but now got to the point where I am effectively starting again with custom designs. Currently doing some suspension modelling to evalate camber/bump/roll curves before metal bashing. The end design actually looks similar to that of a Griff so I suspect I am treading a well worn path...




>> Edited by shpub on Friday 7th May 14:21

simpo two

92,694 posts

294 months

Friday 7th May 2004
quotequote all
Try this: IIRC it's almost the same size too.

www.chevroletls1.com/chevrolet_ls1_6_info.html

Waveboy14

Original Poster:

276 posts

273 months

Sunday 9th May 2004
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Thanks for the replies.