What to replace a TVR Chimaera 500 with?
Discussion
Is yours a red 500 Dean?
If so, those Image split rim wheels were mine and fitted on my 4.6 back in the day.
Limited photos available due to this being about eight years ago prior to iCloud! Daughter been taken to the prom. Funny enough there was another guy with a cerb there Delivering three girls them dressed in their finest absolutely shoehorned into the car. He had to have the heater full on in the summer because it was overheating! Don’t you just love those TVRs!
If so, those Image split rim wheels were mine and fitted on my 4.6 back in the day.
Limited photos available due to this being about eight years ago prior to iCloud! Daughter been taken to the prom. Funny enough there was another guy with a cerb there Delivering three girls them dressed in their finest absolutely shoehorned into the car. He had to have the heater full on in the summer because it was overheating! Don’t you just love those TVRs!
Belle427 said:
I guess there is a point where they get a bit too powerful to enjoy properly.
I think this is very true and much of the reason I have little interest in many modern new super/hypercars. I found the 400 plenty fast enough for me and found you could rev it out more. I've not used much more than 50% throttle position in the current 500 and at most 75%.swisstoni said:
I’ve got a bog standard 2000 Chimaera 500.
For what it is, it’s a comfortable ride and nice and smooth in traffic. It’s perfectly possible to relax and drive it like any other car.
So I would perhaps remove any mods that have affected comfort and driveability.
Yes, I think maybe the mods are great for some and much lusted after but for me I think it is a step too far for me requirements.For what it is, it’s a comfortable ride and nice and smooth in traffic. It’s perfectly possible to relax and drive it like any other car.
So I would perhaps remove any mods that have affected comfort and driveability.
phazed said:
Is yours a red 500 Dean?
If so, those Image split rim wheels were mine and fitted on my 4.6 back in the day.
Limited photos available due to this being about eight years ago prior to iCloud! Daughter been taken to the prom. Funny enough there was another guy with a cerb there Delivering three girls them dressed in their finest absolutely shoehorned into the car. He had to have the heater full on in the summer because it was overheating! Don’t you just love those TVRs!
Yes, the red 500 is mine. Used to be Mark Hunter's when he consigned the resto to SD.If so, those Image split rim wheels were mine and fitted on my 4.6 back in the day.
Limited photos available due to this being about eight years ago prior to iCloud! Daughter been taken to the prom. Funny enough there was another guy with a cerb there Delivering three girls them dressed in their finest absolutely shoehorned into the car. He had to have the heater full on in the summer because it was overheating! Don’t you just love those TVRs!
Ah, OK interesting to know about those rims. I think they suited this car well and looked good. I guess Mark wanted to return it to a more stock look when he sold it.
Very funny.....those poor girls must have been roasting! A day everyone won't forget I'm sure. You look and should be a very proud man there
Belle427 said:
I guess there is a point where they get a bit too powerful to enjoy properly.
Exactly - this is why you see cars on which people have spent absolute fortunes to get at horsepower levels that the car has never been designed to take, for sale at a massive loss with barely any miles traveled since the conversion. More often than not, the story is that people see the massive power outputs of modern 'sports' cars and feel they need to compete to justify their (financial as well as emotional) investment in their car - forgetting the massive gulf in weight, footprint and technology to rein it in between those cars and a 1990s TVR. They also forget that the very same factors make those modern cars a bit of a non-event in comparison everywhere but on a large race track or air field.
I've said it before - there is a reason Chris Harris and Evo rave about restomod 911s that 'only' make 390 bhp at an average transaction price of $700,000 or 105-series Alfas with maybe 240 bhp for £300K with a waiting list existing for both. They simply grabbed the fact that for road cars, the numbers have become largely irrelevant.
Also even back in the early 90s, a 4.3 Griff or Chim was on a level with the 400+ bhp supercars of the day at least well into three digit speeds. (Lack of) weight, and simplicity tends to do that
rockits said:
Maserati 4.7 F136 engine and Tremec box
Belle427 said:
I guess there is a point where they get a bit too powerful to enjoy properly.
I’m not so sure, Top Cats had a T350 with an LS7 conversion for sale last year for 40k. Was very tempted and this looks fun:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mJJgkVS1uJk
Combination of about 600hp and light weight looks awesome and nice simple NA reliability too.
wormus said:
I’m not so sure, Top Cats had a T350 with an LS7 conversion for sale last year for 40k. Was very tempted and this looks fun:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mJJgkVS1uJk
Combination of about 600hp and light weight looks awesome and nice simple NA reliability too.
Now that looks a handful getting off the line !!https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mJJgkVS1uJk
Combination of about 600hp and light weight looks awesome and nice simple NA reliability too.
Just drove back from mid Wales to Surrey. I thought this is an opportunity to see if there were any cars out and about that I may fancy given the chance.
I know it is mid week but 100% of the cars were staid and boring. If you removed the badges you would hardly recognise any of them!
Okay, I saw a new 911 cab in a yawn, boring gunmetal and that was the most exiting car ina 6 hour drive.......
A sad state and reflection of what is out there. Also a reflection of what people settle for, most people haven’t any real interest in what they drive it seems.
I know it is mid week but 100% of the cars were staid and boring. If you removed the badges you would hardly recognise any of them!
Okay, I saw a new 911 cab in a yawn, boring gunmetal and that was the most exiting car ina 6 hour drive.......
A sad state and reflection of what is out there. Also a reflection of what people settle for, most people haven’t any real interest in what they drive it seems.
phazed said:
Just drove back from mid Wales to Surrey. I thought this is an opportunity to see if there were any cars out and about that I may fancy given the chance.
I know it is mid week but 100% of the cars were staid and boring. If you removed the badges you would hardly recognise any of them!
Okay, I saw a new 911 cab in a yawn, boring gunmetal and that was the most exiting car ina 6 hour drive.......
A sad state and reflection of what is out there. Also a reflection of what people settle for, most people haven’t any real interest in what they drive it seems.
I know exactly what you mean about the 911 cab., due to experiencing a 911 4s PDK cab. on a Porsche Experience Day - very weighty large car. Powerful but not awesome.I know it is mid week but 100% of the cars were staid and boring. If you removed the badges you would hardly recognise any of them!
Okay, I saw a new 911 cab in a yawn, boring gunmetal and that was the most exiting car ina 6 hour drive.......
A sad state and reflection of what is out there. Also a reflection of what people settle for, most people haven’t any real interest in what they drive it seems.
On the other hand the 718 GTS PDK Boxster was a fun drive. I could actually say that, I would not mind owning one - bar the price.
All the more reason to keep Tvr on the road. It’s true, the car business has been sanitised more and more, fatter heavier and just another production car in essence.
A chap in Jaguar latest sportscar accelerated up the road, I thought it sounded pretentious rather than mean, contrived almost, sort of false which is weird as they are full of hp but it’s all this modern strangulation the systems that does it. The Petrol engined car is dead, long live the rare modernish cars that still retain some semblance of what a true petrolhead car is and was all about. Exciting the ears heart and loins in equal measure and can be fixed with a few spanners.
TVR are a throw back to when chaps who wanted to own cars had to learn how to maintain them as part of the challenge/ thrill. We are talking not long after the war so what car can you buy that has a proper windscreen and seats and everything that goes back that far.
People talk about TVR Chassis development with the various models and no doubt improvements have been made but they all look similar going back 50 years. Working on a 1969 Vixen is largely the same as models produced throughout the nineties and in my case 2000. I think this is genius for those who have a basic mechanical understanding and Peter Wheeler was correct, we build em, sell em cheap and you finish them off which sounds like a recipe for disaster and I suppose was but I’d forsake a plastic dash for one with a few rough edges but has character, I’d Prefer a car that needs a bit of TLC constantly to one I barely even notice.
Life is not like that for most people and the TVR way was and is a very old fashioned concept which is why I like them so much.
My dad owned fancy cars because he studied how to own them, most people are lucky if they can find a start key or handbrake these days. Modern cars are pathetic, you can’t start them without scratching your head and picking your bum in the right order. T r are simple and all the better for it. When Covid has taken out every car service centre for 50 miles around you better have a car you can fix yourself, f
k me the irony! Lol
A chap in Jaguar latest sportscar accelerated up the road, I thought it sounded pretentious rather than mean, contrived almost, sort of false which is weird as they are full of hp but it’s all this modern strangulation the systems that does it. The Petrol engined car is dead, long live the rare modernish cars that still retain some semblance of what a true petrolhead car is and was all about. Exciting the ears heart and loins in equal measure and can be fixed with a few spanners.
TVR are a throw back to when chaps who wanted to own cars had to learn how to maintain them as part of the challenge/ thrill. We are talking not long after the war so what car can you buy that has a proper windscreen and seats and everything that goes back that far.
People talk about TVR Chassis development with the various models and no doubt improvements have been made but they all look similar going back 50 years. Working on a 1969 Vixen is largely the same as models produced throughout the nineties and in my case 2000. I think this is genius for those who have a basic mechanical understanding and Peter Wheeler was correct, we build em, sell em cheap and you finish them off which sounds like a recipe for disaster and I suppose was but I’d forsake a plastic dash for one with a few rough edges but has character, I’d Prefer a car that needs a bit of TLC constantly to one I barely even notice.
Life is not like that for most people and the TVR way was and is a very old fashioned concept which is why I like them so much.
My dad owned fancy cars because he studied how to own them, most people are lucky if they can find a start key or handbrake these days. Modern cars are pathetic, you can’t start them without scratching your head and picking your bum in the right order. T r are simple and all the better for it. When Covid has taken out every car service centre for 50 miles around you better have a car you can fix yourself, f
k me the irony! Lol citizen smith said:
phazed said:
Just drove back from mid Wales to Surrey. I thought this is an opportunity to see if there were any cars out and about that I may fancy given the chance.
I know it is mid week but 100% of the cars were staid and boring. If you removed the badges you would hardly recognise any of them!
Okay, I saw a new 911 cab in a yawn, boring gunmetal and that was the most exiting car ina 6 hour drive.......
A sad state and reflection of what is out there. Also a reflection of what people settle for, most people haven’t any real interest in what they drive it seems.
I know exactly what you mean about the 911 cab., due to experiencing a 911 4s PDK cab. on a Porsche Experience Day - very weighty large car. Powerful but not awesome.I know it is mid week but 100% of the cars were staid and boring. If you removed the badges you would hardly recognise any of them!
Okay, I saw a new 911 cab in a yawn, boring gunmetal and that was the most exiting car ina 6 hour drive.......
A sad state and reflection of what is out there. Also a reflection of what people settle for, most people haven’t any real interest in what they drive it seems.
On the other hand the 718 GTS PDK Boxster was a fun drive. I could actually say that, I would not mind owning one - bar the price.
Nuff of that.
I can remember taken ages getting used to my 987 Boxster 3.2S. just sold and came out of a 2007 TT V6 Quattro S-tronic that just wanted to understeer. Got into the Boxster and nearly kept hitting inside kerbs on corners as the turn in was so sharp and so immediate! Took me ages to get used to it as drove like nothing else I had driven before. Enlightened.
As this thread shows there isn’t a lot that’s actually any better than a Chim other than Porsche for a similar driving experience. Anything with an engine behind you is usually a very exciting car to drive as it’s a big go cart and we know how well they take corners.
If you have done the Porsche thing in the past and still like the idea of Tvr maybe contact Paul at Amore cars, send him pics, he might have a similar car but less brutal that might be more to your liking. A straight swap of money coming one way or another, but it would possibly give you chance to ride one more akin to your old 400 and decide if you really want to move away from such unique cars. Amore have some very nice cars and would give you the chance to drive a few other models maybe. I’m sure they would value your car highly as it might not be your cup of tea but many would like such a beast ready made like that.
If you have done the Porsche thing in the past and still like the idea of Tvr maybe contact Paul at Amore cars, send him pics, he might have a similar car but less brutal that might be more to your liking. A straight swap of money coming one way or another, but it would possibly give you chance to ride one more akin to your old 400 and decide if you really want to move away from such unique cars. Amore have some very nice cars and would give you the chance to drive a few other models maybe. I’m sure they would value your car highly as it might not be your cup of tea but many would like such a beast ready made like that.
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