Rover powered Cerb

Rover powered Cerb

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Discussion

Edt

Original Poster:

5,104 posts

285 months

gazzab

21,112 posts

283 months

Tuesday 10th May 2005
quotequote all
been for sale for a long long time .........

redleicester

6,869 posts

246 months

Wednesday 11th May 2005
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..... a very long time....

lovely engine, lovely car, but the wrong combination!

angusfaldo

2,791 posts

275 months

Wednesday 11th May 2005
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Gosh how sad that engine bay looks with a RV8 in it!

phill reygate

43 posts

283 months

Wednesday 11th May 2005
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The car hasn't sold because its not for sale but has generated lots of interest. Its my own car and what we are selling is the conversion.
Now I know that RV8 into Cerbera is not to everyones taste, but I love it. Its fast enough, sounds great and is used daily to take three kids to school. I have to add its also very reliable and easy to maintain.

markh

2,781 posts

276 months

Wednesday 11th May 2005
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phill reygate said:
The car hasn't sold because its not for sale but has generated lots of interest. Its my own car and what we are selling is the conversion.
Now I know that RV8 into Cerbera is not to everyones taste, but I love it. Its fast enough, sounds great and is used daily to take three kids to school. I have to add its also very reliable and easy to maintain.



Out of interst what sort of cost are you looking at?

phill reygate

43 posts

283 months

Thursday 12th May 2005
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the coversion cost is about 5K. That includes bespoke wiring loom and ECU, new exhausts, chassis work and engine fitting as well as loads of other items used in the conversion. On top of this you need the engine. Mine is a 4.6 that was built for about 5K including ancillaries.

Stu247

811 posts

247 months

Thursday 12th May 2005
quotequote all
phill reygate said:

Now I know that RV8 into Cerbera is not to everyones taste, but I love it. Its fast enough, sounds great and is used daily to take three kids to school.



I've always thought a Cerb with an RV8 was a great idea !!

I'd have one tomorrow...if I could afford one

shadowninja

76,470 posts

283 months

Thursday 12th May 2005
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Stu247 said:

phill reygate said:

Now I know that RV8 into Cerbera is not to everyones taste, but I love it. Its fast enough, sounds great and is used daily to take three kids to school.




I've always thought a Cerb with an RV8 was a great idea !!

I'd have one tomorrow...if I could afford one


I quite like the idea too. £10k is a lot to spend on no improvements (apart from reliability?). Might as well use the £10k as a slush fund and stick with the AJP, surely?

phill reygate

43 posts

283 months

Thursday 12th May 2005
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I bought the car with a snapped crankshaft and as such didn't pay very much for it. The engine was scrap and I could build a good RV8 for less than the cost of any second hand AJP that I could find at the time.
Another thing to remember is that if a good AJP is removed it can be sold to cover some, if not all, of the conversion cost.
Its a personal thing, but I love the Cerbera for its looks and 4 seats? and I love the RV8 engine. It was never meant to be better or faster than the original and it isn't. Its just different.

shadowninja

76,470 posts

283 months

Thursday 12th May 2005
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That's cool. Your circumstances were quite handy then. I like the Cerbera too but am put off by stories of the engine.

simonsparrow

1,486 posts

263 months

Friday 13th May 2005
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Good thread and thanks for posting the conversion costs up. I thought £5k was pretty steep for a Rover V8, but then I looked around on the net....

I'm glad there are people looking at various options for the Cerbera, such as the LS Chev V8s, Rover V8s and BMW M3 engines, but I think the AJP would have to be pretty far gone for me to consider a transplant.

The cost of aquiring another engine, and then adapting it would be more than the 'normal' rebuild cost of an AJP (which TVR Power quoted as around £2k+vat - not including removal and refitting). If the AJP lasts for 100k+ miles (which mine has, and shpub's almost did) then it doesn't seem too bad to me.

I also don't see why another high performance engine would be much cheaper to service, the only main difference I can see between a RV8 TVR and the AJP is the valve adjustment every 12k miles. Pretty much all other aspects of servicing such as good quality oil, setup, chassis checks etc, remain the same don't they?

I've done one RV8 swap on my other car, and there were a lot of hidden costs and a lot of time spent getting the thing running well. It was good fun, but I imagine you'd need to do more than 100k mils to justify the swap on economic grounds alone.

Like I said, I'm glad there are options, as I may need them myself one day, but they all are for heavier engines and in some cases (M3, RV8) make less power than the AJP.

gazzab

21,112 posts

283 months

Friday 13th May 2005
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Simon
Are you another APM using , Le Mans headed, cerb owner!?
I guess you must be considering your options as your miles take you past the moon and towards deep space.
I am with you though - the engine is part of the cerbera thing. I cant see myself moving to a different lump if serious surgery is reqd (again).
A rebuild can cost between 3 and 10K I would guess. My rebuild (virtually the whole engine bar the crank, sump and block was replaced) was over £5K a couple of yrs ago.

simonsparrow

1,486 posts

263 months

Saturday 14th May 2005
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gazzab said:
Simon
Are you another APM using , Le Mans headed, cerb owner!?


Yes I am, going via the Eurotunnel on thursday, coming back on monday. When are you going?

S-X-S

719 posts

231 months

Saturday 14th May 2005
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I am very interested in a cerbera with a rover engine in it already, I would buy one for a runabout yesterday if someones selling for a realistic price?!!?

I agree that throwing the AJP away for another bag of nuts'n'bolts is taking the piss and kicking british engineering in the kahunas.... I recommend you get a preventative rebuild using non-tvr parts!!! and at the same time, up the bhp stakes, go up to 5500cc, increase the CR, replace the throttlebodies and injectors with something more elaborate and functional and stick a single ram duct box on top fed from the front. Throw the MBE away and replace with an aftermarket option, for lazy twigs go for an emerald, or for the enthusiasts go exotic.... 5k can bring miracles if you find the right team to do the job. Of course for serious enthusiasts go forced induction.... I hear Craig has got something very special lined up in the near future....

bruciebabie

895 posts

237 months

Saturday 14th May 2005
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The perfect engine for the Cerb is the supercharged Jag V8. A real 400 bhp, mountains of torque and designed to run for hundreds of thousands of miles on minimum maintainance. It is light and made in Britain. I reckon they wouldn't cost that much from a breaker.

gazzab

21,112 posts

283 months

Saturday 14th May 2005
quotequote all
simonsparrow said:

gazzab said:
Simon
Are you another APM using , Le Mans headed, cerb owner!?



Yes I am, going via the Eurotunnel on thursday, coming back on monday. When are you going?


8.42 am on Thurs - some of the 'convoy' are on the 9.06. Then blast down to Le Mans. Back on a lateish one on the Sun night.

S-X-S

719 posts

231 months

Saturday 14th May 2005
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bruciebabie said:
The perfect engine for the Cerb is the supercharged Jag V8. A real 400 bhp, mountains of torque and designed to run for hundreds of thousands of miles on minimum maintainance. It is light and made in Britain. I reckon they wouldn't cost that much from a breaker.


Severe chassis modifications to get that thing in!!! plus theyre' deeper, which would mean lifting the engine higher, but then the transmission tunnel wont be level to mate the crank-flywheel-clutch-box etc...

Nice idea though.... But the hidden costs of throwing in another engine are greater than some think, and economics go out of the window... I agree that it is far cheaper to get the AJP built like a rock... its just that one-offs are not cheap when you have to pay for design-time/tooling etc... (trust me, I know!!!)... but in the near future, hopefully what we've learnt through my project, a few solid mechanical upgrades at bargain prices could very well be on offer to the masses..., probably increase the value of your cerbie if the ad says 'upgraded to Ash spec'.... lol

BCA

8,626 posts

258 months

Saturday 14th May 2005
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The perfect engine for a Cerbera is, in my opinion, the AJP8. Im sorry, but if properly mapped and with induction mods, they have been *proven* to make very very nice power. Equally, they have a reasonable reliability record, certainly when considered that it is effectively a de-tuned race engine.

I just cant imagine a Cerbera with a different power curve/ banshee sound track. The AJP8 makes the car.

If I was really concerned about reliability and had the cash (but loved the cerbera shape) I would buy a speed six Cerb. No, really - there are some bargains out there atm just BEGGING for huge power from a big reliable LSx + some sort of forced induction.

To replace the Cerberas engine with anything worth while, IMHO atleast - it would need BIG power (minimum 500bhp) The AJP8 has character, and its significantly lighter than most of the suggested transplants. To compensate, I would expect a power upgrade!!

ALL IMHO - just feel that it makes the car.

Boosted LS1

21,190 posts

261 months

Saturday 14th May 2005
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The best engine for a cerb is the original one but if it's dead then the ideal donar has to be the lsx 1-7. Any of them will do nicely and you can dictate the horsepower according to the depth of your pockets.

Boosted.