What’s so bad about using it as a daily!

What’s so bad about using it as a daily!

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Discussion

TV8

3,122 posts

175 months

Thursday 23rd November 2017
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If you have something you love, why wouldnt you use it every day?

Good for you Alun.

ps, Boxsters are fairly good...I use one as my daily driver and love it but not sure how I am going to get the Christmas tree home this year!


Classic Chim

Original Poster:

12,424 posts

149 months

Thursday 23rd November 2017
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Thanks for helping my sanity Graham.
I test drove I think it was 3 boxsters before realising Tvr were still out there around 2007 and I thought they were sedate compared to the Chim when driving it for the first time.

What’s really happening here is what Dave touched on, Ive got this car that’s slowly getting better and better and I can’t quite believe it.
These new pedals as I’ll call them are another icing on the cake of this great car.
I have a list of improvements that all come with the same comments
Stuff like transformed and night and day or like a new car,, and all true.
For at least 3-4 years the improvements didn’t seem so big in themselves and only really since getting a tyre shock absorber combination working has the rest shone through.

I wouldn’t have replaced the diff for love nor money but had too, best thing that’s happened from the car and my point of view as it’s beautiful to drive fast or slow. No amount of mapping will remove already sloppy road train so the diff has made the Mbe ign seem better still.
I can drive all day and the gear lever doesn’t get hot anymore. Gearbox is having a happier time. Slick and I can tell the oils not as hot just by its operation.
The clutch gets much less foot attention as I can run at tickover and just pull away in 1st to 3rd gear on just throttle alone and the diff is vital in that claim.

So I’m just living this dream and as often as I can.
Brembo brakes are just awesome to have. It’s like something man got right and that’s it. Like my brain is connected to the discs, honestly they are a massive safety improvement and I adore how the car reacts and feels when using them. You’d think because the car is so light and the front wheels far from the engine centre of gravity they would still be inferior but even in the wet stop really well.
I have this interesting ( or to my mind) game I play with the brakes, lights change to red 200 yards ahead, i naughtily drop into neutral and coast to a stop but start applying the brakes early and lightly in one controlled pressure movement, I stop within ft of the white line and never changed the pressure once or so I think. It’s so sublime and modern it’s like I’ve thought the car to a stop, proper gets me chuckling at the excellence going on. Added as I’m on it tonight biggrin imagine driving the queen and never should she feel movement hehe
I’d say my car used to feel clumsy if that makes sense, now a precision instrument comes to mind.
But not the steering,, that’s my next goal.

I hope you get another Tvr M4tt










Edited by Classic Chim on Thursday 23 November 23:35


Edited by Classic Chim on Thursday 23 November 23:36

m4tti

5,427 posts

155 months

Thursday 23rd November 2017
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I think if I do a self assembly car again I'll do an ultima evolution.. beyond that the current car kind of does it all biggrin

Classic Chim

Original Poster:

12,424 posts

149 months

Thursday 23rd November 2017
quotequote all
m4tti said:
I think if I do a self assembly car again I'll do an ultima evolution.. beyond that the current car kind of does it all biggrin
Sorry, it’s late, what is it again.
The newer ones are st hot there’s no question. I love all cars for creepsake : thumbup:
Ultima I adore SteveG’s yellow one. Fantastic cars.

Classic Chim

Original Poster:

12,424 posts

149 months

Friday 24th November 2017
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Also,,, one of our great esteemed Tvr Chimaera friends owner and consummate driver is thinking of going over to the even darker side of Porsche.
Clearly I can’t afford such luxury as in Porsche as they can be very expensive to repair and if I wanted smooth I’d have a series 2/3 Jag with open roof smile
I just hope he keeps his Chim for awhile too
I think for us Chim owners with our simple light but ultimately powerful engines in such a light car it’s relatively easy to learn and look after them without such huge expense The other Tvr cars can throw up. They are almost reliable so your nearly there to start with.
And Peters 5.5 will hold on to most cars to 150 allday I’m sure of it. Power to weight

Everyone always said Tvr will be slower in the corners, errrr do what,
Ok yes this is totally true on bad surfaces with the wrong set up.
On nice smooth ( short circuits) that’s important they can be chucked about and set up one way then flicked the other, magic engine braking and left ft braking, good geo and brakes, different car from the norm. I got beat by a bloke in a 5 series Beemer at Bedford one time before I got the brakes and better all year tyres, he was flying though and cared little but still he slowly out braked and accelerated away from me and around a proper track like the ring, miles would come into it! But short circuit where the speed or bumps are well known you can dance a Tvr and carry st loads of speed, I love em and usually it’s one of the faster cars out there.
It’s the mods though moving it up the scale smile

I have to correct this before you think I’m a fool,
RMA track day,,,, proper super cars in abundance and race drivers a plenty, stone cold last and getting out the way comes to mind but I’d still be nipping at them into hairpins biggrin

Horses for courses
A super car owner mentioned he’d destroyed over 2k of tyre’s that day, on one of three supercars he ragged so the total cost in tyres was,,,, all for charity my boy wink
It was for a good cause though smile
Mike Jordon was driving a Merc LM car for the owner too, just bedding it in, fk me bedding it in, fast and a great bloke. Not that I’m his mate but you know.
I know some very talented drivers and that keeps me levelled!
I’m old and slow in comparison end. But I was once faster than all of em hahahahahahah

Pistonheads great place to sprout off and talk gibberish.


Edited by Classic Chim on Friday 24th November 00:27

ChimpOnGas

9,637 posts

179 months

Friday 24th November 2017
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I think the thing we've lost sight of here boys is a Chimaera is not, never was and never will be a competitor to a modern sports car, even it's contemporary1990's 911 (whatever the stupid sub number is).

What a Chimaera is of course is a back to basics analogue 1960's sports car improved to be a salable proposition in the 1990's, as soon as you start evaluating the Chimaera on this basis it becomes clear a well sorted one makes an excellent and ridiculously cheap alternative to an Eagle E-Type or Frontline MGB.

Here's us reprobates having a right old jolly in Wales Land last weekend, it was wet, but it was great and the TVR lead the way... all the way driving











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Classic Chim

Original Poster:

12,424 posts

149 months

Friday 24th November 2017
quotequote all
That’s a hike, half way to the south of France wink
That Healy is rather nice.
Great craic by the looks of it.
There’s nothing like a good road trip.

I think my point is simple
I can now drive my Tvr with much more control and feel so a lot faster if I wanted too.
Am I a better driver than 5 years ago, unlikely although I’m more thoughtful by the day smile
This different level is not my driving but my confidence in what the car can handle.
I’ve done a lot of tests over 30,000 miles road use and plenty before the mods so have a pretty good idea of the difference and it’s stark.
We all go by the seat of your pants feelings and I used to feel rather unsettled by a rather unsettled car and so getting the brakes and wheels staying in contact with the road has worked wonders for what was a fast but dangerous car.
It’s never going to be a 21st Porsche and racing one would likely end bad but when these little RV8 bases cars are singing and have what amounts to the same level of ability as in decent brakes and throttle response as modern tech they ain’t so far behind, which has to be said is increadable for such an aged design.
The big difference is I can work on most of my car with basic tools. Owning a Porsche will not be quite the same experience so a big part of my enjoyment would be taken out of my control.
Ok it will never beat a Porsche but it doesn’t have to.

Looking back at the older Porsche’s I drove, my Tvr I’d drive much faster than those, it’s faster and I’ve got it working in unison more but those Porsche were bottom of the range but still not better than hand built cars from Blackpool given the benefit of a few modern parts many of which I could fit myself.

Tvr is the only semi modern sportscar that does allow this level of owner participation unless your a pucker motor technician. That’s been the best discovery I’ve had, it’s a car that can be owned and maintained by the owner especially if you pays your money and get the proper bits sorted by the best people first.
The rest is fairly easy to work with and becomes a great hobby and as we all knows Tvr are great cars that given what they need become wonderful cars to own and drive.

For the first time ever I managed 40 mins driving with music last week, usually makes me feel sick biggrin but on a dual carriageway I had the tunes blasting out and could hardly hear the engine,,, then joy of joy, dropped a cog for a roundabout and engine revs sort of matched the note and was in tune with the band,,,, hilarious cars to own and so earthy it’s awesome.



ChimpOnGas

9,637 posts

179 months

Friday 24th November 2017
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It wasn't a real one Alun, it was a Homes Motor Company (HMC) Healey Replica with a 3.9 litre Rover V8 in it.

My mate rented it from here....

http://www.greatescapecars.co.uk/cars-hmcaustinhea...

The handling was... errrrr... how can it put this diplomatically scratchchin well lets just call it interesting, great if you like that floaty boaty disconnected rear end sensation but other than that I would advise passing on the HMC wink

My mate who rented it has been a top player in the upper echelons of the Caterham Challenge for years, and his passenger pedals Radicals on a semi professional basis, as you can imagine these are two very talented drivers indeed.

They were on my tail most of the weekend in the HMC, but when I gave Tom a go in 'Ol Gasbag' he was very complementary, I guess he has spent most of the weekend in floaty boaty but he never once asked to try the 911 and raved about his first TVR experience.

All in all a great mini road trip weekend, on roads the TVR was made for biggrin


Classic Chim

Original Poster:

12,424 posts

149 months

Friday 24th November 2017
quotequote all
I’ll read that and get back to you.
Caterham, every driver is usually pro level at that end of the grid, win in anything given the time and chance.
Once open a time it was only a few guys like me who went to the library and found old books written by the likes of Jackie Stewart Bob Bondurant and many others. Race drivers were gods of this deathly art and back then few really knew how they did it.
One of my favourite videos and influenced me hugely was what looked like a wild wild man in
Gerry Marshall driving Baby Bertha or one of those Vauxhall Toring cars as he muscled it around race tracks in the 70’s. What a boy he was.
I met him once and felt honoured to hang around the same pits as him. He was in a wheel chair by then but just such a thrill to be near him.
I thought he had no fear and over drove the hell out of anything yet it was sublime talent taking cars through corners at speeds only most of us could dream of especially back then before simulators and motorsports like Karting and F1 have taught us.
Radicals, you better be weight training to even think you can drive them to the edge, you don’t get much more serious than that.
I bottled driving one once, not fit enough and I knew it.
Thought if I can’t floor it I’ll likely crash it and it was brand new so I honestly bottled it rather than be 4 seconds or more off the pace. Slicks so unless you can drive it hard forget it.
You were in esteemed company and your Tvr received some great comments which tells its own story.
Respect thumbup




Edited by Classic Chim on Friday 24th November 15:08


Edited by Classic Chim on Friday 24th November 15:09