Works 420 SEAC Race Car in the classifieds...???

[chris willy]

Found this today:

"Tvr 420 seac with a composite body. It is one of the three stainless steel chassied racecars that were built by the factory. Rear suspension links and arms are all in stainless steel and there is a lift off nose cone..."

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3590932.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z_-0fEPobM

Please can somebody enlight me...???

Cheers
cw

[pwd95]

Much talk about this one about 2 -3 years ago. General consensus was that it looks like a 390SE body with a SEAC nose. No actual idea of it's heritage as I've never seen it in the flesh. Be very interesting to find out.

[The Hatter]

Very interesting, I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures. Is the whereabouts of the 390SE racer known? Could this be it?

[combine]

If its been competing in hill climbing how come nobody spotted it before ?

[Mr Tank]

Martin

Look at the clip on youtube remind you of some thing!
I rang and spoke to the owner a couple of days ago, It appears he acquired it in bits and has rebuilt it! The interesting thing is the amount of stainless parts he has in the rear suspension nearly 85% +

No certain about the price?

Andy

[cuneus]

Chris Schirle was adamant that there was only ever 1 racer

[Mr Tank]

cuneus said:

Chris Schirle was adamant that there was only ever 1 racer

Hi

When I spoke to David who owns this car (In Aberdeen) he claims he has spoken to Chris Schirle and he confirmed that there were 3 stainless SEAC's but the genuine one and only Factor Racer was not a stainless chassis! David believies the three cars were built to be hill climb cars. His did have the oil tank in the boot, but he has moved it to beside the driver in the passagers foot well.
We now know were 2 of the cars are, Martins (The Hatter) and Davids in Scotland, so where is the third, if it still around? I also have heard rumors that Peter Wheeler had one for a while!

Has anybody got anymore info or dispute this.

Also what do people think of the price?

Andy

Edited by Mr Tank on Sunday 29th January 13:38

[Wedg1e]

Mr Tank said:

Also what do people think of the price?

Depends on why the buyer wants it... as a fettled racecar, as a piece of TVR/race history, to own a 420 SEAC or just to own a stainless chassis. If the latter, I'd bet that a decent fabricator could copy an existing chassis. If the first, you'd have to particularly want a TVR wedge racecar because I'm sure there are plenty of other competitive racecars on the market for less money - and maybe you could build en equally competitive car based on an existing Tasmin for less money, if you had the time and inclination. To just own a SEAC - any SEAC - could probably be attained for a lot less, you just have to grab one when it comes up, which isn't very often.
Which leaves the history option and maybe for that it's a good price, maybe not.

[cuneus]

Interesting

The Racer most definitely does have a stainless chassis (and that is not third hand!). Also Chris Schirle did say that the racer had one. PW was most insistent on that and Kevlar

What is the chassis/engine/reg number of the car advertised?
Price is ridiculous fantasy

[The Hatter]

D177ALL is stainless too.

The chassis on mine is different in many ways to my 350i; and doesn't look like a 400SE either. It has round outriggers and the front suspension is set up for coil over spring/damper units instead of the cortina set up; and there's a front suspension cross brace.

I suspect it would be unwise to assume all the stainless chassis are the same?

[combine]

Pricewise the nearest this Tvr relates to is an original Griffith which now seem to be the most expensive Tvr , of course those griffs aren't now really original either as they've been rebuilt/altered from original spec. Its 'a can of worms' I'm afraid , if there are some that what one then ...

[barrington]

the yellow factory 420 racer has a stainless chassis i was at jeffs a couple of years ago he had the seals of the car removing cat litter from an off at one of the tracks (420 factory race car has removeble seals) and you could see it

[combine]

chris willy said:

Found this today:

"Tvr 420 seac with a composite body. It is one of the three stainless steel chassied racecars that were built by the factory. Rear suspension links and arms are all in stainless steel and there is a lift off nose cone..."

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3590932.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z_-0fEPobM

Please can somebody enlight me...???

Cheers
cw

Chris , thats a hell of a nice pic on your profile , how did you manage to park next to that icon ?

[Mr Tank]

cuneus said:

Interesting

The Racer most definitely does have a stainless chassis (and that is not third hand!). Also Chris Schirle did say that the racer had one. PW was most insistent on that and Kevlar

What is the chassis/engine/reg number of the car advertised?
Price is ridiculous fantasy

Dave

I have just gone back over the notes I took, when speaking to the owner, silly me yes the yellow racer did have a stainless chassis! (Put it down to lack of sleep in Hospital)

So that's it the 3 Stainless Chassis cars are now known! (At last)

Andy

Edited by Mr Tank on Sunday 29th January 18:32

[The Hatter]

Hang on...

That makes four stainless cars.

D177ALL
D488PHG
SEAC racer
The Fintray hillclimb car in the ad.

I've personally only seen the first two, so can't confirm the others. Still waiting for pics of the hillclimb car, none in the ad yet.

No answers so far on the 390SE race car; I wonder if this could be the hillclimb car in the ad with a SEAC nosecone grafted on? The seperate sills visible in the youtube clip suggest this; although the SEAC racer also has removable sills. The 390SE+nosecone theory could also explain the reported statements from Chris Schirle that there was only ever one SEAC racer, but there appears to be two racecars with the stainless chassis?

Clear as mud.

[Mr Tank]

Martin

David the owner of the car did claim it was a works racer. He also said he made the car from a kit of bits and it has a removable nose!
So as in previous post were its been discused before its more likely to be a 390 possibly the racer with a replacment nose!

But who knows?

Andy

[cuneus]

Quite who knows what it is - maybe if the owner started answering straightforward questions about the provenance (which he didn't last time) some progress could be made.

[combine]

Possibly a daft question , was there a serial no. to verify , ok maybe someonelse has asked this ?

[ACT]

I have a vague memory of a 390SE racer driven I think by Colin Blower. somewhere there is also a blue "SEAC" with 390SE body but SEAC nose cone, it was at the 1994 SEAC day

[cuneus]

ACT said:

I have a vague memory of a 390SE racer driven I think by Colin Blower. somewhere there is also a blue "SEAC" with 390SE body but SEAC nose cone, it was at the 1994 SEAC day

Hi Tim

the latter car was badged "SE C"