TVRBHP ? Pie in the sky, or close to reality?

[Kal-El]

Has anyone actually rolling road tested a standard car?
Looking at the book figures, 240 Bhp for a 4.0 sounds a little optimistic to me.
A standard Rover V8 with a half reasonable exhaust is quoted at 207 Bhp. (Westfields figure) What mods do TVR do to the stock engine to achieve the 240 claimed Bhp?

[deeen]

My 5.0 was originally quoted by the factory at 320 or 340 bhp depending what you read.

On Austec's rolling road it gave 265bhp.

I guess that answeres the question?

[Kal-El]

Hi Deeen

Was the 265 Bhp quoted at the wheels, or was that the corrected flywheel horse power? (Which is what the TVR figures show)

P.

[nubbin]

My Tamora speed Six is quoted at 350bhp, and I got 338 on the rolling road that Joospeed uses. 4% down on quoted (torque about the same).

Seems accurate enough.

I'll send you the printout if you're interested.

[Kal-El]

Nubbin - Yeah sure email it over!!

Thanks

[deeen]

Hi Kal - El. That was corrected back to the flywheel. Torque (corrected to flywheel) 312 lbs/ft, it still feels fast in everyday use! This is a standard car on 60,000 miles.

I have heard (as confirmed by another post) the speed 6 and ajp8 engines give much closer to what is promised.

[JonRB]

As far as I am aware, the official factory figures for the Rover V8 engines were calculated by running the engine alone (no car, no ancillaries like alternator, water pump or whatever) on a dyno.

From that point of view, they are not inaccurate, just highly unrepresentative of real-world application.

As Asimov said in the Foundation books:
"The closer to the truth, the better the lie, and the truth itself, when it can be used, is the best lie."

[Kal-El]

JonRB - Ah, Asimov. What a literary genius. Was it Foundation and Empire that he said that? I can't remember.

[Kal-El]

So does anyone have any idea what to expect realistically from a 4.0?
Also, any ideas what mods are done over standard?

[shnozz]

Kal-El said:

So does anyone have any idea what to expect realistically from a 4.0?

200 - 220 at the flywheel. more like 180 at the wheels I would guess

[Nick P]

Kal-El said:

Has anyone actually rolling road tested a standard car? Looking at the book figures, 240 Bhp for a 4.0 sounds a little optimistic to me. A standard Rover V8 with a half reasonable exhaust is quoted at 207 Bhp. (Westfields figure) What mods do TVR do to the stock engine to achieve the 240 claimed Bhp?

mine was 215bhp on what is well known as a conservative rolling road....the bloke carrying out the run said that i should be pleased as this was quite a healthy one, most are sub 200bhp apparently

[wedgeman]

Was told years ago that 'BHP' stood for 'Blackpool Horse Power'...

This obviously proves the point!

[sacha]

My previous tuscan was quoted as 360, had it on the rollers just for fun (local garage has one and i am friends with them), unluckely ran out of road speed the rollers maxed at 120mph and testing it in 4th as 3rd it spun the wheels (even with 3 people in the boot) well at just around 4000rpm, it was showing 305bhp, max power being at 7.2k it sounded feasable for the full 360bhp!

[z_chromozone]

The rover engined cars are over rated, as the others said the TVR's own are usually spot on.

Z

[RichB]

There is no debate - search the forums for more info. Rich...

[VYT]

From Previous posts

4.2 AJP 340 - 350 bhp
4.5 AJP 350 - 380 bhp
4.5RR AJP 420 - 440 bhp
Speed sixes seem to be on the money.

No matter what the outputs are the cars pretty much perform to specification I think.

[Pies]

Well my V8S is quoted as 240 bhp and 270 lbft

RR showed it as 232.6bhp and 260.1 lbft

Alot of the is made by not having any cats such as fitted the the 4l Chims

So approx 3-4% error,I reckon its pretty close

Bare in mind the engine is 12 years old, people seem to forget engines and associated components such as injectors wear out.

[cirks]

Original Std 4.5 quoted 321bhp whereas realistically was 265!!

I now have close to 20% more power with the modded 4.8 yet am still less (ie 315) than TVR's original claim.

[griffman]

i have a 4.0 griff and it was tested on the rollers about a year ago and gave out 208bhp which seems to be fairly standard. only after 2 weeks at v8 developements and a few thosand spent has it now got a healthy 265bhp and same in torque. worth the money as it now goes how it should.

[griffski]

92 4.3 Griff

253.1 bhp at the flywheel at 5314 rpm.
(204 bhp at the wheels)

281 lb ft @ 3944 rpm.

Report from recent rolling road session at Austec.