New 'un with an 280S
Discussion
Hi all,
Not exactly a new member on PH, but definitely a new member in these parts! My name's Rich and I co-run a workshop on the south coast called Southways Automotive. We specialise in kit, classic and sports cars. In that marketplace we've become a dab hand at refurbishing TVR chassis'
I've had a Chimaera before, and was lined up to buy another only last week when a customer of ours informed us that the 280S we've been storing in preparation for a chassis refurb was now for sale due to a change in circumstances. Did I know anybody who'd be interested etc? Well, yeah as it goes....me!
So now I find myself the owner of an '88 (I'm guessing) 280S in met. grey. Red leather interior, and what looks like S2 wheels. Bodywork is pretty tidy, but bits of the engine are missing as we'd started repairing it when the decision was made to strip it completely. So it's still in bits, but hopefully I'll get it up together soon.
It needs some chassis work before an MoT, but long term I'd like to carry out the body-off refurb he planned for us to do, perhaps in the winter. Only now I'll have to find the time to do it too!
Cheers
Not exactly a new member on PH, but definitely a new member in these parts! My name's Rich and I co-run a workshop on the south coast called Southways Automotive. We specialise in kit, classic and sports cars. In that marketplace we've become a dab hand at refurbishing TVR chassis'
I've had a Chimaera before, and was lined up to buy another only last week when a customer of ours informed us that the 280S we've been storing in preparation for a chassis refurb was now for sale due to a change in circumstances. Did I know anybody who'd be interested etc? Well, yeah as it goes....me!
So now I find myself the owner of an '88 (I'm guessing) 280S in met. grey. Red leather interior, and what looks like S2 wheels. Bodywork is pretty tidy, but bits of the engine are missing as we'd started repairing it when the decision was made to strip it completely. So it's still in bits, but hopefully I'll get it up together soon.
It needs some chassis work before an MoT, but long term I'd like to carry out the body-off refurb he planned for us to do, perhaps in the winter. Only now I'll have to find the time to do it too!
Cheers
Cheers guys. I'll probably do a full on blog on the company's Facebook page as I do with all the Chimaeras and kits cars we've been doing, so there will be loads of pics. The fact it's my own car doesn't exclude it, right?!
We do have a dyno (which the S will be hitting soon) and Steve who I work with is experienced with the Megasquirt setup. We're not tuners or mappers by profession, but Steve will be able to take something not running right and make it run right. To get that little extra tiny bit from it would probably require getting V8D or the like involved.....we've done it over the phone using wireless internet and given them access to the laptop remotely before!
I'll get some pics of it up anyway. Would have done it last night but photobucket wasn't having it.
Cheers
We do have a dyno (which the S will be hitting soon) and Steve who I work with is experienced with the Megasquirt setup. We're not tuners or mappers by profession, but Steve will be able to take something not running right and make it run right. To get that little extra tiny bit from it would probably require getting V8D or the like involved.....we've done it over the phone using wireless internet and given them access to the laptop remotely before!
I'll get some pics of it up anyway. Would have done it last night but photobucket wasn't having it.
Cheers
Pics as promised:
I'd be interested to learn about it's past; seems to be running S2 wheels, but it's quite a late S1 so maybe they were specced from new? I do like them, but if the 5-spoke slot type is the correct wheel for it, I'd be inclined to hunt some down (yeah yeah I know!)
That said, the 'S' decal on the side is pretty subtle, where as the other early models I've seen have an 80's style strip down the side. Maybe mine is one of the last S1s? (Or 280S.....I'm still not too sure how to address it; we just call them the S at the workshop because there's never more than one there at a time!)
I've now got the cooling and exhaust systems back together and managed to get it running a few days ago. Happy to report it runs very sweetly (I paid for it before I'd even driven it) though the brakes need looking at - they're pretty useless at the moment. Also very tricky to select reverse gear; I might plump for a quickshift lever and dress it up to look like the original.
Threw some fresh petrol in it and strapped it onto the dyno to have a look at the condition of the engine. Didn't set out to complete any power runs in it initially, but it was running so happily (not to mention it's just been serviced) I thought it was worthwhile to press on and gauge the condition of the motor. Early signs are pretty good:
124hp at the rear wheels, with a corrected figure of 138.5bhp at the fly. I know it's down on the factory figures, but then I also know a few in Cologne circles who say the 2.8 rarely dished out the 150bhp (or 160bhp in the case of the S or the Capri 2.8i) they were quoted with. Funnily enough one actually said "if you clip 140bhp you've got a good one" so I'm pretty happy at the moment. And I haven't even started tweaking and playing with it yet, so it's looking promising. And that noise.......it rivals the V8 models
So it's booked in for an MoT Monday and I've got my fingers crossed. All isn't rosey, however, as I know that a body-off is looming as the outriggers are starting to go. I've made a few repairs to it to try and get a ticket on it shortly (be nice to get it out of the workshop and clear some space) but I know that it really needs sorting properly. It's been patched up in the past, and it's caked in Waxoyl, which I'm not a fan of; this is what I do for a living:
....so I'm pretty confident I can make it spot on underneath to match the tidy body. I'll probably upgrade the engine slightly as I do it (I've heard the cams are made of German cheese just like the RV8s) so looking at Burton's cam/stage 1/2 head packages.
No doubt I'll have a heap of questions along the way, the first of which is: what colour should the chassis be? I've heard (and seen) a sort of terracotta colour, but have scraped some of that black gunk off underneath I'm seeing white. I've also seen white in the TVR S brochure I bought from eBay a couple of days ago (which turned out to be an S1....with the 2.9 engine
so not the same as my car!)
Cheers!
I'd be interested to learn about it's past; seems to be running S2 wheels, but it's quite a late S1 so maybe they were specced from new? I do like them, but if the 5-spoke slot type is the correct wheel for it, I'd be inclined to hunt some down (yeah yeah I know!)
That said, the 'S' decal on the side is pretty subtle, where as the other early models I've seen have an 80's style strip down the side. Maybe mine is one of the last S1s? (Or 280S.....I'm still not too sure how to address it; we just call them the S at the workshop because there's never more than one there at a time!)
I've now got the cooling and exhaust systems back together and managed to get it running a few days ago. Happy to report it runs very sweetly (I paid for it before I'd even driven it) though the brakes need looking at - they're pretty useless at the moment. Also very tricky to select reverse gear; I might plump for a quickshift lever and dress it up to look like the original.
Threw some fresh petrol in it and strapped it onto the dyno to have a look at the condition of the engine. Didn't set out to complete any power runs in it initially, but it was running so happily (not to mention it's just been serviced) I thought it was worthwhile to press on and gauge the condition of the motor. Early signs are pretty good:
124hp at the rear wheels, with a corrected figure of 138.5bhp at the fly. I know it's down on the factory figures, but then I also know a few in Cologne circles who say the 2.8 rarely dished out the 150bhp (or 160bhp in the case of the S or the Capri 2.8i) they were quoted with. Funnily enough one actually said "if you clip 140bhp you've got a good one" so I'm pretty happy at the moment. And I haven't even started tweaking and playing with it yet, so it's looking promising. And that noise.......it rivals the V8 models
So it's booked in for an MoT Monday and I've got my fingers crossed. All isn't rosey, however, as I know that a body-off is looming as the outriggers are starting to go. I've made a few repairs to it to try and get a ticket on it shortly (be nice to get it out of the workshop and clear some space) but I know that it really needs sorting properly. It's been patched up in the past, and it's caked in Waxoyl, which I'm not a fan of; this is what I do for a living:
....so I'm pretty confident I can make it spot on underneath to match the tidy body. I'll probably upgrade the engine slightly as I do it (I've heard the cams are made of German cheese just like the RV8s) so looking at Burton's cam/stage 1/2 head packages.
No doubt I'll have a heap of questions along the way, the first of which is: what colour should the chassis be? I've heard (and seen) a sort of terracotta colour, but have scraped some of that black gunk off underneath I'm seeing white. I've also seen white in the TVR S brochure I bought from eBay a couple of days ago (which turned out to be an S1....with the 2.9 engine
so not the same as my car!)Cheers!
Kitchski said:
what colour should the chassis be? I've heard (and seen) a sort of terracotta colour, but have scraped some of that black gunk off underneath I'm seeing white. I've also seen white in the TVR S brochure I bought from eBay a couple of days ago (which turned out to be an S1....with the 2.9 engine so not the same as my car!)
Probably white, but it's TVR so whatever colour they had that day (my S2 chassis was black, many later cars are red). so not the same as my car!)There are a few S1s with 2.9 engines, built in the change over to S2. Steve Heath refers to these as "S1.5"
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