My Xmas pressie...400BHP!

[Guillotine]

Well it's finally been checked over and is ok. so for those of you who wished to know, the new engine is an Ex works TVR Challenge engine! taken out to 5L by John Eales on the last rebuild (so still legitimately a 500) and is pushing out around 400hp-370lb/ft...All day!!!
should give me aroung 370bhp ATW going by previous data but i'll be happy 350 by concensus!

complete with forged/balanced everything, race heads, 4x Dellortos, electric water, dry sump and race clutch its pretty much the mutts nuts reving to 7,300

will be going in over the winter ready for next years trackday calender...so watch out for it.

and i do mean watch out

Those who know me will know that its all about the track for me (catching those pesky Porker GTS RS') and this year managed to come within a 2 sec margin over a 1.2 mile lap, so with this B@st@rd it SHOULD eat them alive!

I'll keep you posted!



>>> Edited by Guillotine on Wednesday 22 December 18:23

[deeen]

Good work Guillotine! And there's me struggling for 300! If I do see you on the track I think I'll pretend I'm the safety car...

[GarryM]

Niiice!!

Will this one be under 120dB?

[Guillotine]

cheers deen (300's still the benchmark for the "monster club")
and yes Garry an official 128db (as being a Challenge block its pre-cat listed, so can run catless!)

>> Edited by Guillotine on Wednesday 22 December 18:24

[Ballistic Banana]

I have one thing to say

[crankedup]

Good gawd almighty, let me know which tracks and days your on.

So I can book alternatives I'm to young to be eaten alive.

[GreenV8S]

That should be awesome! Hope I get to see it in the flesh at some point.

Have you had any trouble from the insurers?

[joospeed]

Wow .. how much does all that cost ?

[Guillotine]

peter, would be good to meet up...

BTW is that a blower on your profile?, or is it just pleased to see me?

joos...not toooo bad so far. engine was a bargain. the right people didn't see it. and insurance is reasonable as my car is heavily modified anyway. least that's what they're saying at the mo!

>> Edited by Guillotine on Wednesday 22 December 22:21

[GreenV8S]

Might be. I'll let you know in a week's time! Still won't be puttng out anything like as much as yours, and I wish my insurers were being as reasonable as yours seem to be!

[johno]

Andy,

Is that the one from Ebay with the Judd manifolds now for sale on PH classifieds ..... looks a truly awesome beast ....

[joospeed]

I don't know how much it normally costs to get that power from a rover engine, but you can do a 400bhp cerbera V8 conversion on a late low mileage 4.5 engine with new clutch, remapped emerald, drive in-drive out for under 10k pounds .. might be worthconsidering for anyone else going the high hp rover route

[900T-R]

joospeed said:

I don't know how much it normally costs to get that power from a rover engine, but you can do a 400bhp cerbera V8 conversion on a late low mileage 4.5 engine with new clutch, remapped emerald, drive in-drive out for under 10k pounds .. might be worthconsidering for anyone else going the high hp rover route

Sounds highly interesting - but how does the chassis cope? IIRC the AJP Griff never did happen for that reason...

[joospeed]

Probably copes about the same as a 400bhp rover V8 conversion ...

[900T-R]

joospeed said:

Probably copes about the same as a 400bhp rover V8 conversion ...

Well obviously, but i was wondering about that, too.

Seriously - what can be done to a Griffmaera chassis and suspension to 'balance' the package again with that kind of power?

[andy43]

900T-R said:

Seriously - what can be done to a Griffmaera chassis and suspension to 'balance' the package again with that kind of power

Easy. Lead weights in the boot and footwells, some extra grippy tyres, a parachute, couple of anchors off a cruise liner, a keen eye on the weather forecast.... oh, and balls THIS BIG
My 4.3 is standard and still makes me p!ss my pants, god knows what it'd be like with twice the bhp
400 bhp - Fantastic

[joospeed]

Are you talking actual chassis or the suspension package bolted to it?

[900T-R]

Both. I mean - one assumes that if it were only the suspension package, the TVR boys would just have gone out and done it, right? Instead, I vaguely recall they thought it wasn't really viable with the Griff and subsequently developed the Cerbie (originally slated as a RV8-engined Chimaera 2+2 coupé) around the AJP...

>> Edited by 900T-R on Thursday 23 December 10:06

[joospeed]

Well the torque reaction on the chassis is only a function of the traction it can generate, so it doesn't matter whether you have 300bhp or 3000bhp cos you'll only generate the torque reaction that the tyres will allow you to, plus some shock treatment from repated standing starts if that's your thing.

Now obviously if you have a lot of power you can run the car on the limit of wheelspin more often so if you have a borderline chassis in strength terms you will find that stressed areas fail earlier, but you can strengthen any areas you think look a bit feeble. Looking under the Tuscan race car chassis though (460bhp, slick tyres) there's not massive girders under it for a chassis. I'd wager that as long as your chassis hasn't got significant corrosion that you'll probably be ok ...

if you're the sort of person that worries about stuff like that you should probably factor some strengthening work into the equation too .. but if i were doing my own car I wouldn't bother and just wait and see what happened..

[GreenV8S]

The idea that the older cars won't handle the power because 'the chassis won't take it' seems to be a recurring one. No doubt it's even been used by TVR from time to time to explain why the new cars are so much better than the old ones. I haven't ever met anyone who can give a sensible explanation why the old chassis couldn't cope. In terms of the mechanical strength of the chassis there's no problem. The newer chassis are probably torsionally stiffer which is a good thing, but there's no hard and fast rule about how much chassis stiffness is 'enough', no doubt there'll be fancy composite chassis in future which would be better than the current generation but that doesn't mean the current ones aren't capable of handling the power.

I think its fair to say that sticking more power in a RWD car is likely to change the handling balance but this can be addressed by changing the suspension settings, it isn't a fundamental limitation of the car.

>> Edited by GreenV8S on Thursday 23 December 11:21