1999 TVR Griffith 500

[MPoxon]

Afternoon all,

I have owed my TVR Griffith 500 for 6 years, I enjoy reading the threads in this section, such a variety of interesting cars owned by PH'ers so I thought it was about time I contributed.

My TVR Griffith 500 originally registered as T910 JLD on 19th March 1999. Aston Martin mendip blue exterior with midnight blue and magnolia hide. Chassis number SDLAA04R5XB001221. Purchased from James Birkby at TVR MADS in 2009. The car had a full chassis restoration at RT Racing shortly before my purchase.

I find the car a very good all-rounder it is comfortable enough for touring, great when the sun is out with the roof off but also moderately competitive on the drag strip and track days.

















Frequenting the TVR section of PH does no favours to my wallet so it was not long before the car was the subject of a number of subtle enhancements to improve driveability, performance and reliability. Importantly for me the look of the car remains completely original.

Mechanical – Induction
ACT Twin Throttle Carbon Fibre Plenum
ACT AFM to Air Filter Hose
ACT 44mm Carbon Fibre Superflare Trumpets
ACT Inlet Thermal Gasket

Mechanical – ECU & Fueling
Mark Adams Tornado ECU EPROM – Mapped at TVR Power
Magnecor 8mm Ignition Leads
Mark Adams Bosch Fuel Injectors (0280155931)
Mark Adams Bosch AFM (0280218010)
Mark Adams Bosch 3bar Fuel Regulator (0280160291)

Mechanical – Misc
Mulfab baffled sump
ACT Silicone Rocker Breather Hose Kit
Clevor Trevor Alloy Power Steering Tank
Leven Alloy Water Bottle Cap
John Zubak Black Silcone Plenum Breather Hose
John Zubak S/S Braided PAS hoses
Leven Jump Start Kit (Anderson Connector)
Leven Alloy Oil Cap
Point CnC Rocker Breather
RT Racing body off chassis restoration (2009)
Steve Heath Mk2 Bonnet Stay

Cooling System
RADTEC Alloy 4 Core Radiator
ACT Stainless Steel Coolant Pipes
ACT Silicone Coolant Hoses
ACT Stainless Steel Heater Rails

Suspension & Brakes
Bilstein B6 Mk4 suspension upgrade [Gas Monotubes with Eibach Springs] (2012)
Leven Technology Front and rear drop links
David Gerald 295mm Alcon 4 pot front brake kit
ATE Blue DOT5.1 Brake Fluid
Ferrodo DS2500 brake pads all round
Standard TVR Estoril Wheels refurbished by Lepson

Exhaust System
ACT Stainless Steel Cherry Bomb Exhaust
ACT Stainless Steel Replica Manifolds
V8 Enhancements Exhaust Y-Piece

Alarm System
Carl Baker Installed Meta 3 CAT1 Alarm & Immobiliser System Upgrade
Carl Baker Electronic Boot Release & Integrated Key Fob Conversion

Interior
Peter Wiggins Walnut Burr Replacement Dashboard
Pioneer DEH-80PRS Reference Stereo Head Unit
Nardi Personal Steering Wheel
Leven Alloy Pedals
Leven Alloy Door Reflectors
Leven Alloy Fuel Cap
Leven Alloy Steering Column Stalks

I will keep this thread up to date with my exploits.

Matthew

[RichB]

Nice post Matt and a great example of the best TVR of all time - the Griffith 500
Interesting list of enhancements, rather like many of mine. I must get round to listing them all some time.

p.s. loved the video around Goodwood.

[MPoxon]

Thanks Richard, yes very similar to yours, I remember reading your website about Grizzly the Griff when i first got mine and I think you have the right blend of upgrades vs originality hence why I have gone down the same route with mine.

I will write up the Goodwood trackday at some point soon, I have a few photos and videos to compile. I thought I might see you at Goodwood as I know you rarely miss out on a TVR Track Day there. I think one of my favourite TVR pictures I have seen is yours in the pit lane at Goodwood...



Epic photo.

[RichB]

Thanks Matt; sadly the web site has gone pear shaped, I must have word with my ISP to see what's happened but dread the prospect of spending an hour on the phone waiting for them to answer. That picture is one of my favourites too, if you look closely you can see Grizzly Bear peeking out from behind the passenger seat!

[frayz]

Bout time you made a thread about this old nail.

[natben]

Cracking Griffith you have there. I came very close to owning one but was eventually seduced by a 2001 Tuscan then laterly a 2002 Cerbera. Both great cars and in many ways I regret parting with them, 3 years with the Tuscan and 5 years with the Cerbera. I plan on having a Griff 500 one day but in the meantime I will enjoy looking.
I am waiting on details of the the new TVR models before I buy anything else at the moment, exiting times ahead for TVR lovers I hope!!

[LeoZwalf]

It looks fantastic. The Grif and Chimp are the only TVR's I'd ever want to have, lovely.

[Scho]

Absolutey love the griff. Such a beauty. Most well resolved tvr design in my eyes. Great car!

[BigGingerBob]

I've just noticed the etypeness of the car in this picture.
lovely car

[RichB]

BigGingerBob said:

I've just noticed the etypeness of the car in this picture.
lovely car

Etypeness? Nope, go on enlighten me...

[Baryonyx]

Staggeringly good looking car, I absolutely love the Griffith. Some days I'm torn: is my favourite TVR a Griffith or a first generation Cerbera? Today, it's the Griffith!

[MPoxon]

RichB said:

BigGingerBob said:

I've just noticed the etypeness of the car in this picture.
lovely car

Etypeness? Nope, go on enlighten me...

I agree I think TVR definitely took a bit of inspiration from the E-Type when styling the Griff, it does have the same style headlights, and the cigar shaped front where it curves underneath the car as well down the bonnet, similar oval grill as well with the divider in the middle.

[RichB]

MPoxon said:

I agree I think TVR definitely took a bit of inspiration from the E-Type...

Oh! E-Type'ness - I was trying to work what it was possibly a typo of!

[MPoxon]

I attended the Hampshire TVRCC Goodwood track day earlier this month. £185 for a 105dB whole day at Goodwood circuit seemed like an opportunity too good to miss.

I love Goodwood, and it is a privilege to be able to drive the track. There was even a 2 seater Spitfire taking lucky people out, very surreal racing around the circuit with various aircraft taking off and landing over the track, very distracting when one of those aircraft is a Spitfire.





There very not very many cars at the track day at all and only 2 other TVRs so I managed to get in many laps. When I added up the laps recorded on the two datalogging apps I had been testing it turned out that I had completed 93 laps, no wonder I got through 4 tanks of fuel!

Videos
I finally managed to get Harry's Lap Timer and the GoPro working together and here is the result, I am very impressed with the telemetry overlay and picture in picture. The GPS does lag a bit using the smartphone's internal GPS but short of a full blown data logger is works well:

Final Session - https://youtu.be/bWkE4Q27Ex8

Instruction was free on the day so I took up the opportunity. The instructor was adamant that I could take Fordwater flat in 5th which eventually I plucked up the courage to do, I didn't get it quite right and had a bit of a wobble at 120MPH, made worse be me lifting off. It didn't come out too well on video but you can see the car lose stability.

Fordwater wobble at 120MPH - https://youtu.be/znkS6oGkNzI

There was a stunning Porsche Carrera RS in attendance, I didn't get a chance to chat with the owner which was a shame but I did get the opportunity to follow it on track, copying the drivers's lines resulted in my fastest lap of the day, 01:37.32

Following a Porsche Carrera RS - https://youtu.be/r5GtqwD9Ti8



Nice bit of lap analysis from Harry's Lap Timer:



This was the second trackday with the Yoko AD08Rs tyres, I really pushed them and I can confirm they stick like st to a blanket.... 120MPH pulling 1G.



Goodwood is a quite a fast circuit and with continued abuse the tyres did start to melt a bit, no where near as bad as the T1Rs should I add.



Matthew

[MPoxon]

Brake Upgrade

I have been running my new brakes for just over a year now so thought I would share my thoughts now I have had a chance to test them out fully.

I have never been entirely satisified with the brakes on my Griffith, mine being the 500 has 260mm brakes which is in improvement over the earlier cars but they have always left me wanting more.

Upgrading the standard system
A couple of years after purchasing the Griff I decided to upgrade the front brakes. Speaking with my TVR specialist David Batty he recomended the following works

Renewing the front discs with standard items.
Replacing the brake hoses with braided hoses to increase the feel of the brake pedal.
Replacing the pads with upgraded items, either Mintex or Ferrodo DS2500.
Changing the standard brake fluid with DOT5.1 fluid.
The result of this works were brakes with certainly felt better and performed better. Perfectly adequate for fast road use.

A couple of years ago I started using my car on track. My first track day was at Snetterton. Aside from nervously drving around the track and trying to get out of people’s way the one thing a did notice as my confedence grew was the brakes were not fit for purpose. A couple of +100MPH braking at the end of the long straights and the brakes were cooked.

When you look at the standard TVR caliper it is easy to understand why the brakes do not work well on track.


4pot brake upgrade
Looking at brake upgrades there are many options to choose from. Most owners who have upgraded brakes also have larger diameter aftermarket wheels which gives a wide range of options. I wanted to retain the standard TVR Estoril wheels which unfortunatley limits my options of what will fit under the standard 15? wheel.

I also decided that I wanted an OEM quality product, I have been burnt many times before with substandard ‘upgraded’ parts from aftermarket companies. OEMs invest a lot of money in R&D and making sure thier products are up to scratch.

There are two companies who supply to OEM and provide a suitable upgrade to meet my requirements, AP and Alcon.

Option 1 was to upgrade to 16? Estorils and fit the TVR branded AP 4pot CP6600 calipers and 300mm discs as fitted to the later Speed Six TVRs. Pictured below on Mark’s Griffith.


Option 2 was to go for the Alcon 4pot calipers with 295mm discs that fit under the standard 15? Estoril wheels


After speaking to a number of people about the options I decided to go for the Alcon setup from David Gerald. I did very much like the idea of retro fitting the TVR AP solution from the later cars, however the exspense of sourcing 2 x 16? Estoril wheels for the front, new tyres and resetting the geo did not seem worth it for an extra 5mm of disc (295mm vs 300mm). What sold me on the Alcon kit aside from being able to keep my standard wheel and the fact it was a direct bolt on kit so no adapters required for the caplipers. Interestly enough I found an owner who had what appears to be the same spec brakes (Alcon 295×28) factory fitted to his Griff in the development days. More info about the kit from David Gerald (now Classic World Racing) can be found below.

After having the new brakes fitted to my Griffth immediately noticed the increased feel of the brakes. The standard system always worked when I needed it but it never inspired any confedence. I am now finding I can approach corners and rounabouts much faster as I have confedence in the brakes.

I decided to book a track day at Bedford Autodrome to test the new brakes out properly. After warming up the car for a lap I started to increase speed down the straights and brake more agressively into the corners. Towards the end of the day I was hitting over 130MPH on the back straight and agressivly late braking into corners, I could not get the brakes to fade.

I am very impressed with the Alcon setup and I can honestly say it is one of the single best improvements I have made to the car.

David Gerald Alcon Griff Brake Upgrade

[frayz]

Lovely setup Matt, what pad did you opt for on the Alcons?

[MPoxon]

frayz said:

Lovely setup Matt, what pad did you opt for on the Alcons?

Thanks Frayz. I am enjoying your thread on the bomber, makes me laugh every time I read it as you only went in for a roll cage. Top work.

Brake pads are always a subject of fierce debate. Always a hotly debated subject, brake pads! Tried a few pads on the Griff in the past and I always find myself going back to Ferrodo DS2500. I find them perfect for my requirements which are, no brake squeal, mainly road use so must still work well when cold, no fade on track, not too much brake dust. I have always found them a really good allrounder.

Running DS2500 with this brake setup which was also what the supplier recommended and I cannot fault them.

[LanceRS]

Very nice, I can't help being ever so slightly jealous. Am I right in thinking that the original caliper are sourced from Ford, as fitted to Granadas etc?

[battered]

Offhand it looks similar to the caliper from the Sierra that is used at the rear of the Caterham. The newer Mondeo caliper is fairly similar, it works but it's not a high performance item in a heavy car like a Griff.

[MPoxon]

LanceRS said:

Very nice, I can't help being ever so slightly jealous. Am I right in thinking that the original caliper are sourced from Ford, as fitted to Granadas etc?

Well spotted, the original calliper is definitely a Ford part. I think you may be right on Granada as well, either that or Sierra.