Automatic TVR?
Discussion
Wash your mouth out!
Have you never head of "the spirit of driving"? Obviously, if you have stupid amounts of cash to flash around the world is your lobster and a company like TVR would be stupid to turn it down, but such things should be available to those with huge amounts of money and zero sense!
Have you never head of "the spirit of driving"? Obviously, if you have stupid amounts of cash to flash around the world is your lobster and a company like TVR would be stupid to turn it down, but such things should be available to those with huge amounts of money and zero sense!
V8 Archie said:
Wash your mouth out!
Have you never head of "the spirit of driving"? Obviously, if you have stupid amounts of cash to flash around the world is your lobster and a company like TVR would be stupid to turn it down, but such things should be available to those with huge amounts of money and zero sense!
I agree it is just a theoretical question. What increase 0..60 would it give? would it take it sub 4.5 seconds (ie no gear change). and ignoring things like wheelspin LSD etc. I just mean foot to floor.
wedge girl said:
There were two 450s made for some sheik,LHD and fitted with 3 speed auto boxes, one of them is now in the Kent area.
The owner of one of these is a friend of mine - no longer in Kent tho. It doesn't have the standard Rover slushbox - it's a four speed (US I think) box which IIRC added c. £10k to the purchase price when new. I goes very well compared to my 400, and he's tracked it at Zolder without any probs. The other one of the pair of cars has dissappeared.
Paul.
scared but happy said:
I agree it is just a theoretical question. What increase 0..60 would it give? would it take it sub 4.5 seconds (ie no gear change). and ignoring things like wheelspin LSD etc. I just mean foot to floor.
there are not many auto's that beat a manual on a like for like basis unless it is a pretty trick box.
Torque convertors sap a large amount of power due to the fact you have no real direct connection (just oil friction) and may loose 10 per cent overall, then theres the gearing.........
The best and quickest auto i have driven is a Mercedes Sl55 kompressor (i think) and that was neck and neck with my griff and the mid range was probably better.
the dodger said:
I didn't think they were that rare? I certainly remember a wedge at Mid-Essex Hurdlemakers meets a few times a while back. Belonged to a disabled chap - it had hand controls too. Prety sure it was a V8.
Any other long-standing Mid-Essex'ers remember?
The car in question was a C reg 350i colour navy blue belonging to Carl Shelton. He wanted a TVR, his brother having a V8s, but had had a serious motor bike accident so needed an automatic. We bought a 350i + Rover SD1 auto doner car, after a lot of pissing about plus fair amount of money the car was born. He sold the car a few years back, i have however seen it in the classifieds some time back.
markbigears said:
Remember seeing a wedge auto for sale at WLA in maidstone for sale around 15 years ago. Met light blue i think it was. Really low miles if memory serves me well.
The car PG is talking about is a friend of ours and it did come from WLA's after the sheik had done with them, although it is not blue ...
Fantastic piece of kit in fact, very very special car.
Thoughts:
Auto box in the XKR was one of the most annoying gripes I have with the car (that and the excess half-tonne of weight). I'm starting to get used to its decisions, though. Or, rather, I'm getting used to the semi-auto side of the J-gate (means I'm punching it less when it picks the wrong gear for me!
) In fact, apart from the slush of the torque converter for the 1/2 second before it catches up with you having your foot to the floor, I could really grow to like it. Shifts are so swift and precise - at perfect revs every time, without any chance of fluffing the change at an inopportune moment. The semi-auto side where you can manually pick the gear's a real bonus over standard "Drive". It's definitely fun whacking the lever into "D", turning all the gadgets on, just planting your right foot, and not so much as twitching a single muscle until you're at 155. 
Re. the Griff vs. SL55 AMG. In a 0-xxx drag, I'd expect the Griff to probably win up to 60/100, but at anything over 100/120 I'd expect the SL to be preparing to dish out a spanking.
Auto box in the XKR was one of the most annoying gripes I have with the car (that and the excess half-tonne of weight). I'm starting to get used to its decisions, though. Or, rather, I'm getting used to the semi-auto side of the J-gate (means I'm punching it less when it picks the wrong gear for me!
) In fact, apart from the slush of the torque converter for the 1/2 second before it catches up with you having your foot to the floor, I could really grow to like it. Shifts are so swift and precise - at perfect revs every time, without any chance of fluffing the change at an inopportune moment. The semi-auto side where you can manually pick the gear's a real bonus over standard "Drive". It's definitely fun whacking the lever into "D", turning all the gadgets on, just planting your right foot, and not so much as twitching a single muscle until you're at 155. Re. the Griff vs. SL55 AMG. In a 0-xxx drag, I'd expect the Griff to probably win up to 60/100, but at anything over 100/120 I'd expect the SL to be preparing to dish out a spanking.
old64er said:
| Torque convertors sap a large amount of power due to the fact you have no real direct connection (just oil friction) and may loose 10 per cent overall, then theres the gearing......... |
J_S_G said:
Thoughts:
...intresting stuff...
Re. the Griff vs. SL55 AMG. In a 0-xxx drag, I'd expect the Griff to probably win up to 60/100, but at anything over 100/120 I'd expect the SL to be preparing to dish out a spanking.
So back to the original question an automatic TVR will be slower 0..60 than a manual?
scared but happy said:
So back to the original question an automatic TVR will be slower 0..60 than a manual?
0-60 I'd always put money on the Manual. Basically because you can revs the nuts off it then dump the clutch. In an auto, you've not got that luxury, you've got to wait for the torque converter to do its stuff. Which I'd say, on a decent ("5ish second 0-60") loses you about 0.4 of a second. Above this, with the torque converter "doing it's thang" (and hopefully continually beyond it's stall point), I'd expect the perfect gearchanges to give it an advantage in the run up to serious triple figure speeds (assuming similar gearing). So, basically, I completely concur with GazBoy.
Now, the spanner to throw in that is the nature of torque converters... Rather than simply being "torque-shunters", they are actually "converters"; you get a multiplier effect. The amount of torque multiplication isn't even as simple as that - it's the amount of torque multiplication up to the stall speed of it - the speed at which the impeller has to spin to overcome the load and start the turbine going. So, you need to pick the ratio you're going to achieve, pick the RPM (which is actually an RPM band depending on how much welly you're giving it) that's going to be at, etc.
Of course, the implications of having an auto with torque converter is that it gets away from having a sizeable flywheel in a manual box based car. Hence the characteristics of the flywheel start to have a factor in it, too!
It really does get complicated - does my head in everytime I try to do the calculations! I imagine you could set up an auto to be a hell of a lot better in the 0-60 sprint by juggling things in the torque converter. But in the process you'd probably make it an absolute pig to drive day-to-day.
Incidentally, I'm not too keen on the arrangement in the XKR. I find it quite wallowy at low RPM. And given that it's great big V8 (3k RPM in top is almost a ton), it's almost constantly at sub 2k RPM, making it a bit unreactive. Hence I think the stall speed on it's possibly too high. Or it could be an issue elsewhere.
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