Griffith 500 - Different engine size on reg doc

[puddingface]

Hi

First time poster and have a question which I hope someone will be able to answer.

About to possibly buy a Grifith 500. However on the reg document it states the engine size as 4280. It was the seller who pointed this out, saying that he had checked the VIN No. out with TVR and it definately was a 500. Apprently TVR used to sometimes pre-register their cars. Does this sound right? Will it be aproblem in the future, how do I get it changed? Unfortunately I can't check with the factory as the right person is on hols till wednesday.

Cheers if you can help

[_DeeJay_]

puddingface said:

Hi First time poster and have a question which I hope someone will be able to answer. About to possibly buy a Grifith 500. However on the reg document it states the engine size as 4280. It was the seller who pointed this out, saying that he had checked the VIN No. out with TVR and it definately was a 500. Apprently TVR used to sometimes pre-register their cars. Does this sound right? Will it be aproblem in the future, how do I get it changed? Unfortunately I can't check with the factory as the right person is on hols till wednesday. Cheers if you can help

Sounds odd to me. How old is the car, and are you sure it's never had an engine change?

[puddingface]

Car reg 1993 and current owner had for 10 years. Only one owner before that. Can't totally verify an engine change but it certainly doesn't look like it

[_DeeJay_]

Did they make 500's in '93 (I thought the first ones were '94)?

They certainly did make 4.3's at that time, so perhaps that car was one of the first 500's and was registered incorrectly?

[Nuggs]

_DeeJay_ said:

Did they make 500's in '93 (I thought the first ones were '94)?

IIRC, they started putting 500s in the Griff towards the end of 1993. Any idea when the car was actually built, puddingface?

FWIW, it does sound rather strange to me. I'd have thought that TVR would be legally obliged to provide accurate data to the DVLA for first registration etc, so a policy of registering cars early and then changing the specs, IMHO, would be unlikely to work.

Has the chap you bought it from have order forms/some other documentary evidence of its claimed capacity?

Also, my Chim (99) has a '400' label on the plenum to denote its 4-litreness, I don't know whether this was the same on the early 5l Griffs (and I know it's an easy one to make up oneself), but if it was and it's missing from the car in question, it may go some way to answering the question...

[B16 RFF]

Surely you can wait until Wednesday?
AFAIK, all 500s have a rear anti-roll bar, and of course the front end bodywork moulding is different (unless it was changed after an accident). If it was registered in late '93, it will be a 500.
A few 4.x chassis were pre-registered in late '92 and built in early '93 to get round the requirement for cats, and I think some LHD pre-cats were built after that. But I definitely remember going to the National event at Brands in Sept. 93 when the 500 had just been released.

Paul.

>> Edited by B16 RFF on Monday 25th July 16:12

[puddingface]

B16 RFF said:

Surely you can wait until Wednesday? AFAIK, all 500s have a rear anti-roll bar, and of course the front end bodywork moulding is different (unless it was changed after an accident). If it was registered in late '93, it will be a 500. Paul.

Course I can just thought I'd see whether anyone knew of this particular problem

[Mutant Rat]

My car is a '93 registered 500.

Correct engine size shown on the registration document and, for what it's worth, '500' badges on the tail and plenum chamber.

Another indicator might be the catalysts - IIRC, all 500's have cats, all 400's and 4.3's lack them.

Guess contacting the factory is your best bet, though, since it is possible to add or swap pretty much any component which would differentiate a 4.x from a 500.


>> Edited by Mutant Rat on Monday 25th July 19:41

[19560]

Mutant Rat said:

Another indicator might be the catalysts - IIRC, all 500's have cats, all 400's and 4.3's lack them.

There is at least one development car with a non cat 500 straight from the factory but your idea is likely to work.

[lazyitus]

Although the answer probably lies in one of the above posts, don't rule out the possibility that its a mistake on the V55 by the DVLA.

During my years in the motor trade I've seen plenty of odd things on registration documents. These range from wrong colours to VW vans registered as Volkswagen Cortina Sports, and stupid mistakes like that.

[byron]

hi we also had a 500 1994 with 4280 on the registration document all the numbers were correct and it was a 5ltr hc just changed with dvlc but would like to know why tvr did this any ideas????????????

[mack]

I know mines a bit unusual, but my V5 said 4497cc when I bought it - understandable given the number of engine changes - so I just filled in the 'change of vehicle details' section on the V5 when I sent it off

It came back ok with the new details - although the date of registration still shows 2/3/89,as nobody knows the exact date for it!!
(Apparently,the V5 used to also show it as being a Tasmin - which may explain the 'F' reg!!)
See you think you've got problems...

Once you're satisfied with the engine size,I'd just ammend the details on the V5 and send it off
mack

[puddingface]

Cheers for all your replys. TVR have confirmed it's a 500. For those of you that are interested apparently when TVR used to be quite a small company the DVLA only granted them a set no of registrations so some cars where registered with the wrong details. If you write to TVR they will rectify it.