TVR Griff / Chim racer

[pvapour]

OK, so i've been saving (£ & time) for a while now & have now got the means to go and fulfil a childhood dream of being a 'racing car driver'

I'm not bothered about being the fastest out there and not really concerned with the seriously competitive racing as much as I am about having fun, Classic saloon racing looks quite good fun but am open to any similar type of racing if there are any suggestions?

Since the introduction of the Superchaged Griffs and Chimaeras i was wondering if these would be competitive in an appropriate class with all the suitable mods? I owned a couple of these a few years back and loved their hairy handling not to sure what class they would fit into though

i have a budget of around £40k (all in) for a year which would probably start next year with some warm up stuff this year, any suggestions? I quite like the idea of Caterhams, locost etc but looks a little tooo competitive to me, but if anyone on here does it and thinks otherwise.....

Any pointers would be

Nick

[itsallyellow]

For 40k You could easily race in the tuscan challenge.

There is a very varried grid and a chim or griff would fit in class B.

mike

[chassis 33]

There's a Chim on eBay at present, needs a set of Dunlops and you can be out playing with me in Class C of the Dunlop Tuscan Challenge this season. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1995-TVR-CHIMAE

Get used to the car this year and 'charge it next year.
Regards
Iain
BTW last season from buying the road car to finishing the season cost about £20k although I made alot of my own mistakes along the way, a budget of about £6k a season thereafter is do-able if you do the work yourself.

Edited by chassis 33 on Wednesday 21st March 13:23

[Podie]

There's a Tasmin racer for sale in the classifieds...

[Graham]

There are quite a few TIV racers in various classes ready to go..

from Tuscans to tasmins...

There are also a couple of Tuscans available now on arrive and drive.

I can put you in touch if you like

Cheers

Graham

[wedgeman]

The Tuscan Challenge is excellent and is growing at a rapid rate of knots - a good Rover V8 5 litre will get you towards the top of Class B - and should be quite kind to your wallet.

Cheers - Howard
Car 13

[pvapour]

Thanks chaps!

itsallyellow said:

For 40k You could easily race in the tuscan challenge.

There is a very varried grid and a chim or griff would fit in class B.

mike

thanks, I'll look into this one, std. 5.0 Grif/Chim was a little under powered on track for me so was hoping to S/C the car, not sure what class (if any) it would fit into then

chassis 33 said:

Get used to the car this year and 'charge it next year.
Regards
Iain
BTW last season from buying the road car to finishing the season cost about £20k although I made alot of my own mistakes along the way, a budget of about £6k a season thereafter is do-able if you do the work yourself.

Edited by chassis 33 on Wednesday 21st March 13:23

Had two Chimaeras (4.0 & 5.0) clocking up 50k miles between them, probably about 20 track days also, so quite familiar with the cars 'characteristics' so its just the racing side of things and adrenalin pump that'll need to get a hang of (and repairing fibre glass ) Allowing for the odd misshap, sounds like my budget is about right then.

Graham said:

There are also a couple of Tuscans available now on arrive and drive.

I can put you in touch if you like

Thanks for the email Graham(think it was yourself), sounds intersting, maybe a good idea to see how I get on with this class before shelling out my 'dream' money obviously I have to get my liscence dorted first, any pointers? not realy into the tasmins to be honest, but the tuscans what are the costs / breakdown on an arrive and drive basis (emails fine)

Edited by pvapour on Saturday 24th March 08:26

[trackcar]

If you're thinking of a car then check the regs carefully, they should be standardised this year soon (only a week to the first race lol!) .. you might find yourself in a supercharged griff 5 litre which will feel fast untiul the silhouette race gtfs come flying past with their bespoke racing guts.

Pick a car to make the best use of the class regs, or you'll find yourself with few points at the end of the year. best bet is still a relatively std chim/griff in class C against the tasmins and chassis33. you could easily be a series winner with a stable reliable well driven class c car, i'm surprised no-one's really exploited this class to its potential.

I guess it boils down to : do you want to learn a potential series winning lower class car for next year or just race something blinking fast that might come in 5th or 6th in class all the time. ?



happy hunting and welcome

[D_Mike]

pvapour said:

OK, so i've been saving (£ & time) for a while now & have now got the means to go and fulfil a childhood dream of being a 'racing car driver'

argh!

[pvapour]

D_Mike said:

pvapour said:

OK, so i've been saving (£ & time) for a while now & have now got the means to go and fulfil a childhood dream of being a 'racing car driver'

argh!

is this the series you are all refering to www.readmanracing.co.uk

Graham, seem to have lost that last email, could you send again please?

Edited by pvapour on Tuesday 27th March 09:56

[Graham]

pvapour said:

thanks, I'll look into this one, std. 5.0 Grif/Chim was a little under powered on track for me so was hoping to S/C the car, not sure what class (if any) it would fit into then

Whilst we all want more and more power, once you throw in the competition angle and going wheel to wheel with a couple of other cars, as long as you've got someone to fight with having loads and loads of power isnt as important.

I've had some mega battles in the old tasmin and some boring races in the tuscan i.e snett last year after marc stopped and nobody to play with..in a car with over twice the power and less weight. in fact one of the best races i've had was fighting for last place at Thruxton with bolderson in the tasmin. my engine had snapped a rockershaft so was a couple of pots down Bolders was balistic down the straights but slow round the bends so i overtook on the corners and he came past on the straight.

So even if you find a car slow on a track day it might be plenty fast enough to keep you occupied as iain tries to go up the inside, Mark F spins in front of you and a couple of sag's come blasting past round the outside at warp factor 10..

What you want is somthing that will be competitive against others, reliable and safe..

G


p.s. That 7k chim is a steal in my book, even if you bunged a 5ltr in there

[teamHOLDENracing]

trackcar said:

Pick a car to make the best use of the class regs, or you'll find yourself with few points at the end of the year. best bet is still a relatively std chim/griff in class C against the tasmins and chassis33. you could easily be a series winner with a stable reliable well driven class c car, i'm surprised no-one's really exploited this class to its potential.

But any Griff or Chim, unless fitted with a normally aspirated engine of less than 3.0 litres, should be in Class B, according to the strict class regulations.

I think John Reid has the attitude that provided a car is not wildly out of its class he does not apply the regs strictly - it will be interesting to see whether he needs to do something this year.

However the point is that as a club series it seems to be on the up with growing grid numbers. As grid numbers grow you can be a bit more scientific/objective about class breaks.

Its a good series to have a go in and there are cars available which are relatively cheap. I would advise people to buy a car that is already ready to race as it is always far more expensive to convert a road car. Of course there are some (myself included this year) who would rather build a car up from scratch, but it is an expensive option.

[teamHOLDENracing]

I forgot to add that my Class A Tuscan is available, under certain conditions, for hire on an arrive and drive basis. E mail me through my profile if you want to discuss further details.

Regards

Andy

[trackcar]

teamHOLDENracing said:

trackcar said:

Pick a car to make the best use of the class regs, or you'll find yourself with few points at the end of the year. best bet is still a relatively std chim/griff in class C against the tasmins and chassis33. you could easily be a series winner with a stable reliable well driven class c car, i'm surprised no-one's really exploited this class to its potential.

But any Griff or Chim, unless fitted with a normally aspirated engine of less than 3.0 litres, should be in Class B, according to the strict class regulations.

I think John Reid has the attitude that provided a car is not wildly out of its class he does not apply the regs strictly - it will be interesting to see whether he needs to do something this year.

However the point is that as a club series it seems to be on the up with growing grid numbers. As grid numbers grow you can be a bit more scientific/objective about class breaks.

Its a good series to have a go in and there are cars available which are relatively cheap. I would advise people to buy a car that is already ready to race as it is always far more expensive to convert a road car. Of course there are some (myself included this year) who would rather build a car up from scratch, but it is an expensive option.

Oh, i understood the regs to be a loose 250 hp for C, 350hp for B and anything more radical in A .. and that reasonably standard 4 litre TVRs would run in C against the more heavily modded tasmins .. has that changed yet again? I'm pleased to see the numbers growing in the sries though

[teamholdenracing]

trackcar said:

Oh, i understood the regs to be a loose 250 hp for C, 350hp for B and anything more radical in A .. and that reasonably standard 4 litre TVRs would run in C against the more heavily modded tasmins .. has that changed yet again? I'm pleased to see the numbers growing in the sries though

I understand the regs are unchanged from 2006 which were:

Class C: up to 3 litre normally aspirated and under 250bhp
Class B: up to 3 litre forced induction or 3 litre to 5 litre normally aspirated up to 350 bhp
Class A: Over 3 litre forced induction or over 5 litre normally aspirated, over 350bhp

But as I said, I think John applied the regs very loosely last year. With grid numbers on the up and the two main protaganists in Class B (and others!) adding significant power over the winter, it may need tightening up. We'll need to see what happens on track....

[jellison]

Presume you could get a Tuscan (no the SP6 - not going to last long racing!) for and a good AJP for that surely.