Why are Cerbs and Tuscs considered so unreliable?

[leemarkadams]

Hello all, just a question, at present I have a 5.0 Chim and am very happy with it, however have always lusted after a Cerb or a Tusc, but the thing that would put me off so much is the running costs and the unreliability...



Why are they considered to be so unreliable?



Just thinking of chnaging to a Cerb or a Tusc later in the year that is all..



Lee

[Don]

leemarkadams said:

Why are they considered to be so unreliable?

Can opened. Worms everywhere.

[TuscNick]

leemarkadams said:

Why are they considered to be so unreliable?

Are they ?



No one has ever mentioned that on PH !!



I find my Tuscan (and my previous) to be very good !



I suppose it depends on who you talk to, some people have had good experiences some not so good -



but as we all know bad news tends to spread more than good - just look at the daily newspapers - how much is positive good news?



I suppose it also depends whether "they" (the people top whom your refer) are Positive or negative people - the glass is half full for me - so my Tuscans have been great !!



Waiting to see the worms and the can



Nick

[V8 GRF]

I'm sure a search with the words "speed six", "rebuild" or similar will get you endless reading.



In short they are racing engines and hand built. They need warming up and restricted revs before being hammered. Many weren't and failed, also build and design problems.



Plenty of good ones out there and plenty of rebuilt ones, buy carefully on history and condition.



(Potted history to give the gist not definitive answer.)

[apache]

Are parts becoming harder to find?

[Don]

V8 GRF said:

also build and design problems.

TVR were also unlucky in that they were supplied with some defective bits as I understand it. Engines fitted with these failed. A big wealthy manufacturer might have recalled all such engines and retrofitted a fix prior to failure. TVR could not do this for reasons of affordability and resourcing. Instead blown engines were fixed as and when they went wrong and TVR accepted responsibility.



Understandably this dragged out the failures over a long period and the speed six engine got a bad reputation.



Now: a speed six, well looked after not fitted with defective parts may well be a reasonably reliable engine. Lots of owners have had speed six cars that have been OK. Enough owners had 'em that weren't.



Cue hundreds of threads on PH debating the relative merits of the SS engine and the cars fitted with it.



As for my perspective? I have always really liked the Tuscan. The one I test drove was amazing and felt well put together (in the TVR style of doing things - handmade).



I didn't buy it. Friends did. Each to their own.

[rev-erend]

I think I can answer this ..



In the mid 1990's (1995) TVR or more precisly Peter Wheeler was making sports cars with a good old fashioned formula :



Big unstressed engine (Rover V8 based)

Griffs & Chims were uncomplicated .. electric windows, Land Rover ECU (with a new map) .. basically a solid un-complicated sports car.



At some point he decided that his company could only relaly challenge Porsche and other companies if it had it's own engines and more power than the humble Rover V8 could produce.



He knew he needed 350 bhp plus ..



So - he found a guy (Melling) who already had plans for a bespoke V8 (Cerbera engine) ...

and away they went and created.



Original plan was to put it in the existing cars - Griff / Chim but I think they quickly realised that that cars were not long enough in the wheelbase .. great if you are Colin McRae and like to travel side ways - so TVR designed the Cerbera ..



They also upgraded the feble single pot brakes to AP four pots .. these seem to require regular attention..



They also added electronic trickery to open doors - by droping the window glass to give a better roof line .. again these 'sometimes' have been reliable.



So - there we have it.



TVR wanted to compete with Porsche (IMHO) and whilst I think for a very small company they have been very successful in that aim - many have found the problems just to much to live with. Many ex-owners just don't

want so many problems..



Are Porsche and BMW with out problems .. I Don't think so .. both have recorded issues but bigger companies have more development budgets and can force suppliers to have better controls. Sadly TVR never really could do that.



To finish - don't let this stop you from upgrading to a Cera or Tuscan / T350 / Tamora : you just need to set aside more for maintenance and a rainy day. THey are still superb cars and I loved every minuite with my T350 !

Edited by rev-erend on Wednesday 23 May 16:56