Cerbera real world pace - just how quick is it?

[BCA]

Quick bit of background info;

The Weapon - A 4.5 litre, TrackCarSolutions fettled Cerbera, just passed 72k miles (never rebuilt, ours for 68k miles), not amazing peak power (not in the 400+club or that close yet..)but beautifully smooth delivery, road biased tyres(Toyo T1R proxies), avo dampers with TrackCar springs and set up, standard interior except for an additional volt meter/different head unit/heater fan display. In short, very much so a pretty much standard 10 year old TVR Cerbera 4.5... it just happens to be used for Dads daily commute and then hillclimbed/sprint/speed trialed at weekends - its not led an easy life.

The place - Brighton Speed Trials, Madiera Drive, Brighton Sea Front - no sticky surfaces like Santa pod, lots of bumps, interesting surfaces and generally not particularily quick. As its name suggests - this is the public road usually and therefore provides a REAL WORLD indication of what would actually happen off the lights against other cars.


The results:

http://www.brightonandhovemotorclub.co.uk/speed200...

Read through them all, take it all in, and now grin. The Skylines/Porches were heavily tuned (4wd)jobbies, many of the cars ran slicks/ sticky track biased tyres, many were stripped out and tuned to the nines. As you can see, in our class we were 5th fastest overall in raw times, 2nd fastest rear wheel drive behind a nuts Caterham 7. Also worth noting further down the figures are the 599GTB that just beat us at the end (google its performance figures, its serious!) and check out how far off the F430 was/ the fact that the F40 just couldnt quite match. Closer to home, look at the Tuscan Racer - it was amazing - 6.0 chevy power, circa 500bhp, slicks, carbon wheels etc etc - just 0.7 quicker, or 1.1seconds quicker with nitrous (to bring it to 600ish!) Just to try and give you some perspective on the pace here...

Quite simply, in the real world - our TrackCarSolutions prepared Cerbera is one of the quickest road-biased cars out there. I'd advise caution if you happen to spot a Lamborghini LP640 - but otherwise, its pretty much *the* traffic light grand prix weapon of choice... The track is no where near as grippy as santa pod, so times arent quite comparable - but which ever way you cut it, 12.79seconds and 116mph terminal is simply unbelievably quick... just look at the calibre of car that is needed to even give it a fight. If any of you were there, you would have seen how serious (and mightily impressive) alot of the machinary was, our car was very easily overlooked. Hell, Dad came home from work, I got in - we drove to brighton, ran both runs and drove back home with a boot full of luggage/tools etc with the aircon on listening to various CDs - try that in your madly powerful Caterham.

The message is the same as last years; DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE YOUR CERBERA. Even more so thanks to the preperation by TrackCarSolutions and Dads improved launch technique/ overall technique. I cant put into words how proud I am of both the Cerb, Dad and Joolz for all that has been achieved.

If you want to go much faster in the real world, be prepared to pay - alot...

TrackCar, my endless thanks once more - it now revs cleanly to 7500, the power/torque is astonishingly smooth and pick up from the throttle has shown a huge improvement - you are an absolute star!

Edited by BCA on Monday 10th September 01:26

[BLUETHUNDER]

Is this add posted by joolz in disguise

Edited by BLUETHUNDER on Monday 10th September 06:59

[trackcar]

haha pleased you had fun Ben. Got the text from the day and it made me smile How much slower than the Pod is Brighton you think?

Good work anyway! best wishes
joo

[Raw Cerb]

Well done, you've done us proud. Cerb sounded great, and made the other standard cars sound like sewing machines.

I said hello to your Dad on the day, but missed you.

I gotta a short video for you, which is being uploaded to PH TV as I write.

[BCA]

Raw Cerb said:

Well done, you've done us proud. Cerb sounded great, and made the other standard cars sound like sewing machines.

I said hello to your Dad on the day, but missed you.

I gotta a short video for you, which is being uploaded to PH TV as I write.

Thanks for the kind words, the Cerb does sound amazing - but there were still some absolutely gorgeous sounding cars there - I am desperately in love with the LP640 for example! Infact, I spoke to the owner (same guy who owned the 599GTB) as we used to use his old Murci as a target, we would have beaten it this year I should think - but the LP640 has moved the game on considerably - hands down the most impressive car there for me, excepting of course the Cerb! Sorry I missed you, I was probably watching the runs or walking back to him - I tend to get verrry distracted at these kinds of events, far too much of a petrolhead to stay by our car in the paddock for a few hours! Glad you got a video, I look forward to seeing it - IIRC we have your video of last years run on our Desktop, I watched it about 20 times the night before this years trials!

trackcar said:

haha pleased you had fun Ben. Got the text from the day and it made me smile How much slower than the Pod is Brighton you think?

Good work anyway! best wishes
joo

Not entirely sure, its hard to guage - I heard a few rumblings of it being almost a second slower last time, but that may be just slightly optimistic! - we'll find out at some point im sure. I told Dad to text you immediately after the run, I knew you would smile!

BLUETHUNDER said:

Is this add posted by joolz in disguise

We should have stickered it up for the Speed Trials - I think the result is enough of an Ad for his services alone. I credit his work on our car as being the reason we stuck with it in the first few years and its his continual development that has now got the car to a point where its irreplaceable in our eyes.

[S5TVR]

I had a look at the results yesterday and it was good to see you flying the TVR flag so well. It's a pity there wasn't any SP6 cars running as they would probably be quicker still over the 1/4 mile.

[BCA]

S5TVR said:

I had a look at the results yesterday and it was good to see you flying the TVR flag so well. It's a pity there wasn't any SP6 cars running as they would probably be quicker still over the 1/4 mile.

That sounds like fighting torque... enter next year, we would love some S6 competition.

[Mars]

Got to agree with the OP. Mine accelerates off the line as though there was one end of a bungy tied to the front and the other to the horizon.

[Cyclone1]

BCA said:

S5TVR said:

I had a look at the results yesterday and it was good to see you flying the TVR flag so well. It's a pity there wasn't any SP6 cars running as they would probably be quicker still over the 1/4 mile.

That sounds like fighting torque... enter next year, we would love some S6 competition.

The Speed 6's did well at Fighting Torque mainly due to them being able to launch on that surface better than most of the Cerbs.

Still not seen a Speed 6 better 11.9 at the Pod though......

Jules.

[S5TVR]

BCA said:

S5TVR said:

I had a look at the results yesterday and it was good to see you flying the TVR flag so well. It's a pity there wasn't any SP6 cars running as they would probably be quicker still over the 1/4 mile.

That sounds like fighting torque... enter next year, we would love some S6 competition.

I did and will be again - top event !

[Seasider]

Cyclone1 said:

The Speed 6's did well at Fighting Torque mainly due to them being able to launch on that surface better than most of the Cerbs.

Cyclone1 said:

Still not seen a Speed 6 better 11.9 at the Pod though......

But you are the TVR Pod God

[BCA]

I'll happily admit I reckon they will launch better, but I dont quite think they have the torque to beat a well performing AJP8 over a 1/4 atleast... I could be wrong though, I look forward to seeing some Sixes there next year.

Im still in awe of the pace of the Cerb!!

I wish we had the 64ft data this year, it looks like that may be the key area where SantaPod gains... IIRC from previous years its 2.6s 64fts on a good launch with road biased tyres, which gives you an idea of how slippery it is! Cyclone, Dad uses a similar technique to the one you use, its been worth a tenth or two at every sprint/hillclimb so far, thanks for the correspondance about a year ago on the matter.

[BCA]

S5TVR said:

BCA said:

S5TVR said:

I had a look at the results yesterday and it was good to see you flying the TVR flag so well. It's a pity there wasn't any SP6 cars running as they would probably be quicker still over the 1/4 mile.

That sounds like fighting torque... enter next year, we would love some S6 competition.

I did and will be again - top event !

I meant the speed trials, though we will hopefully try and get to FT too... I did afterall come up with the name - unfortunately it was during our holiday so we couldnt attend.

[S5TVR]

Cyclone1 said:

BCA said:

S5TVR said:

I had a look at the results yesterday and it was good to see you flying the TVR flag so well. It's a pity there wasn't any SP6 cars running as they would probably be quicker still over the 1/4 mile.

That sounds like fighting torque... enter next year, we would love some S6 competition.

The Speed 6's did well at Fighting Torque mainly due to them being able to launch on that surface better than most of the Cerbs.
Still not seen a Speed 6 better 11.9 at the Pod though......
Jules.

That was grat run Jules at SP last year. I very much doubt a standard SP6 would ever beat that time. I'd like to see Paul's (Austec) Tamora have a go though as that is now putting out just shy of 430bhp. It's a pity that 1/4 times were not measured at Fighting Torque as we would have been very quick.

[Cyclone1]

S5TVR said:

Cyclone1 said:

BCA said:

S5TVR said:

I had a look at the results yesterday and it was good to see you flying the TVR flag so well. It's a pity there wasn't any SP6 cars running as they would probably be quicker still over the 1/4 mile.

That sounds like fighting torque... enter next year, we would love some S6 competition.

The Speed 6's did well at Fighting Torque mainly due to them being able to launch on that surface better than most of the Cerbs.
Still not seen a Speed 6 better 11.9 at the Pod though......
Jules.

That was grat run Jules at SP last year. I very much doubt a standard SP6 would ever beat that time. I'd like to see Paul's (Austec) Tamora have a go though as that is now putting out just shy of 430bhp. It's a pity that 1/4 times were not measured at Fighting Torque as we would have been very quick.

Agreed, but the different surface at Santa Pod might be more suited to the Cerb than the concrete at Fighting Torque, nearly all of the Cerbs struggled, whereas the Speed 6's were away with minimal fuss.

Pauls Tamora is indeed a special car and should be a low 12 if not mid 11 car at Santa Pod, it had a couple of runs last year and posted respectable times.

[Cyclone1]

Congrats on yet another good showing for the cerb.

[longbow]

Jules, just checked York Raceway, and the last RWYB is on the 14th Oct - I think I'll take the Cerb for a laugh, 12.4 to beat! I think your 335d would be hilarious to watch - beating things like Scoobies/Evos.... hey might even get my Cerb over the 1/4 based on how it went at FT!!! I'd be more than happy to let you have a go in mine to see if you can crack 12.4 - with the R888s and adjustable shocks you should be able to.........

What do you think? Anyone else in the Yorkshire area fancy it???

[Cyclone1]

Windsor, I may be up for this, it's always great to see a Cerb flying down the 1/4 mile. hopefully a few more of the Yorkshire TVR owners might be interested even if it is just to watch. May have to confirm nearer the day though as my wife will only be two weeks away from giving birth.

Jules.

[JensenA]

It seems that the SP6's launched better, could this be due to the narrower tyres? I have read threads on here where people are wanting to fit bigger Diam wheels and wider tyres to "achiieve more grip". I've never been convinced by this theory, There must be an optimum width for tyres, but obviuosly that would vary depending on the conditions and the road surface type.
I can remember years ago when I had an a BMW 3.0Si. I junked the standard wheels and tyres for some lovely wide Wolfrace's with huge wide tyres, because I thought they looked good (we all go through that stage) and I still remember the embarrassement of being beaten away from the lights by much lesser machinery because my lovely looking wide rear tyres just couldnt achieve any grip in anything other than near perfect dry conditions, and even then they werent brilliant.

[S5TVR]

BCA said:

I'll happily admit I reckon they will launch better, but I dont quite think they have the torque to beat a well performing AJP8 over a 1/4 atleast... I could be wrong though, I look forward to seeing some Sixes there next year.

Reflecting back on Austec Santa Pod last year, on balance, the SP6 cars did better than the Cerb 4.5's (Cyclone's car being the obvious exception) over the 1/4 mile. A standard 3.6 Tuscan I know of ran under 13s every run and a Tusc "S" ran 12.4. On the same day most Cerbs struggled to break 13s.