So what's it like to drive the 520SE these days?

[shpub]

Kevin Leaper (PPC Mag) and I went to play at the Mallory test morning yesterday. He brought his 928 Porsche and during the last session we swapped cars. Here's some of the incar video. Note the way the 520SE left an XJS V12 and his very own Porsche in its wake. The red light on the dash was the alternator charge light as the fan belt was slipping. As a result, the car was about 70-100 bhp down on normal..

The file is up on one of my websites

http://www.shpub.co.uk/movies/kev520se.mov

It is Quicktime as I haven’t got round to converting them to wmv yet.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime72...

[TVRleigh_BBWR]

What track was that.
Suprized he had to turn the wheel so much though the hairpin.

sounded nice.

hopfully have mine sorted soon.

[Richybaby]

Awesome! that's some serious grunt there, can I have a go

[GreenV8S]

That looks like fun!

[trackcar]

Good vid there, looks good fun and sounds like a meaty wedge should I love the way the little Ginetta nips past everyone into the distance never to be seen again though. The second lap is 56 secs with some holding up in traffic so pretty quick for someone in a strange car and possibly on tyres not up to temperature judging by the slight drift (I like to see that!) our 2.8 tasmin did a 57.0 and the turbo car did 51.2 but the turbo car was at the end of it's development period. Please post some more footage up Steve if you have some, always good to see an older TVR showing the newer stuff how it's done

[Waynester]

Good stuff as ever Steve.. well done on spreading the 'word' to these so called car mags...brill.

I still have a dvd with the 520 given out at bbwf '04.

Love it

[350zwelgje]

Waynester said:

I still have a dvd with the 520 given out at bbwf '04.

+1

Rob
(and now it is about time I get my act together and get my std 350i wedge back on the road instead of looking at other people enjoying the real thing)

[shpub]

trackcar said:

Good vid there, looks good fun and sounds like a meaty wedge should I love the way the little Ginetta nips past everyone into the distance never to be seen again though. The second lap is 56 secs with some holding up in traffic so pretty quick for someone in a strange car and possibly on tyres not up to temperature judging by the slight drift (I like to see that!) our 2.8 tasmin did a 57.0 and the turbo car did 51.2 but the turbo car was at the end of it's development period. Please post some more footage up Steve if you have some, always good to see an older TVR showing the newer stuff how it's done

To be honest it was more a get used to the car test than push it 100% and the circuit was a little crowded.
Kev is sprinting the car with me at Abingdon as part of a feature on the car. The angle is not only to get the story of the car's development on a limited budget but also what it is like for a relative new comer to drive the car in anger. As Kev has said "if you were given the chance to drive a 500+ bhp car and were encouraged to push it... what would you do?"

He hasn't been dropped in from day 1 though. He drove the car for about 20-30 mins at a Gold Track day at Silverstone in Feb to see how he got on and if he wanted to proceed. I was impressed with his attitude of taking it slowly and building things up. It will be interesting to see how we get on at Abingdon.
He does keep saying through the grin on his face just how much grunt and grip it has and balanced it feels. I think he had an original impression that the car would spin him into a hard thing at the least provocation.

I do have a feeling that the Wedge won't ever reach the end of its development period...

PS Richybaby - you can't have a go. However, give me your credit card and I'll make your car go like this!

[rev-erend]

Nice one .. looks like me was taking it easy .. sure was a lot of cars on track.