You ain't nothin' but a hound dog...

Well, it appears I've bought a pup. Not necessarily a big deal given my plans, but annoying nonetheless. Had a chat to Dan Taylor at Dan Taylor TVR, and basically it goes like this:

Outriggers - worst he's ever seen. This is really annoying because I had a poke and a prod when I bought the car, and I didn't spot this. Subsequently I stuck a screwdriver through them, but didn't realise the total state of them at this point. Large bill for this to be sorted. I did kind of expect this (after my 2nd prodding session) as I'm not the lucky kind, but confirmation wasn't really welcome.

Radiator. This was unexpected. Car ran fine to temp, nothing untoward at all. However, it's apparently rusted to buggery and weeping. It's an expensive part, and fitting it is not cheap either. Balls.

Plug leads and extenders. On the TVR, a set of plug extenders is used to help shield the HT leads from heat from the exhaust manifolds. Apparently there are a couple missing, and these are no longer available to fit the original leads. Uprated leads are the answer, and then there are some extenders that fit with these. Not cheap though (of course).

Other than that, just a small oil leak from the sump gasket. Probably a good thing because it's kept the main chassis from going the same way as the outriggers!

It's annoying, but somewhat inevitable. The car was cheap when it was new, and cheaper now - during it's life it has bound to have not had the care it's needed because the owners would not have had the means to give it that. I'm most annoyed about the outriggers. It's a known problem, I knew about it, and still didn't spot that the one I was buying had the issue. Total muppetry.

On the plus side, the wishbones are solid (another weak point), generally the suspension is in good shape (shocks are a bit rusty and not nice, but they're original, so to be expected), and everything else 'wrong' with the car is cosmetic. Because of the bills incurred , the shiny bits I've bought are not on the car (because I didn't want to pay Dan Taylor's rates for fitting bits once I knew I needed to splash out on the above essentials), so now I'll have to put them on myself. Be the New Year now though....

TVR Chimaera Forum on Pistonheads

Generally full of tossers. And the TVR Griffith vs Chimaera 'war of banter' is really tiresome. Don't understand how anyone gets any value at all out of it (the forum, that is - the banter thing is innately not valuable). Most of the questions are asked over and over again. Annoyingly I even found that one I had asked is a repeat! The search was busted at the time (that's my excuse anyway). I suppose that generally the world is full of prats, so it's inevitable that a load of them go out and buy TVRs. It's no different on the Land Rover forum I'm on, and I've heard reports of the same on the Porsche forums too (but that one was really inevitable!).

TVR Chimaera - Short Update

Very short update. The only 'work' I did on the TVR today was to swap the filler cap for a Leven Technologies one.

Before:



After:



I have a load more shiny and go-faster bits to put on the car tucked away in the garage. I'm following a policy of not going on about what's going to happen in future with the bits because there doesn't seem to be much point in a load of pics of shiny bits when they're not on the car and I can't write about what difference it makes.

This change purely cosmetic (I guess like the last couple), but there'll be a few changes coming up that are more about the cars dynamics than these...

TVR Chimaera - Steering wheel, column stalks

Don't like the steering wheel and column stalks that come with the car. Wheel just has to be a Moto-Lita, a classic British wheel for a classic British car.

This is the cockpit before:



So it looks sort of odd - you have this wood dash with ally rimmed dials, then these rather incongruous plastic stalks and a black steering wheel. Steering wheel is just too large too - catches my leg.

On to ebay and got some ally stalks. There was a company called Leven Technology who used to make these types of thing for TVRs, but they were in the process of being sold when I was looking for these, so ebay came to the rescue. Moto-Lita, on the other hand is a cottage industry knocking out quality steering wheels made by skilled personnel. They supply all sorts of cars their wheels, but mostly in the classic car arena.

I ordered a 12" wheel, with holes, and a black leather rim:



This is the old wheel off the car:



Because Moto-Lita don't make a steering wheel boss for my car, they supplied an adaptor ring to fit my car's original boss. This is great, but the boss is black, and all Moto-Lita's supplied gear is polished. So bit of a dilemma. I decided to give the boss a polish. This is the before shot:



and this is about 75% of the way through polishing (didn't get an 'after' shot - was getting late):



I'd ordered a horn push too, because the old one wouldn't fit my new wheel, and it was a nasty plastic piece of crap too!

Anyway, this is the 'after' photo for the job:

TVR Chimaera -headlight bulbs, more pics.

Took a few more pics today. Basically wanted to do a couple of jobs:

1) Change the headlight bulbs (the nearside one wasn't working on dipped beam)
2) Fit ally indicator stalks and new steering wheel.

On the TVR, the bulbs are behind a glassfibre panel in the front of the wheelarch. This is held on by 3 screws and silicone sealant (!). So pretty much impossible to do without taking the wheels off.

This is the nearside:



and this is the offside:



Got some real concerns about the state of the chassis:



So it's going to see Dan Taylor TVR (http://www.taylortvr.co.uk/) on Dec 13th.

Thought I'd also take a pic of the front wheel. 15" wheels not easy to get good tyres for, and wheel is tiny!



While the car was out, took a few more pics:









The bulbs I chose where Osram Nightbreaker, because they won a comparative test in a classic car mag. There's some blurb here.

Although the Chim's headlights are supposed to be crap (so are the TVR Griffith's), I didn't want to go the HiD option - doubts about legality and whether the car's electrics will stand it.

The steering wheel and stalks didn't get done - next post!

TVR Chimaera - New to me

With my previous 'toy' car gone, and also my wife's Z3 too (because we now have a daughter, we needed to trade her Z3 for a family car), there was room for another toy. This had to be driveable by my wife (she didn't like my previous kit-car - too raw), and it had to be a bit more gutsy than her old Z3 (which I didn't like - too girly).

So, I have always like the British roadster thing - TR4,5,6's, MG Roadsters, E-types, Marcos and of course TVR. These ticked the boxes, but I also did want something of a project, so bought a relatively inexpensive 1998 Chimaera 400 in Starmist Blue with blue over magnolia interior. The 400 is the entry level Chimaera, and the Chimeara is pretty well the entry level TVR, so that's where I'm at! Car has poor paintwork with lots of scratches and stonechips. Mechanically it's OK, interior is good (but with the usual TVR splits in the dashboard veneer).

These are very much the 'before' pics. The plan is a rolling resto-custom - essentially my aim is to create the car that I'd like the TVR Chimaera to be (the 'custom' bit), but without destroying the TVR inside, and sticking to various ideals and (I guess) TVR dogmas along the way (the resto bit). In the pics the car is pretty clean (the puddles are caused by me washing it), but day is very overcast:







Clearly, TVR's have a reputation for not being put together very well, and being lethal to their owners. Pulling up at my local garage, the owner exclaimed "oh God, he's bought a widow-maker!". Not sure I really agree. The other owners I don't know many of. Got a mate who drives a Griffith, clearly he's OK! I've been in the TVR car club for some time now (I guess getting on for 5 years), but I've not been to a meet yet - I was really waiting until I had a car, or a car was imminent at least. I think I need to go - mostly my impression is based on the Pistonheads Chimaera forum where I was slightly worried that there's a 20+ page thread on aftermarket wheels, but nobody seems to know what make or size tyres they run. Hopefully they're not just a bunch of posers and that there's some who actually appreciate the performance and visceral nature of the cars, and not just the V8 engine noise. Come to think of it, I haven't see many TVRs at track days I've been to over the last few years. So I guess I need to get along and meet a few owners. Hopefully I won't regret that! Overall, though, these are minor points - I think the car great already, and once the project is underway and I've stamped my own mark on it, it'll be all the greater.

I've started to collect URLs that will be useful along the way:

Tools for getting at the awkward manifold bolts (Pistonheads thread)

The aftermarket wheel thread on Pistonheads

FAST Fuel injection thread on Pistonheads

Key conversion (to get rid of horrid Vauxhall key & seperate clicker)

Boot lock option (so that you can open the boot without the ignition on)

British American Engines

Hoses and clips

http://www.racetuners.com/ - Balancing

Dax Rush

I had a Dax Rush. Perhaps writing about it here is some sort of cartharsis. I bought it. I liked is as is, but it wasn't me. I probably should have just built one, but there was never the time to do that. So I bought it, complete. With piped leather seats and dash, with oldy-worldy dials on it. And a fuel injected pinto that stuck out of the bonnet:







Did a track day like this:



with my good mate who was racing Porsche 924's at the time:



Brands Hatch, 2006.

It didn't last long like that, and was soon in pieces for the first time:





The brakes 'needed' upgrading, and the wheel centres had to be black!







At the time I was working away in a very damp garage. Brakes awesome though!

Engine had been rebuilt, it didn't go badly, but even with only 700ish kilos to drag around with it's 110-ish bhp, it still struggled to break the 7 second to 60 barrier (although it has to be remembered that this was on the road in 'real' conditions, not on some sticky Santa Pod-like surface).



An LSD rear end from an XR4x4 was found on the 'bay:



and various bilt-hamber products used to clean bits of it up:



The wheels were put back on:



and various other bits (new dashboard, new dials etc:





and that's how it stayed for a short time. Tore about a bit like this, but managed to touch down heavily on local roads, needed a new sump:



Which again, was found on the 'bay. It's proper RS2000 one.

Took the car to car limits. Was massive fun, learnt a lot:





But again, a bit bored with how fast it went. So apart it came again:



>



and ebay again investigated:



Engine had only done 60K, but was bottom end had all new ARP bolts put into it, and after stripping all the usual mondeo gubbins off, was very much lighter. In fact I could easily lift it onto a workbench without the use of a hoist. With the Pinto, no chance!







Garage was still very damp at this stage...

I'd also had 2nd thoughts about the dash, and started again:



After a lot of help from next door neighbours, I got the engine in again:



with a new alloy rad. Looking smart!

The car itself was looking very scruffy by this time:



the wiring was all over the show and nothing was really working. It was a collection of shiny go-faster bits.









And then finally we got our new garage started. In this time, the Dax had been in a neighbour's barn, and under a cover outside the house, and was starting to look bad. Nothing could be done about it, just had to wait until the garage was finished. And we waited, and winter came, the building stopped:



At some point in the early spring, the garage was finished enough to actually do some work. I was itching to sort the car out, and John the mechanic was drafted in to help. He swore alot and said the head needed rebuilding - this was purely as a result of it being left in various damp atmospheres:






the bores were OK though, and we gave them a good clean up:



John did the head:




The engine got built up:







The cams got timed in:



The car got rebuilt, and after a few late night sessions:





The electrics were yet to come. As I'd converted the car to use Emerald ECU and injection, there were plenty of electrics to go round. And of course, the computerised Dash2 I'd added:



This dash talks to the ECU via a CAN interface. Very clever it all is too.



I just needed to get some metalwork done, and i'd be nearly there!



But there was of course more trickery with computers needed:



Once that was over, she was ready to drive again:









Did some more track days, some amateur time trials again, and we'd cracked the 6 seconds to 60 now! Car is much faster, and with the new Kumho Ecstas on the rims, was very very grippy!

In the middle of all this somewhere, my baby daughter was born. This car became impractical on so many levels and so it (and my wife's z3, which I never liked driving) had to go.

Final work included sorting out the binnacle to lose all the horrible Ford stalks, relocating the hazard switch under the dash and fitting self-designed push button indicators and full beam switches:



All in all, she ended up, after the longest time that any car has spent in my ownership, like this:













Dax is now in the Netherlands.