The original Speed 12 (not the Cerbera Speed 12)
Discussion
I've found info on this car hard to come by, with differing reports on it. Firstly, did it ever make it to the road? Was it faster than the Cerbera Speed 12? Where are the models that were made now(I heard reports of it in the TVR scrapyard, but I doubt they'd scrap such an awesome beast).
lazyitus said:
It did race though. Is this one the same body as the purple picture above?
BRUTAL - as discribed by Clarkson.
I found a shrot video about it on Google with clarkson on, but it disappeared after a while. What exactly does he say about it in his video, apart from it being fast? Does he actually race it against the Ferrari and Mclaren F1? Also, how did it do in the racing?
Equinox said:
The one in the scrap yard was the motorshow body, the one that was just a mock body
I have a better idea. instead of throwing it away, they could give it to me, so I could pretend I have a Speed 12 on my drive. hahaa. Also, did the Speed 12 ever race against racing Mclaren F1s? Someone told me it did, and that it regularly beat them, but I haven't been able to verify this(I do know it raced against the Saleen S7 which isn't far off Mclaren speed, and it regularly gave that a good thrashing when I was watching).
I definately remember that it raced in the GT2 class against the Porkers/Marcos's, not against the GT1s like the Mc's and Listers. I always did think it was odd, having (claimed) 800bhp and being in the lower class, but then in most cases the racers have restricted power for race regulations over the road cars that are produced.
hot racer said:
I definately remember that it raced in the GT2 class against the Porkers/Marcos's, not against the GT1s like the Mc's and Listers. I always did think it was odd, having (claimed) 800bhp and being in the lower class, but then in most cases the racers have restricted power for race regulations over the road cars that are produced.
The Speed 12 was a GT1 car, so it raced against the Porsche GT1s, McLarens etc in British GT in '98. With GT1 restrictors it would've had about 650bhp.
Ahonen said:
I definately remember that it raced in the GT2 class against the Porkers/Marcos's, not against the GT1s like the Mc's and Listers. I always did think it was odd, having (claimed) 800bhp and being in the lower class, but then in most cases the racers have restricted power for race regulations over the road cars that are produced.
The Speed 12 was a GT1 car, so it raced against the Porsche GT1s, McLarens etc in British GT in '98. With GT1 restrictors it would've had about 650bhp.
Did it beat the Mclarens? I remember an arguement I had with a friend about whether the Mclaren would out handle the Speed 12. And also, the Speed 12 was GT1, and the Cerbera Speed 12 was GT2, because GT1 got scrapped. Does anyone know what the difference between GT1 and GT2 was?
everitj said:
Some info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TVR_Spee
Yep, read that(many times!). However, I don't remember there being Mclarens in races I watched on GT on 4.
Nickthebassist said:
I found a shrot video about it on Google with clarkson on, but it disappeared after a while. What exactly does he say about it in his video, apart from it being fast? Does he actually race it against the Ferrari and Mclaren F1? Also, how did it do in the racing?
I have the vid somewhere.
Clarkson just harped on about how brutal it looked and how unbelievably quick it was.
He wasn't even afforded a drive in it - they had some race driver doing the driving for the short bit of footage that they made.
< must did the tape out >
Equinox said:
The one in the scrap yard was the motorshow body, the one that was just a mock body
I very much doubt this was a working car, just a clay styling mock-up.
Nearly ALL clay styling mock ups have blacked out windows, as per the purple car, They are there to show the outer styling of the vehicle. Being clay, there is no interior to it.
The car in the picture was a fibreglass show body only and was destroyed in late 04. Other than that there was a Mk2 widebody road car and the white race car pictured. The White car was also destroyed in 04 in order to make the factory appear tidy. The last know where abouts of the purple mk2 road car was Liverpool about two years ago. Tooling was also destroyed.
Although the race car was brutal, the massive frontal area and poor dynamics meant that it was no match for the likes of the F1 in performance stakes. This ultimatley lead to the the cars demise.
Although the race car was brutal, the massive frontal area and poor dynamics meant that it was no match for the likes of the F1 in performance stakes. This ultimatley lead to the the cars demise.
I've got a video clip of Clarkson commenting on the white Speed 12 (same one as in the pic above I think) with it going round a test track....
...oh, just googled for it, and found it on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnU2Ztqw1fY&search=TVR
Enjoy.
Edited to add that the vid I have has better contrast that the youtube one, so the car details arent whited out.
>> Edited by GingerNinja on Sunday 23 April 09:47
...oh, just googled for it, and found it on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnU2Ztqw1fY&search=TVR
Enjoy.
Edited to add that the vid I have has better contrast that the youtube one, so the car details arent whited out.
>> Edited by GingerNinja on Sunday 23 April 09:47
member8888 said:
The car in the picture was a fibreglass show body only and was destroyed in late 04. Other than that there was a Mk2 widebody road car and the white race car pictured. The White car was also destroyed in 04 in order to make the factory appear tidy. The last know where abouts of the purple mk2 road car was Liverpool about two years ago. Tooling was also destroyed.
Although the race car was brutal, the massive frontal area and poor dynamics meant that it was no match for the likes of the F1 in performance stakes. This ultimatley lead to the the cars demise.
How much wider was the roadcar than the racecar? Why did they destroy the tooling, surely it'd have been useful to make parts for the Cerbera Speed 12? And as for the TVR versus the Mclaren, did they ever actually race to prove your claim of it being no match? Because on paper, the TVR had SO much more power, and was so much lighter than the Mclaren, that the dynamics would have been cancelled out.
Nickthebassist said:
The car in the picture was a fibreglass show body only and was destroyed in late 04. Other than that there was a Mk2 widebody road car and the white race car pictured. The White car was also destroyed in 04 in order to make the factory appear tidy. The last know where abouts of the purple mk2 road car was Liverpool about two years ago. Tooling was also destroyed.
Although the race car was brutal, the massive frontal area and poor dynamics meant that it was no match for the likes of the F1 in performance stakes. This ultimatley lead to the the cars demise.
How much wider was the roadcar than the racecar? Why did they destroy the tooling, surely it'd have been useful to make parts for the Cerbera Speed 12? And as for the TVR versus the Mclaren, did they ever actually race to prove your claim of it being no match? Because on paper, the TVR had SO much more power, and was so much lighter than the Mclaren, that the dynamics would have been cancelled out.
Roadcar and racecar were identical - in fact the roadcar never ran, only the racer had an engine.
No point keeping the tooling for the Cerbera Speed 12 because they were totally different cars, sharing only the engine, uprights and suspension rockers.
In GT rules the cars' power outputs are restricted by air inlet restrictors, so in race conditions they both had about 650bhp and the spaceframe TVR was no match for the McLaren. As for lighter, well I don't know about that. The F1 weighed 1000kg as a road and racecar, while I strongly suspect the TVR was heavier as it had a fibreglass body (which was very heavy) and its engine weighed 250kg alone.
Comparisons between the two are pretty meaningless - the McLaren was a full production car, while the TVR was a one-off that was outdated by the time it hit the track against some very well-developed opposition. If Neil is reading this I'm sure he wouldn't disagree.
It's a shame the car was destroyed as it's an important part of TVR's history. It should've been restored and placed in reception, along with other important TVRs, to create a small museum. I remain bemused at the company's lack of interest in retaining its history. Porsche has a museum to celebrate its heritage and I'd have thought TVR would do well to learn from that.
member8888 said:
The car in the picture was a fibreglass show body only and was destroyed in late 04. Other than that there was a Mk2 widebody road car and the white race car pictured. The White car was also destroyed in 04 in order to make the factory appear tidy. The last know where abouts of the purple mk2 road car was Liverpool about two years ago. Tooling was also destroyed.
Although the race car was brutal, the massive frontal area and poor dynamics meant that it was no match for the likes of the F1 in performance stakes. This ultimatley lead to the the cars demise.
Guess this was the road car?
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