A sad Christmas tale maybe

[dbv8]

Once upon a time a man going through part of his midlife crisis bought a TVR Chimaera 450 on ebay for a bargain £6050.





Did a bit of the turny stuff



Tried the ¼ mile and got hooked as you do



Soon got bored with only 270 bhp in 1060kg car. Started playing with the nitrous.





First ever run was 14 seconds NA, to low 13’s on Toyo R888s and down to 12.2 with a 60 shot of nitrous on day 2. A lot of messing about finally ran in the 11’s with a best of 11.6 @ 125.
Won Yorks Hotrod Challenge 2009



Got carried away and made schoolboy errors resulting in this



Got carried away again stripping the car down to discover this mess…





Repaired the chassis and painted with POR15



Currently in this state with new 3 way nitrons and uprated driveshafts.








After much deliberation I took the engine to Mike Johnson (Boosted LS) in Nottingham for the rebuild.
New ceramic coated forged pistons....



Big valve heads fitted with bronze guides, 3 angle seats and ported by Pete burgess




Bespoke cam from Kent, 238 inlet, 256 exhaust with a fair amount of nitrous in mind














Bottom end sorted, cam timed in, heads and rocker gear fitted and pushrods adjusted.

Now the engine is back home and I can hammer on the rest of the bits.

I have had the car over 4 years and its going to spend its second Christmas in the garage. Hopefully it will be up and running again by March.
By April it would be nice to have it run in, tuned up, and running low 11’s at York, then 10's at Santa pod in the Summer

[Dr Wolff]

Never mind what you did to the piston, looking at that outrigger, you were lucky not to fall through the floor!

[dbv8]

Dr Wolff said:

Never mind what you did to the piston, looking at that outrigger, you were lucky not to fall through the floor!

I landed hard after going airbourne off a humpback bridge near York raceway with those old outriggers.
That fibreglass floor held my 15 stone + quite well

[Dr Wolff]

dbv8 said:

Dr Wolff said:

Never mind what you did to the piston, looking at that outrigger, you were lucky not to fall through the floor!

I landed hard after going airbourne off a humpback bridge near York raceway with those old outriggers.
That fibreglass floor held my 15 stone + quite well

I was a little gobsmacked when I discovered that the seats have no attachement to the chassis other than through the fibreglass tub! There is a mod for that, isn't there? A couple of steel plates bolted on to the seat mounts under the fibreglass. No idea if any good or not.

[softtop]

Great pictures. I admire anyone that can work in a garage of that size. Puts me to shame since I always said I need more space to work, sounds like a cop out.....

[dbv8]

softtop said:

Great pictures. I admire anyone that can work in a garage of that size. Puts me to shame since I always said I need more space to work, sounds like a cop out.....

Thanks.
It does have its problems. I am balding on top and am usually sporting a scab or wound. Maybe some form of hat is in order

[macdeb]

Cool thread Those pistons look soooo good, shame to put them where you can't see 'em.

[spend]

All the nicest stuff always has to be hidden deep inside otherwise all you gannets would make nasty drool marks

[dbv8]

spend said:

All the nicest stuff always has to be hidden deep inside otherwise all you gannets would make nasty drool marks

Hi Dave
been trying to email you.... please let me know how much for the pushrods and valve... send me your detais please.

[spend]

Sorry Derek, saw your mails but was waiting to hear how many valves you used (left a bundle for Doris Day to do her flower arranging )

[Brummmie]

Those little Rover ports are soo cute!

[dbv8]

spend said:

Sorry Derek, saw your mails but was waiting to hear how many valves you used (left a bundle for Doris Day to do her flower arranging )

Ha.
Just the 1 i believe.

[Yellabelly]

Are you still running alloy rocker gear with those nasty little steel pads or have you converted to the steel top-end?

V8D recommended the change when I had mine rebuilt as the alloy rockers often lose one of the pads. In the grand scheme of things that change was not a vast sum of money but you know that it's one less thing to go wrong.

All looking good apart from having the wrong body fitted and in the wrong colour too!!!

YB

[dbv8]

Yellabelly said:

Are you still running alloy rocker gear with those nasty little steel pads or have you converted to the steel top-end?

V8D recommended the change when I had mine rebuilt as the alloy rockers often lose one of the pads. In the grand scheme of things that change was not a vast sum of money but you know that it's one less thing to go wrong.

All looking good apart from having the wrong body fitted and in the wrong colour too!!!

YB

The plan is to run in, test and tune with the standard rockers as in the pics. I hope to fit either uprated parts or a full roller set up before i start revving high and racing.

As for the comment on the body... it was cheap and i stand for the masses.
We all know blue is the fastest.

[TVRleigh_BBWR]

Dr Wolff said:

dbv8 said:

Dr Wolff said:

Never mind what you did to the piston, looking at that outrigger, you were lucky not to fall through the floor!

I landed hard after going airbourne off a humpback bridge near York raceway with those old outriggers.
That fibreglass floor held my 15 stone + quite well

I was a little gobsmacked when I discovered that the seats have no attachement to the chassis other than through the fibreglass tub! There is a mod for that, isn't there? A couple of steel plates bolted on to the seat mounts under the fibreglass. o idea if any good or not.

On the Race Tasmins we have two 4mm strips of metal from the chassis to the out rigger, and the seats are bolted to these.

[dbv8]

Latest pic, not much progress but i will be spending a lot more time in the garage soon enough.

Edited by dbv8 on Saturday 1st January 20:07

Edited by dbv8 on Saturday 1st January 20:09

[dbv8]

Painted the sump today while i had some energy!
The push begins