RE: jellison's TVR Chimera 500

[topsparks]

Its bloody fast ,he took me for a spin on Monday,it sounds great and pulls like a train.He is still running it in so will have to wait for LeMans to see the the full monty !,still I sould have my 5.5 in the Griff by then so I should'nt be too far behind !.

[jellison]

I'll get GingerNinja to give a few comments as have experienced it wound up a little more!

Makes the 500 engine feel totally Gutless (TOTALLY)- can't ANYTHING (outside bonker boost Ricer's beating it).

[nztrev]

Good Man..
When are you going to get rid of those vette covers.

[Guillotine]

jellison said:

I'll get GingerNinja to give a few comments as have experienced it wound up a little more! Makes the 500 engine feel totally Gutless (TOTALLY)- can't ANYTHING (outside bonker boost Ricer's beating it).

...I'll give it a go in september, Jon i'm sure the BOSS cerbera and 420SEAC will too.

Top job mate...lovely looking installation too!

[GingerNinja]

Yeah it's rather quick, but doesn't seem like it - very flat power delivery - so much torque that you can stick it in 5th at 10mph and just go for it - suddenly found ourselves doing license threatening speeds. Sounds fantastic, installation looks great - and it's still being run-in. I've recently been out in a Ferrari 550, a GT2 and a Vanquish S and this thing will spank them all.....

[jellison]

nztrev said:

Good Man.. When are you going to get rid of those vette covers.

I like those covers - Its a statement - It looks like it was intended to be there not like the RV8.

The beat of the Engine is Awesome C5R.....

[simonsparrow]

Looks really good, can you give any indication of costs? Email me offline if you like.

I'm just curious as to how much as it could be an option for my Cerbera, and being a hybrid might be easier to get back into NZ (perhaps NZTrev can comment) in a few years time.

[tvrolet]

jellison said:

Makes the 500 engine feel totally Gutless (TOTALLY)- can't ANYTHING (outside bonker boost Ricer's beating it).

The motor I'm dropping in mine has just been dyno's at around 480ft/lb....and it made 420ft/lb at 200rpm

I think it'll be a few lbs under the Chimaera's weight too

WB

[loose cannon]

look's superb bet it goes even better

[Boosted LS1]

tvrolet said:

jellison said: Makes the 500 engine feel totally Gutless (TOTALLY)- can't ANYTHING (outside bonker boost Ricer's beating it). The motor I'm dropping in mine has just been dyno's at around 480ft/lb....and it made 420ft/lb at 200rpm I think it'll be a few lbs under the Chimaera's weight too WB

Is this an alloy gen 3 stroker, maybe a modded ls2?

Boosted.

[nztrev]

simonsparrow said:

Looks really good, can you give any indication of costs? Email me offline if you like. I'm just curious as to how much as it could be an option for my Cerbera, and being a hybrid might be easier to get back into NZ (perhaps NZTrev can comment) in a few years time.

Hi Simon
There are still no ways of getting TVR's in NZ besides carving up you p&j and taking a chance in declaring it a Scratch built car,its still on the dark side of grey however.
We are looking into getting a special motorsport excemption,but again it would mean turning your car into a racecar and showing log's of attended races.
Hopefully by the time your comming home,TVR will of started crash testing,it still won't help the old cars however.
Off to Karekare now for the long weekend,the weather here's been lousy.(like being back in the UK...)

[jodypress]

the engine conversion looks amazing, how much did it cos to convert and how long?

[mrmop]

echo everyones thoughts here, looks amazing, very proffesional and I too would love to know the total cost, but also what it would cost to replicate to transplant into a cerbera.

Great job

[tvrolet]

Boosted LS1 said:

tvrolet said: jellison said: Makes the 500 engine feel totally Gutless (TOTALLY)- can't ANYTHING (outside bonker boost Ricer's beating it). The motor I'm dropping in mine has just been dyno's at around 480ft/lb....and it made 420ft/lb at 200rpm Is this an alloy gen 3 stroker, maybe a modded ls2? Boosted.

It's a new build from the ground up, but using an old (modified) 4-bolt mains iron block. Based on the casting number, it was cast around '72-'74....so for emmissions testing thats just 'no visible smoke'

Stroked to 383, decked, i-beam rods, bumpy cam, roller rockers, seriously reworked LS1 heads, single plane intake, race carb etc.

WB

[tvrolet]

Gazboy said:

Stroked to 383, decked, i-beam rods, bumpy cam, roller rockers, seriously reworked LS1 heads, single plane intake, race carb etc.

For the Ricer of the group, could you explain all that (bumpy cam is self explanitory)?

[/quote]

Stroked to 383 makes it a measly 6300cc

Decked means skimming off some metal from the mating surfaces under the heads. With standard pistons this would just increase the compression ratio, but also the new surface makes a nice new seal. Also necessary to match everything together when different crank, rods, pistons and heads are used.

i-beam rods and stronger than the standard style of conrods. If you were to saw one in half and look down the profile it's an I shape - like an rsj girder.

Cam, self explanitory...but if its really bumpy then the rockers have a hard job on top of the valves. As they move through an arc up and down, it would also mean they are dragging back and forward across the top of the valve. On a roller rocker, the rocker has a small roller that sits on top of the valve so as it arcs up and down the roller rolls back and forward across the valve. Net result is you can run a more extreme cam.

Reworked LS1 heads - well LS1 heads were the 'factory' high performance heads at one time. Only mine have had a visit to a man with wee grinder and a flow bench and have had much metal removed. I gather the valves are bigger too.

Most Chevys run a dual plane intake. This means that below the carb the routing in the manifold splits into 2 sets of 4. This typically gives more torque and better bottom end running as the intake pulses are balanced out. But this is at the expense of top-end breathing, and since my motor made 480ft/lb on the dual plane, we tried the single plane for a few more hp top-end. Just means that below the carb there no 'split' into 2 x 4, ir just goes to all 8 intakes.

The carb is a double pumper 4 barrel job. 4 barrel means it's got 4 chokes, and double pumper means both sets of 2 chokes have their own accelerator pumps. So putting the foot down is a bit like pouring fuel down the intake with a watering can.

...and there we have it.

WB

[drum4it2]

Great colour!! would love to see it some time - especially as I very nearly bought it when it was up for sale last year !!

[simonsparrow]

nztrev said:

simonsparrow said: Looks really good, can you give any indication of costs? Email me offline if you like. I'm just curious as to how much as it could be an option for my Cerbera, and being a hybrid might be easier to get back into NZ (perhaps NZTrev can comment) in a few years time. Hi Simon There are still no ways of getting TVR's in NZ besides carving up you p&j and taking a chance in declaring it a Scratch built car,its still on the dark side of grey however. We are looking into getting a special motorsport excemption,but again it would mean turning your car into a racecar and showing log's of attended races. Hopefully by the time your comming home,TVR will of started crash testing,it still won't help the old cars however. Off to Karekare now for the long weekend,the weather here's been lousy.(like being back in the UK...)

Sorry to hear about the weather. I'd be into the motorsport option, as I discussed it with the LTSA some time ago. I'd want to do sprints, hillclimbs and maybe the Targa events, so I'd be modifying the Cerbera anyway.

I used to race my car in NZ and had a logbook as I was running on dedicated LPG, so it always helped pave the way, until MANZ decided LPG wasn't a good fuel.

I'll be keeping tabs how you and Don (Cerbera/Chev hybrid) get on.

[rev-erend]

Gazboy said:

For the Ricer of the group, could you explain all that (bumpy cam is self explanitory)?

So - are you some kind of veggietarian.. (ricer ?)