T350C horror story.......be warned..
Discussion
Well, I guess you all ought to know what happened last night, some of you may go 
some may go 
some may preach to me 
and some may have a good 
at me....
Took the T350 to work yesterday and had a good blat home last night along the back roads. Got home made a nice cup of tea and about an hour later I stood chatting on the phone admiring my beastie out of the lounge window, as I turned away I heard the alarm start going off.....
Imagine my horror as i turned to watch my £41K dream car roll down the drive backwards, knock the wall down and head serenely down the hill towards the Golf parked opposite..
Luckily the car ground to halt about 6ft from the Golf. By this time I was running out the house trying to stop the car doing any futher damage...
Initially I assumed that I had forgotten to apply the handbrake, so imagine my shock to open the car and find the handbrake fully on....
Luckily the car is not too badly damaged and only has a minor scuff where it made contact with the wall. I'm having some corrective paintwork done in a couple of weeks anyway so it could have been far, far worse.
My biggest concern is that once again TVR have made a car with a handbrake that appears to be practically useless, from now on I'll be leaving the car in gear.
My only other theory is that I got the brakes quite hot on the way home and that when they cooled off the handbrake slipped....
It's in for the first service tomorrow, so I'll have it checked over, but any T350 owners reading this I would advise to leave the car in gear when you park it.
some may go some may preach to me and some may have a good at me.... Took the T350 to work yesterday and had a good blat home last night along the back roads. Got home made a nice cup of tea and about an hour later I stood chatting on the phone admiring my beastie out of the lounge window, as I turned away I heard the alarm start going off.....
Imagine my horror
as i turned to watch my £41K dream car roll down the drive backwards, knock the wall down and head serenely down the hill towards the Golf parked opposite.. Luckily the car ground to halt about 6ft from the Golf. By this time I was running out the house trying to stop the car doing any futher damage...
Initially I assumed that I had forgotten to apply the handbrake, so imagine my shock to open the car and find the handbrake fully on....
Luckily the car is not too badly damaged and only has a minor scuff where it made contact with the wall. I'm having some corrective paintwork done in a couple of weeks anyway so it could have been far, far worse.
My biggest concern is that once again TVR have made a car with a handbrake that appears to be practically useless, from now on I'll be leaving the car in gear.
My only other theory is that I got the brakes quite hot on the way home and that when they cooled off the handbrake slipped....
It's in for the first service tomorrow, so I'll have it checked over, but any T350 owners reading this I would advise to leave the car in gear when you park it.
Well, I guess you all ought to know what happened last night, some of you may go
Can we register all four in one go please?
Bad luck - as far as the ability of the TVR handbrake (not Ned's finest hour!) at least you can say:
"They all do that, Sir!"
(then again I need a loan to buy a Mars bar 
)
sorry to hear this it makes you wince!
still you can always put it down for the 1,000 mile service and say a chunk of GRP flaked off in normal use...
I had this on my cerb, but fortunately managed to wedge a rock under the front wheel before it hit my house (car was locked at time and keys were in house). Its definately the break disks shrinking as they cool down which loosens off the handbreak.
Bennno
>> Edited by bennno on Wednesday 19th March 10:31
Don't worry same thing happened to my brother-in-laws X-type Jag ! Would agree its probably down to the discs cooling.Don't know were I picked the habit up but I always leave the car in gear regardless how good the handbrake is.Sorry don't want to sound like a smart ****. Hope your car is sorted quickly.
Bad news Flasher! Unbelievable that this problem can happen on new car as various manufacturers have suffered from the same problem over the years!
With all the TVRs you've owned I would have thought leaving it in gear was second nature now! Bit late to say that I know!
Hope you get it sorted soon?
Cheers.... Andrew
With all the TVRs you've owned I would have thought leaving it in gear was second nature now! Bit late to say that I know!
Hope you get it sorted soon?
Cheers.... Andrew
It's a risk with any car with disc brakes, and parking on a slope after they've got a bit hot.
My griff nearly Tboned to tuscan demonstrators at Hawthorns a couple of years ago.
Had driven quite briskly over, parked it in the customer spot, bit of a slope down towards athe dealership. Spent about 20 minutes inside chatting, then saw it just start to move, Jonathon and I caught with about 6 inches to spare!!!
B
My griff nearly Tboned to tuscan demonstrators at Hawthorns a couple of years ago.
Had driven quite briskly over, parked it in the customer spot, bit of a slope down towards athe dealership. Spent about 20 minutes inside chatting, then saw it just start to move, Jonathon and I caught with about 6 inches to spare!!!
B
I was more stunned with shock than anything...
The saving grace is that the car is not damaged badly at all, and shouldn't require too much work to put right, as the rear end is going to be re-painted anyway it shouldn't be a problem... and the two scratches are quite small.
Must admit though, for a second my life flashed infornt of me....it was almost surreal watching the car reverse down the drive without an occupant!!
I was tempted to keep quiet about it but thought you lot would be interested!!
The saving grace is that the car is not damaged badly at all, and shouldn't require too much work to put right, as the rear end is going to be re-painted anyway it shouldn't be a problem... and the two scratches are quite small.
Must admit though, for a second my life flashed infornt of me....it was almost surreal watching the car reverse down the drive without an occupant!!
I was tempted to keep quiet about it but thought you lot would be interested!!
flasher said: I was more stunned with shock than anything...
The saving grace is that the car is not damaged badly at all, and shouldn't require too much work to put right, as the rear end is going to be re-painted anyway it shouldn't be a problem... and the two scratches are quite small.
Must admit though, for a second my life flashed infornt of me....it was almost surreal watching the car reverse down the drive without an occupant!!
I was tempted to keep quiet about it but thought you lot would be interested!!
Look on the bright side... at least it wasn't being reversed off the drive by some tea-leaf..!
It would be remiss of any true PHer NOT to empathise with you here, Flasher - let's just be grateful it was relatively minor.
Like Greg's (fortunately minor) collision earlier today, I think it's vital that we all come together in moments of automotive crisis, no matter how significant the individual tribulation.
I mean, I don't think anyone can have missed Flasher's raw enthusiasm for his T350C and this is what differentiates us all from the hoardes of Numptyville.
So a rather hefty "phew" followed by a new policy of "always engage a gear" when parked, period.
My suggestion for universal catharsis in both shunts is that Flasher & Greg post piccies of their steeds in the glow of their respective post-cosmetic glows.
Sensible psychology for happier PistonHeads!
Like Greg's (fortunately minor) collision earlier today, I think it's vital that we all come together in moments of automotive crisis, no matter how significant the individual tribulation.
I mean, I don't think anyone can have missed Flasher's raw enthusiasm for his T350C and this is what differentiates us all from the hoardes of Numptyville.
So a rather hefty "phew" followed by a new policy of "always engage a gear" when parked, period.
My suggestion for universal catharsis in both shunts is that Flasher & Greg post piccies of their steeds in the glow of their respective post-cosmetic glows.
Sensible psychology for happier PistonHeads!
mrsd said: At risk of kicking off yet another thread on TVR build quality Why did your car already need paint Flasher
It's got a fault in the bodywork at the back by the tailgate that runs the length of the rear of the car. The guy at TMS paintshop said it was where the two pieces of fibre matting meet, basically, it looks like they have used filler instead of using fibreglass rope (thin fibreglass string) and then filler. This has caused the paint to sink and left a very thin line along the back of the car. Because the paint is pearlescent they are going to have to rub it all down, dig out and fill the line in and then blow the paint accross the roof and rear end of the car to blend it in. It's such a shame because I can't find anything else wrong with the car at all, all the other paintwork is faultless.
TMS have been superb and are lending me another TVR while it's sorted, but it is a wee bit disappointing that it came out of the factory like that.
I have to stress that I'm over the moon with the car, it's by the best built TVR I've had yet, but I do think that TVR need to have a more stringent quality control in place than they currently have. especially when it comes down to paintwork. I know too many people who have had faulty paintwork recently for this to be a one off....
Glad you're happy with the car otherwise though 
Had TVR build quality put into perspective by an Audi related incident the other day though. Debating whether to post it...Gassing Station | Tamora, T350 & Sagaris | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff