Rotary Junkie
Premium
- 9,810
- Canton, MI
- RJs_RX-7
Well, I must insert a few comments on the Griffith as well.
As I had a fairly quick and powerful Griffith sitting in my garage, with a moderately modified version of the stock Rover 5 liter V8 putting out about 450hp and a lightened body, the release of the MFT Blackpool version forced my hand to bring it back out of storage. With such a good power weight ratio in spec, and millions at my command due to a few successful runs in the DTM with the ABT/Mallender Racing Audi TT-R, the relatively low cost of upgrading made perfect sense.
Well, I had the crew here in Michigan set to work while I drove my Cougar XR-7 all the way to California to run a few laps at Laguna Seca and Sears Point, and arranged to have the TVR delivered, as it was never road legal in the first place. The stock bodypanels were replaced by carbon fiber lookalikes, the MFT engine and trans were swapped in, replacing my mild build and Toploader +1 transmission, the rear differential was regeared and set up to MFT's specs, a wing and chin spoiler were attached, then they set up the suspension to MFT specifications and shipped her down.
I pulled out onto Laguna Seca, and putted around the course at about 70-80 mph and noted a want to stic through the corners. Just before the final turn, I stopped and set the shift light to a conservative 6 thousand RPM, launched smoothly, pulled second, and nailed it just before the corner. Pulled it down to first under braking, lit the tires to rotate it around the corner, flicked second, third, fourth, across the timing lights, and into fifth. Came up on the first corner, stabbed the brakes, brought it down to 60 mph in second, tapped the brakes again, down to 55, pulled first, rotated it, yanked into second and I was off. The lap was uneventful but FAST despite multiple mistakes, overbraking, and overcorrecting. The next lap, still shifting at 6 grand, was to be the fastest I have run at Laguna Seca for the time being. I brought it around, pulled into the pits, and while I let the TVR cool I took my Cougar out. I came back in after a few laps of tire roasting fun, fired the TVR up again, did another slow-paced warmup lap, stopped in the same spot, and set the light for 7k. Higher would be wasteful, as power peak is at 5500rpm, albeit falloff is very slow. The car wouldn't stop getting quicker!
Overall, it's neutral, a hint of off-throttle understeer, but nothing alarming, and I didn't have to spend time tunign it! British RWD converibles: Nothing is better, especially not if said 'vert is a TVR.
Oh, and I thank Frozen for the idea of an extremely in-depth review, and the guys at MFT for sending me the bits I needed to build it rather than make me pay them through the arse to ship it to Finland, have them build it, parts AND labor, and ship it back.
As I had a fairly quick and powerful Griffith sitting in my garage, with a moderately modified version of the stock Rover 5 liter V8 putting out about 450hp and a lightened body, the release of the MFT Blackpool version forced my hand to bring it back out of storage. With such a good power weight ratio in spec, and millions at my command due to a few successful runs in the DTM with the ABT/Mallender Racing Audi TT-R, the relatively low cost of upgrading made perfect sense.
Well, I had the crew here in Michigan set to work while I drove my Cougar XR-7 all the way to California to run a few laps at Laguna Seca and Sears Point, and arranged to have the TVR delivered, as it was never road legal in the first place. The stock bodypanels were replaced by carbon fiber lookalikes, the MFT engine and trans were swapped in, replacing my mild build and Toploader +1 transmission, the rear differential was regeared and set up to MFT's specs, a wing and chin spoiler were attached, then they set up the suspension to MFT specifications and shipped her down.
I pulled out onto Laguna Seca, and putted around the course at about 70-80 mph and noted a want to stic through the corners. Just before the final turn, I stopped and set the shift light to a conservative 6 thousand RPM, launched smoothly, pulled second, and nailed it just before the corner. Pulled it down to first under braking, lit the tires to rotate it around the corner, flicked second, third, fourth, across the timing lights, and into fifth. Came up on the first corner, stabbed the brakes, brought it down to 60 mph in second, tapped the brakes again, down to 55, pulled first, rotated it, yanked into second and I was off. The lap was uneventful but FAST despite multiple mistakes, overbraking, and overcorrecting. The next lap, still shifting at 6 grand, was to be the fastest I have run at Laguna Seca for the time being. I brought it around, pulled into the pits, and while I let the TVR cool I took my Cougar out. I came back in after a few laps of tire roasting fun, fired the TVR up again, did another slow-paced warmup lap, stopped in the same spot, and set the light for 7k. Higher would be wasteful, as power peak is at 5500rpm, albeit falloff is very slow. The car wouldn't stop getting quicker!
Overall, it's neutral, a hint of off-throttle understeer, but nothing alarming, and I didn't have to spend time tunign it! British RWD converibles: Nothing is better, especially not if said 'vert is a TVR.
Oh, and I thank Frozen for the idea of an extremely in-depth review, and the guys at MFT for sending me the bits I needed to build it rather than make me pay them through the arse to ship it to Finland, have them build it, parts AND labor, and ship it back.