MFT TVR Cerbera CS’97
Cerberus, as illustrated by Gustave Doré in Dante's Divina Commedia
"Cerberus, (pronounced /ˈsɜrb(ərəs/; Greek form: Κέρβερος, [ˈkerberos])
in Greek and Roman mythology, is a multi-headed hound (usually three-headed)
which guards the gates of Hades,
to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx
from ever escaping."
The three headed underdog?
I have to remind that my passion for GT4 surfaced again mainly because of the original Cerbera and because of the lack of tuning time I headed to the MFT shop, and.. Well, you’ll find out soon what happened. The stock TVR has always made me think first about it’s design. A modern sports car made to look both “ancient” and futuristic at the same time. I think TVR’s design department has brilliantly succeeded in Cerbera’s lines and shapes. Just a glimpse and it’s obvious that beneath the calm skin lies a fierce beast just waiting the unleashing. There is just one thing I wonder. Why is there such a silence around this superb grand tourer? Time to wake up people!
The MFT-experience – Cerberus reborn
According to older myths, there was no three headed beast. The monster hound had fifty heads and it is here, now! Naturally, my test with it began at Grand Valley Speedway. The warm up laps around the course were really sweaty. My thoughts were mixing and maxing up. “Oh God this is divine!” Followed by: ”Oh nooo! There’s no time to pray!” I had these kind of emotions ages ago in GT4. Knowing what the target time was, I was devastated but also euforic at the same time. Perhaps you actually have to have Hades-kind of powers over this dog.
Gradually the car started to reveal it’s mind fields. A tenth of a second off the time here and there. And a second off there! Eventually I managed to practice more ninja-like maneuvers: later, deeper braking and smoother throttle control from out of corners. GVS is a fantastic place to test a car. I would describe it having “A Big Air”. And this car needs a lot of it. Fantastic long sweeps, elevation changes and those long blind tunnel sections.
The word of the day is “dare”. You have to be able to dare with this car or it will bite your cheeks off. But reckless, cocky driving only fills the cockpit with hands and legs (pieces of them).
The second gear is the bliss of this machine. It solves almost every corner in your life. Dare to throttle steer! First gently, find the sweet spot, and after that there’s only one direction, floor it down! The grip of the rear generates miles of smiles and tears the clouds off the sky making the world a better place, at least for a while.
The understeer hell..
..is absent. Of course, you can find under steer even from your cat if you want. But in general this is a very balanced supercar with a race car twist. The understeer can be avoided quite easily. Even in relatively high speeds changing to the earlier mentioned second gear may help the car turn if the third one wants you to get straight to Elysian Fields. Yes, properly tuned gear ratios can save lives.
High speed braking, downforce and grip
I’m not going to explain braking in normal situations because there is no “normal situations” with this car. If you want to go Sunday driving, do it with Mazda Lantis
or with some other similiar piece of crap. But if you insist going to ”blueberry hill” with your girl using the Cerb, you don’t need any brakes. The wings will do the braking for you. Okay?
Certain situations can be found at tracks like La Sarthe or Nürburgring Nordschleife where you can easily reach 300 kph. At those speeds the immense front end grip may cause unpleasant surprises during braking. As I said earlier, the car performs almost like a race car so the rear end could become quite nervous when the front tires start biting if the car isn’t heading straight. For example, downhill sections and flying over crests could cause serious problems if the approach line and/or brake timing is wrong.
The brakes should be used wisely especially at Nordschleife. There you can so easily brake too much and therefore it could occur to you that maybe the braking force should be reduced. That however would change the character of the car which is not a good thing at all. Therefore, the only thing you should change in the car is your own character.
The MFT Cerbera is my favourite car at the moment at Nürburgring and sub 6’20 times are more than possible with it there. It feels almost like the car was born at the green hell. The suspension setting is very forgiving and can handle most of the bumbs and kerbs. But what really amazes me lap after lap is the insane cornering speed it provides.
Circuit de la Sarthe, the third testing ground
I was only free lapping but it came very quickly clear what this car can have here, Big Air! Immediately after the corner leading to the longest stretch the car was ready to conquer the Mulsanne straight. I believe it could reach 350 kph in a good day here. It is yet to be seen but I have a strong feeling that few big name manufacturers will have hard times with the newcomer in future races.
Performance +++++
Handling +++++
Appearance +++++
Receptive +++
Overall 18/20
Thank you MFT!
finbaek