**CAR OF THE WEEK! Friday 27/07/12**

Right then... Nurburgring GP/F it is on sports hard tyres, except for the RM.

Off we go with the V8S first...

Longer report later, but first impressions are good.

V8S sounds great, Griffiths slippy slidy, Cerbera Speed 6 nice, Speed 12 mental...

iainn

Right then... Nurburgring GP/F it is on sports hard tyres, except for the RM.

Off we go with the V8S first.

Click to expand...

Challenge accepted. Hoping to have my review up in the next day or two.

iainn

Right then... Nurburgring GP/F it is on sports hard tyres, except for the RM.

Off we go with the V8S first...

Longer report later, but first impressions are good.

V8S sounds great, Griffiths slippy slidy, Cerbera Speed 6 nice, Speed 12 mental...

Click to expand...

Sounds like fun, I did some laps with the Speed 12 at Monza last night. I found that I had to swap the SH tires for RH to get rid of the push, other than that...she is FAST!

TVRs then... yet another bunch of COTW that I haven't really driven much and was looking forward to.

A lot to get through this week so straight down to some action.

All the cars got an oil change and an engine overhaul if it was due, otherwise they were completely stock.

In chronological order we have the V8S first from 1991 with 250 bhp and 455PP. The first thing to note is the great big V8 sound rumbling away, which sounds great. It's not that powerful though really (by modern standards, not US V8 standards!) and the car doesn't accelerate that quickly (or slow down even remotely quickly), but it is an enjoyable drive with not too much sliding around.

Laptime round Nurburgring GP/F was 2:32.775

Moving forward 3 years we have the Griffith 500 with 352 bhp for 499PP. Still a V8 but it doesn't sound like it!

This is much harder to control and requires some early braking in a straight line to prevent sliding off track, but it is noticeably quicker than the V8S and I managed a 2:25.515 lap this time although I did find this car hard to get to grips with.


Another 3 years in time brings the Cerbera Speed 6 '97. This is a different beast from the Griffith with much less understeer and better acceleration and better brakes. Power is 364bhp giving 502 PP. A good looking car this if you like that sort of thing.

Laptime was 2:26.371, although that was only after a couple of laps and I could do better.

This next one belongs in a category of it's own really as an insane idea that never saw real production. I give you the Cerbera Speed 12 with two straight six engines joined together and 838bhp.


From some angles it looks great, all brooding an menacing, but from others it just looks like garuchan car gone wild.

Trying to drive this car in the stock SH tyres is "interesting" with wheelspin in 3rd gear if you even try to give it full throttle too early. I managed a 2:23 at the GP/F and only just managed to keep it on the track.

Sports Soft tyres give a bit more control and I did 2:15, but the real revelation is with Racing Softs. The acceleration is mind blowing really and you won't get anywhere near top speed at this track, but it is great fun.

This weeks challenge then is to get under 2 mins in the Speed 12. I did 2:03.186 with RS and I'm sure others will go a lot faster, sub 1:55?

I did the speed test as well and the figures are pretty amazing.

0-60mph in 3.57sec, 100mph in 6 sec dead and 1 mile coming after just 24.364 seconds! Top speed was 223mph.

Back to actual road cars now for the Tuscan Speed 6 '00. 368bhp after oil change and I liked this one a lot. It looks great and goes quick as long as you remember to brake early enough. Laptime was 2:24.6.


What ho jerry! Fancy a race?


The Race Modified version is, as you would expect, even better with terrific acceleration and (at last) excellent brakes. Putting out 396bhp and with 562PP this is great car. Looks beautiful and drives like a dream, fast and grippy.


Laptime was 2:05.964, but I'm sure others will go a lot faster with this great racecar.

Tamora next from 2002 and this is one I was familiar with having used it for 500PP seasonals. After an oil change we had 356bhp and 502PP.
This is a worthy successor to the Griffith and clearly has the same DNA.
2:25.496 laptime and a nice drive with not too much understeer.

Overcooked this one though, too deep in the corner at the end of start/finish straight (again), but dap of oppo and I was away.


Lastly we have the T350C '03. I haven't used this car before as I always thought it was too ugly. However after a coat of paint it doesn't look too bad on the track. Power was 367bhp and 495PP.

It turns out to be pretty good, with definite similarities to the Tamora. Laptime was 2:26.098.


My favourite? Either the V8S or the Tamora. Or the Tuscan....

A good choice this week for COTW to celebrate a now defunct marque which did things differently and were perhaps the epitome of the British small manufacturer. Which is also why they are no more.

Cheers

iainn, you didn't list a lap time for the base Tuscan Speed 6.

1. 2:05.120- 2000 TVR Tuscan Speed 6 RM
2. 2:11.881- 2000 TVR Cerbera Speed 12
3. 2:17.959- 2000 TVR Tuscan Speed 6
4. 2:18.296- 1997 TVR Cerbera Speed 6
5. 2:18.443- 2002 TVR Tamora
6. 2:18.918- 2003 TVR T350C
7. 2:20.057- 1994 TVR Griffith 500
8. 2:25.970- 1991 TVR V8S

oops, sorry

McClarenDesign

iainn, you didn't list a lap time for the base Tuscan Speed 6.

Click to expand...

Doh! 2:24.6

I've edited my post.

Did you try the Speed 12 on RS?

iainn

Did you try the Speed 12 on RS?

Click to expand...

Nah, didn't have time. The time recorded for the RM was using RH tires.

2000 TVR Cerbera Speed 12​

"I feel the need, the need for speed!" This quote from one of my favorite movies came to mind when looking over the specs on this car. She started with 798hp/637pp and after an oil change was at 838hp/640pp. My first thoughts on this was, for a fairly substantial increase in hp (40) there was a rather paltry increase in pp (3). I had suspicions on why this was, but more on that later. For now, it's test track time, her numbers:

1/4 mi... 12.107
1.0 mi....26.175
0 - 60....05.007
to 100....08.150
max G.....00.69
max spd..221.80

I was well off the mark on the claimed top speed of 240mph and the 0 to 62 @ 3.5 seconds, I missed that by 1.5 seconds on my 0 to 60, too much wheelspin on launch perhaps?

Where to go in order to let a car with this much power stretch her legs? One of my favorites...Monza! My best of ten laps was a bit slow at 1:54.819, she did however outrun a stock '06 Ford GT-40 by a full second. The Ford had a lap of 1:55.841.



My initial reactions: this car has astouding speed and power, the gearbox is perfectly matched and I just can't get enough of those hard shifts! On the downside, the brakes while strong are not quite up to the task, she had very touchy steering and throttle inputs and worst of all...she pushed. All or most of which I figured could be cured by a set of tires more suited to a car with this much power. I confirmed this by swapping out the SH rubber for some RH, no other mods and knocking a full ten seconds off of my Monza lap with a 1:44.712.

While at "the shop" getting the new tires I decided to check on those suspicions I had earlier. While I love the trans there was a noticable lag between 1st and 2nd gear until she spooled up leading me to believe she had a turbo, probably a low or mid range one. Sure enough when I checked the low rpm turbo was installed as was much of the other perfomance upgrades, which came as no surprise. It seemes as though the engineers at TVR had wrung just about everyting they could out of this motor. That explains the minor increase in pp for the sizable increase in hp with the oil change. To really confirm this I clicked on the supercharger just to have a look, this brought an increase of 98hp and only 6pp! Certainly no use in speding the money for that now is there? Way to go TVR, this car is about as maxed out as she can be 👍 My conclusion: my need for speed has been met, quite nicely thank you very much



PS. My best lap at the Nurb GP/F so far has been with the Speed 6 @ 2:11.784. I will run the Speed 6-RM and speed 12 with good tires tonight after work.

OhwYeah! TVR
I really miss the Sagaris in this game :/

Here's one of my favorite moments in TopGear, featuring a TVR!

Due to the enormity of the task at hand, I've been forced to delay my review until Friday night. There is a slim chance that it'll be finished tonight, but not likely. I've already dumped over 10 hours into it, so don't tell me to get busy.

Also, since it is Thursday, I might as well let the cat out of the bag. As stated earlier, this week's winner will be selecting the car for week 27, because next week we're testing the...

Pininfarina cars!

Yep, another tribute to an icon, the late Sergio Pininfarina. As usual, I'll put up the official post tomorrow.

TreVoR

Part 1: Son of Blackpool lights up the streets*





I wasn't going to to do much here as I haven't had much playing time, however I have got totally carried away and have ended up doing a two-parter.

Like a number of other niche UK car makers, Trevor Wilkinson designed and built a lightweight chassis/fibreglass body and strapped in small engines from mainstream manufacturers (he started with Ford and Coventry ClimaX, then BMC) and often sold the result as a kit car (a way to avoid tax in the UK). Typically, it took an American to shoe-horn a V8 into a one.

The GT5 story begins with the 1991 V8S - successor to the 80s Tasmin wedge and utilising a variant of the widely-used (in the UK) Rover V8. The car shows clear design cues from the original Grantura of the 60s and 70s, losing the sharp edges of the Tasmin. My one V8s came with 248BHP 1050KG and 453pp after rebuilds.

This was to become a common theme



Luckily 'porthillking' didn't bend the loaners , so this is actually a really good drive: handles pretty well, though braking is best done in a straight line. It is quick but with relatively modest power (relative to those yet to come, that is) the torquey V8 pulls well but doesn't cause to much trauma in the corners. On Trial Mountain, a tweaked gear setup would give an improvement as we barely tickle fifth on the straight.

Next up (as chronological order seems, well, logical) is the 94 Griffith 500. Named after the typically American who installed a 289 Cobra engine in his Grantura, the Griffith is a classical British roadster along the lines of the Austin Healey or Triumph TR. Of course most classical British roadsters didn't have a V8 in them. This one of course has the biggest 5.0L Rover derived engine TVR had at the time; giving here 355BHP 1060Kg 501pp.





Fast. This is a fast car. It has a 0-60 mph time of around 4 seconds, and a top speed in the region of 170 mph. It is also terrifying: it has no traction control, no ABS, no clever electronic gadgetry and no roof. At Trial Mountain it didn't actually seem too bad. Sure it understeers, and the backend shouts 'HELLOOOOO!!' everytime you think about pressing the throttle. There is some drama, eg the rears like to lock up under high speed braking (note to tweak balance from 3/1), but not once did I wildly spin off. It was all pretty controllable, but then I am only driving a bunch of pixels from the safety of my sofa - the reality, I suspect, would involve much more butt-clenching.





Peter Wheeler must have been a very daring individual, as despite it's classical proportions the Griffith hinted at something new and different. The Cerbera on the other hand was something new and different. With it's chopped coupe look it appears squat and angry; the shark mouth front sucking in the air to feed the greedy engine concealed behind.

PD have favoured the 'Speed 6' engined variant with TVR's own 'cant' straight six. This one giving out 367BHP in 1130Kg resulting in 503pp.





I found the Cerbera a step up from the Griffith in terms of handling, though understeer was still prominent. The highly tuned six likes to rev and the gear settings assist in keeping the acceleration relentless. Braking is more stable, and the car just more planted.





Now we a have a strange interlude. With an eye on GT1 racing Peter Wheeler got his engineers to stick two Speed 6 engines together to make the 'Speed 12'. The result ended up in the insane Cerbera Speed 12. Unfortunately GT1 racing regs changed so they did some GT2 racing, then Pete decided the road car prototype was perhaps a bit too fast (really?) and canned the road car. With a handful of prototypes left, they made up one road car out of the bits and sold it via the local Autotrader (after carefully vetting the buyer of course).

Luckily in Gran Turismo world there is no such thing as unique, so we all get a go. I have two, but picked 'Flip Flop Yellow' and with rebuild this gives out 838BHP in 1020Kg and 640pp.





This is lunacy. The car actually looks kind of evil, widened with bodykit and a bigger shark mouth than the six. Initially, driving is more luck than judgement with the stock Sports Hard tyres: more than half throttle and wheelspin happens in every gear, even in 4th at 130mph traction hasn't settled down. It doesn't seem to matter which gear you pick: acceleration is stratospheric; try coming out of a second gear corner in fifth and you'll still light up the rears with outrageous torque.





The good news is that the car handles very well (in game it comes with adjustable sports suspension), there's not so much understeer once you eventually slow down sufficiently, which you can do because the brakes are good. It feels pretty sharp, but on a track like Trial Mountain with SH tyres you just can't take advantage of the power, even though you can reach 170mph on the rise before hitting the brakes.


See part 2 for remaining cars and times!





*Terrible pun explained: for those of you outside of the UK who may not know, Blackpool is a traditional British seaside holiday town. As well as the home of TVR it is known for the Illuminations and the Tower, amongst many other things.

The British Invasion
a.k.a. TVR takes over the NURB​

The combatants:

V8S


Griffith 500


Cerbera Speed 6


Cerbera Speed 12


Toscan Speed 6/RM


The numbers (the important stuff)
In the case of multiple listings the first is bone stock, the second is RH tires and close ratio gearbox (no hp/pp mods) and with the Cerbera Speed 12 the third number is a swap of RH to RS tires, I just had to try and break the 2 minute barrier.

Griffith 500........2:23.643 / 2:14.691
V8S..................x:xx.xxx / 2:20.826
Cerbera Spd 6....2:22.204
Tuscan Spd 6.....x:xx.xxx / 2:11.784
Tuscan 6/RM......2:04.373
Cerbera Spd 12...2:15.708 / 2:00.457 / 1:54.152

TVR

Part 2: Towering achievements*

(Part 1 here)




The Tuscan is such a striking car, a bold design of smooth flowing lines that shout 'Look at Me!'. Whether you love or hate there is no denying its presence and prowess on the road. With the same Speed 6 engine and (in game) gearing feels about the same so there's little difference in performance compared with the Cerbera, and on the track it's a familiar story but the Tuscan feels tighter, and this is borne out by the times.

Old pic of different Tuscan



For the test I got a new Tuscan from the dealership in Reflex Spice, which after oil change gave 368 BHP, 1100Kg and 503pp.

Back to the dealership for another Tuscan, this time I took it for Race Mods. Making no further changes this gave 395BHP in 885Kg and 562pp. I painted this in a British Racing Green Metallic and swapped the wheels.





As with all the RMs (and TCs) in GT5, this is an excellent drive; feels light, nimble and responsive and even with the default setup turns in an grips well. The world is your oyster with this: get a good setup and stoke up the power and you've got a great racer. I tried my orignal RM in the Fuji Drift Trial and it performed well.





The Tamora is another bold and quirky design - initially I wasn't convinced but it has grown on me, even the diffuser. The one in my garage looks great in Starmist Crimson, it has been used a bit and produces 353BHP 1060Kg 501pp. Again, a typical TVR experience on the track, not too different from the Tuscan. It is a bit more forgiving, which came across more on a previous outing on the Nordshleife than this quick Trial Mountain run.





Finally we have the T350C. This is pretty much a coupe version of the Tamora which has its design based in racing - to minimize drag and create downforce. Even though it shares the chassis and running gear of the Tuscan and Tamora, in the game I didn't match the times - maybe because I actually drove this one first, or it might be the extra weight. The Alpine Green Metallic T350 showed 367 BHP 1187Kg and 495pp.





Trial Mountain times: stock cars on Sports Hard tyres.

1991 V8S....................248 BHP, 1050Kg, 453 pp.....1:47.521
1994 Griffith 500...........355 BHP, 1060Kg, 501 pp.....1:44.811
1997 Cerbera Speed 6........367 BHP, 1130Kg, 503 pp.....1:42.303
2000 Cerbera Speed 12.......838 BHP, 1020Kg, 640 pp.....1:39.203
2000 Tuscan Speed 6.........368 BHP, 1100Kg, 503 pp.....1:41.507
2000 Tuscan RM..............395 BHP,, 885Kg, 562 pp.....1:37.696
2002 Tamora.................353 BHP, 1060Kg, 501 pp.....1:41.500
2003 T350C..................367 BHP, 1187Kg, 495 pp.....1:43.533

2003 T350C(TrackRipper).....375 BHP, 1187Kg, 498 pp.....1:42.346

The V8 and Griffith are a bit softly sprung for the track, a lot of pitching and rolling - and I think this is the cause of the rear lock ups. The Tuscan and Tamora are great drives for me, with the RM Tuscan obviously being the best track car.

I made up a T350C to TrackRipper's tune. With Race exhaust and air it was a round 510pp, so to keep it under 500pp I just went for sports exhaust to give 375 BHP, 1187Kg and 498pp, I set the Brake Balance to 3/1 as I'm using no ABS with controller. Although the car handls quite differently and the gearing keeps the revs over 6000rpm, initially it wasn't an improvement: it is definitely sharper and more responsive, but I found I was sliding more. I only had time for five laps of TM, but I was getting used to the cars behaviour (more track than road car) and made improvements every lap. Definite potential.





Peter Wheeler made some fantastic cars with TVR: old school in attitude, forward thinking in design, and competing with supercars two or three times their cost. They offered a pure driving experience free from trickery and gadgets: traction Control came in the form of a long travel accelerator pedal. Yes they were known for being unreliable and tricky to drive, but in this game it doesn't matter.

If you haven't done so already, get in a TVR, turn off the Traction Control, turn off the ABS, and hit the loud pedal to salute the passing of a unique independent carmaker.





*Terrible pun explained: for those of you outside of the UK who may not know, Blackpool is a traditional British seaside holiday town. As well as the home of TVR it is known for the Illuminations and the Tower, amongst many other things.

Finally, TVR is done! Now on to Pininfarina.

If you like it, share it on your Facebooks or Google+s or Twitterz N Stuff.

A couple of pretty lame late entries to the Nurb GP/F. Very little time, so I only managed a few laps:

V8s - 2:36.310
Griffith - 2:34.xxx
Tuscan - 2:25.925
Tamora - 2:25.60


And a few more pics.

I discovered the V8S earlier than now but was surprised how good it is. I actually have a feeling this might be a very decent car for on the road (in real life) for normal drives, if it drives like it does in GT.
I think the best part of it is it doesn't yell for attention, this in looks, sound, and speed and handling. Yet it looks and sounds good, and drives very decent.

Well a little late, and not what I had in mind (still planing on tuning all of the TVRs), but a photo shoot with one of the beautiful people:

















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And a BIG thank you to DigitalBaka, for giving me this car, as a resault as a well run tuners shootout 👍 THANK YOU