The Speed 12 is back, new owner, new look, new website.

[Dave A]

In GT4 they seem to be using the same old 800Bhp figure again which doesn't do the car justce. The torque also seems a bit low considering the car broke an input shaft set to take 1000lb/ft of it. The Speed 12 in GT4 is the very one seen in the new EVO magazine albeit before the recent rebuild.

 

[Emohawk]

So when you have/had your interview, will you/did you get to take pictures, and can you/will you post them? Pleeeese?

(Sorry for the double tenses, I can't tell if you've done your interview yet from what you're saying. )

 

[Dave A]

There WILL be pictures whatever happens. No I haven't spoken to him, exept online.

 

[Eric.]

That video on his site....

I emailed him and asked about it's performance and how it was to drive...He informed me that those two laps were on cold tires, never over 50% throttle, and had a rev limiter set to 5750rpm...

Wow.

 

[eliseracer]

There was also an article with the previous owner of TVR that ran in EVO about a year and a half ago, that also discussed the Speed Twelve. He said the car was completely bonkers and he wouldn't even drive it home, as it just has far too much power for normal driving. He also said when they originally tested its HP and power figures, it broke the dyno they were using as it outran it. Pretty beast, I'd say.

As for the track/street looks/performance discussion, I'm kinda skeptical about the "downforce at 240,000,000 mph because of a track car" etc argument. Which "normal" track do you get to those insane speeds anyways? Most track's straight's limit your car to the 100s. Not many places where they would be doing promos would allow the car to top out.

 

[Dave A]

If they were ever to take the car on a top speed run they would do it at the Nardo bowl where the McLaren F1 did it.

At Silverstone the car hit the limiter at 175Mph and had room to go faster, like the owner said, the acceleration while already at high speed is phenominal and what distances this car from all the others.

 

[Dave A]

That video on his site....

I emailed him and asked about it's performance and how it was to drive...He informed me that those two laps were on cold tires, never over 50% throttle, and had a rev limiter set to 5750rpm...

Wow.

They wern't just cold tyres, they were worn and otu of shape cold tyres.

 

[eliseracer]

Nardo is also too short for some cars (9ff etc)

 

[Dave A]

I thought Nardo was the really big 9 mile one? Anyway, I meant the 9 mile oval which is where the F1 did it.

 

[McLaren]

Man why are tvr fart assern about with this car.Break some records with it.Put some ferraris in their place and show the world what the brits can do.

The Brits already showed what they can do.
2 names.

Jaguar and McLaren.
Jaguar's car wasn't the most successful with the public but it broke the record, followed by McLaren.

 

[eliseracer]

3 names,

Lotus had (possibly still does have) the record for production 4-door saloon car's top speed with the Carlton. I do believe Lotus also holds numerous record for soap-box cars.

Note: cars with limiters do not count as to reach their actual top speed, the governor would have to be removed, hence not making it production-spec.

--

Nardo may be long, but stretching the car out to reach the fastest the gearing and aerodynamics lets it requires a loooooooong straight/turn. Different gears get you to the top faster (presuming topping out the revs in the highest/strongest gear). And at Silverstone, topping out the car is a total different ordeal than the limiter kicking in. I doubt there are any normal racetracks that would let you drive that fast. Just imagine a track where you could reach 230mph in your Speed Twelve. The normal clientel on such tracks top out at hardly 150 mph, what a boring straight that would be! Of course there are always the "proving grounds", those are hardly a normal track (see Nardo).

 

[wee_man]

What was the spec of the one they used in the British GT championship? Was it just a standard Speed 12, but obviously with the added bodywork and made to conform with the rules? Didn't they have to de-tune it or something? Also anyone know what's happened to it now. I would of loved to of seen that run at Le Mans, but they need to produce a few more for it to go.

 

[Eric.]

What was the spec of the one they used in the British GT championship? Was it just a standard Speed 12, but obviously with the added bodywork and made to conform with the rules? Didn't they have to de-tune it or something? Also anyone know what's happened to it now. I would of loved to of seen that run at Le Mans, but they need to produce a few more for it to go.

http://www.boomspeed.com/impreza/Speed12.jpg

👎

 

[Dave A]

What was the spec of the one they used in the British GT championship? Was it just a standard Speed 12, but obviously with the added bodywork and made to conform with the rules? Didn't they have to de-tune it or something? Also anyone know what's happened to it now. I would of loved to of seen that run at Le Mans, but they need to produce a few more for it to go.

The one that raced in the British GT championship went through a couple of different tweaks. The bodywork on the road car onw is from the last evolution of the race car. It ran with different restrictors and the ECU mapped to produce around 660-700Bhp, other than that it was pretty much the same as the road car is now.

 

[Captain_insane]

The F1's speed record was set at Volkswagon's test track.

First post by the way .

 

[TheCracker]

Just imagine a track where you could reach 230mph in your Speed Twelve. The normal clientel on such tracks top out at hardly 150 mph, what a boring straight that would be! Of course there are always the "proving grounds", those are hardly a normal track (see Nardo).

LeMans pre-chicane?

 

[Dave A]

Remeber, the Speed 12 is supposed to accelerate unlike any other road car out there, it won't take that long to get from 100-200Mph, if what the say is true then you could see it hit 220Mph+ on the LeMans with the Chicanes and from what I've heared about the car and that pretty soon it will be set to cope without the restrictors meaning MORE power and from Evo's article on it with power and speed limited I think that would be quite possible. They hit the limiter at 175Mph at Silverstone running at around 700Bhp so think what it would do without the limited speed and 960+Bhp.

 

[eliseracer]

Pre-Chicane? Where is this? Most of the track is public roads, getting closed laptimes would be hard.

 

[Flerbizky]

Pre-Chicane? Where is this? Most of the track is public roads, getting closed laptimes would be hard.

Depends on just HOW crazy you are

 

[JohnBM01]

Maybe since Flash is used, I didn't want to look at any of the pictures, because Flash normally crashes my computer when online.

Anyhow, the TVR Speed 12 is perhaps the most demonic behemoth ever produced in automobile history. It is insanely powerful, insanely light, and insanely... well, insane. I'm probably not going to say "British," since it's now owned by someone in Russia, right? This newer one is even more insane. The rollbars in this car are STANDARD from what I've seen. A car so beastly, it needs those rollbars at the back and such. I recall that the Speed 12 used to run in the smashing (as some of you Europeans say) British GT before it was banned from competition. I don't think the Speed 12 knows its weaknesses, because this machine is killer.

 

[Holdenhsvgtsr]

i wanna see the video of it at the GT4 launch

 

[Dave A]

Maybe since Flash is used, I didn't want to look at any of the pictures, because Flash normally crashes my computer when online.

Anyhow, the TVR Speed 12 is perhaps the most demonic behemoth ever produced in automobile history. It is insanely powerful, insanely light, and insanely... well, insane. I'm probably not going to say "British," since it's now owned by someone in Russia, right? This newer one is even more insane. The rollbars in this car are STANDARD from what I've seen. A car so beastly, it needs those rollbars at the back and such. I recall that the Speed 12 used to run in the smashing (as some of you Europeans say) British GT before it was banned from competition. I don't think the Speed 12 knows its weaknesses, because this machine is killer.

It is insanely British too, the owner may be Russian, but all the parts in a TVR now are made in Britain, Smolenski (the owner of TVR) has stopped all contracts with suppliers outside of GB and so TVR's are built by 100% British parts. Everything else you said was right.

Has everyone here erad the Evo article yet? It's a great read.

Holdenhsvgtr, you can see the vid at the website linked in the first post.

 

[G.T]

It is insanely British too, the owner may be Russian, but all the parts in a TVR now are made in Britain, Smolenski (the owner of TVR) has stopped all contracts with suppliers outside of GB and so TVR's are built by 100% British parts. Everything else you said was right.

Has everyone here erad the Evo article yet? It's a great read.

Holdenhsvgtr, you can see the vid at the website linked in the first post.

I've read the article. The driver didn't have the guts to put his foot down.

I don't blame him.

 

[Scaff]

I've read the article. The driver didn't have the guts to put his foot down.

I don't blame him.

Direct quote from the article

"So, here's the hanger straight. There's still a lot of vibration but I watch the tacho needle sweep part 5000rpm, hear the note of the V12 freeing up as it reaches the point of peak torque at 5750rpm and then...bap-bap-bap-bap! It feels like it's hit a rev limiter. Upshift and its the same in every gear. Or rather I imagine it is, because I only just got to just over 5000rpm in sixth, which is a not to shabby 175mph."

Sounds a lot to me like he had the guts. LOL. You are right he did take a while to get up to speed with it (well would you just jump in and try to floor the thing), but 175mph is fast enough in the only road resistered Speed 12.

The limit in question was a result of the engine mapping still being set to run with the GT race restrictors, which would normally limit the power to 700bhp.

 

[TVRKing]

http://www.boomspeed.com/impreza/Speed12.jpg

👎

Oh that's just sacrelige. 👎

 

[Dave A]

The driver, John Barker didn't have the guts to put his foot right down at first, later on he did, but only on the hangar straight after he'd come fully clear of the corner, but full power was never delivered due to the ECU mapping, even with that set right full power wouldn't be delivere since it had air restrictors on as well which would have put the power at 880Bhp, without thoes it's somewhere around 960, but it could be more soon.

 

[Scaff]

The driver, John Barker didn't have the guts to put his foot right down at first, later on he did, but only on the hangar straight after he'd come fully clear of the corner, but full power was never delivered due to the ECU mapping, even with that set right full power wouldn't be delivere since it had air restrictors on as well which would have put the power at 880Bhp, without thoes it's somewhere around 960, but it could be more soon.

The air restrictors were not still in place, the ecu was simply set up as if they were still in place, which was limiting the engine speed.

The reason for the 880bhp max rather than the 960 was down to the type of cam, fitted. As it said in the article the new owner was offered the choice of two, one designed for road (which gave a smoother delivery but 880bhp) or a track designed cam (which gave 960bhp but would not be as smooth at lower engine/road speeds).

If the car had been fitted with the GT air restrictors it would have been limited to 700bhp, the same as the Briticsh GT cars.

 

[Dave A]

Regardless of the cams I've heard it straight from the owners mouth or keyboard as the case was, the car still has restrictors on and with them removed it would run at 960Bhp, TVR are doing work so the ECU will be remapped to cope without the restrictors, theres going to be a new sequential gearbox put in, a lighter flywheel, a carbon clutch and a bit more tinkering with the engine which may make it more powerful still. Anyway, I've just read over that part of the article and it mentions running smooth or lumpy, but it doesn't mention cams there. I'll have to ask about this one.

 

[Scaff]

Regardless of the cams I've heard it straight from the owners mouth or keyboard as the case was, the car still has restrictors on and with them removed it would run at 960Bhp, TVR are doing work so the ECU will be remapped to cope without the restrictors, theres going to be a new sequential gearbox put in, a lighter flywheel, a carbon clutch and a bit more tinkering with the engine which may make it more powerful still. Anyway, I've just read over that part of the article and it mentions running smooth or lumpy, but it doesn't mention cams there. I'll have to ask about this one.

Direct quote from the article.

"When it came to cams, Mr G was offered a peanut butter choice: lumpy or smooth. Still clinging to the notion that that this was; somehow a road car, he opted for smooth and saw the power drop by 80bhp."

and this is a quote from the owner on the Speed 12 sites forums

"The car was developed with cams specifically to address the enforced use of air restrictors. If these cams are used without the restrictors then the car is reputed to develop circa 960 bhp, however, for engine longevity and tractablility I plumped for the more modest lift cams which is why it produces 880bhp. "

The British GT cars ran 700bhp, as required by the regs at that time. This was achieved through the use of restrictors and engine mapping to maximise its performance with them fitted.

Without the restrictors and with the 'lumpy' cam it would run 960bhp, without restrictors and the 'smooth' cam it runs 880bhp.

The ECU issue found when testing the car with EVO does not limit the power output (it will still produce 880bhp) but limits the maximum engine speed to 5750rpm (max bhp is not reached until 7250rpm).

All the above is taken from the EVO article and the speed 12 forums.

 

[Dave A]

Yep, both thoes quotes are correct (I can't believe I didn't notice that when I re-read it , must have been a longer day at work that I thought lol), but so is the fact that he said the car is running with restrictors which limit the power to 880, maybe he's talking about it as a combination of thoes cams and the restrictors, maybe I'm losing my mind, (refer back to the long day at work comment). As I said, I'll have a look into it and ask him theres little point in debating it when we can just ask.