BlackBeaut

"It's a revolutionary invention" groan! Excellent bit of engineering though, good luck to them! Cheers, Rob

But they don't have an exotic sound - classic V8 wuffle - don't have a flat plane crank, don't rev to high heaven, and cost serious money to get real power out of. Cheers, Rob

One other difference I've noticed between short nose and long nose covers is that the 8 retaining bolts are bigger on the short nose. Can't remember the exact size but let's say if they're M8 on the long nose then they're M10 on the short nose. Upshot is putting a short nose cover on a long nose is a potential for cover movement. Easy fix is some bushes in the cover holes to take up the slack. Cheers, Rob

A slightly extreme example would be the TVR Tuscan which has a straight 6: Cheers, Rob

Buick sold to Rover, TVR purchased units from Rover and did some (very little in reality) performance mods to them. They were fitted to a number of TVR models over the years, from the '80s Wedges through to the Griffith and Chimaera that ended production in the early '00s. Sizes ranged from 3.5l to 5.0l. In the meantime TVR developed their own engines, initially the AJP8 which first appear in the Tuscan Challenge race car and then in the Cerbera in '96. A couple of years later they brought out the Speed6 engine, intially released in the Cerbera, then used in all further new TVR models (Tuscan road car - see rubbish Swordfish film, Tamora, T350 and Sagaris). The AJP8 was only ever in the race cars and the Cerbera, its production life ended with the Cerbera. Both the AJP8 and Speed6 were developments of designs by Al Melling, a top notch British eccentric who bears a slightly worrying resemblance to Doc Brown of Back to the Future fame Cheers, Rob

Sorry mate but you're 100% wrong about that. The TVR AJP8 (Speed 8 was never used as an official designation) has absolutely no connection with the Buick/Rover V8 other than the same number of cylinders. Cheers, Rob

Here's a good 5th Gear video showing a Honda F1 (V10 era) dragging against a bike and a boat (don't ask ) http://youtube.com/watch?v=mn6eHg1VSZI Cheers, Rob

As long as it had had a recent rebuild by one of the few engine shops appearing in the UK now that replace the dodgy parts made of cheese with proper new metal parts I think it would be a fantastic swap. However the 4.5 AJP V8 would still be the daddy of the TVR engines to get in, but we digress On the topic of BMW V8s my daily driver is a '97 E38 735i, cracking little engine, the later ones with VANOS (post 98 I think) are supposed to be even better. If petrol wasn't so stupidly expensive here I'd quite happily go for a 740i with the 4.4 engine. Cheers, Rob

Cool, thanks Gareth. It would certainly make for an interesting swap. I love the idea of fitting an all alloy straight six in to a Zed. I know the commonly available M52 2.8 has a restrictive intake on it and it's just a matter of tweaking the intake of a 2.5 and fitting that with a bigger throttle body and you can release a lot of ponies for very little money. Obviously still a long way short of the S series engines but then you're talking big money just to get them. Cheers, Rob

Nice write up Gareth, I'd definiteley consider a beemer engine, erm, if I get hold of a Zed again! Can you answer a couple of questions on them? First would be what's the sump like on them, front or rear? Just thinking for ease of install a rear sump is preferable. Second would be the fun that is VANOS on the later M52 and M54 engines. Are there any aftermarket ecus that can control VANOS (I'm guessing it is controlled via the ecu!) If not then any install would require the oem ecu setup to run the engine, how possible is it to strip the ecu from the doner and get it running in much simpler surroundings? Cheers, Rob

Nope, literally only a few design cues on the outside and similar ladder frame underneath (but obviously longer on the Cerb), other than that they're chalk and cheese and the Cerb will destroy a Chim/Griff off the line Cheers, Rob

The Cerbera AJP8 never had anything to do with or anything in common with the Rover V8 bar the number of cylinders, it was a ground up design, flat plane crank, 75 (or there about) angle, it's much more Formula 1 than agricultural Land Rover. The Rover V8s are Buick related too. Cheers, Rob

Yeah, it would've been a complete pain, not only did the bore need enlarging but also the mounting holes drilled accurately, so definitely unlikely to happen in the average home workshop, so more time and expense just to replace the discs. Looking back at the pics though, it does look pretty cool. Good job I didn't take a pic of the other side where I stuck the brembo label on upsidedown like a total 'tard Cheers, Rob

I screwed around a while ago with Brembos from a Fiat Coupe 20V Turbo, don't know if you got that in the US. Had to jump through some major hoops to get them to fit as in they ended up on the other side of the hub - used 260Z hubs on my 240Z. Would also be a pita every time I needed to change the rotors as they required machining to fit on the back of the hub. I was planning on swapping to Z31 5 stud hubs and was looking at Honda Legend rotors (305x28mm 5x114.3 studs) as being a possible front fit, and the extra space could've meant I'd've got the calipers back on the correct side of the hub. In the end it all went down the pan, sold the calipers on Ebay for more than I paid anyway, I'd go Arizona Z Wilwoods if I were to do it again. Other pics here: http://www.zclub.net/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=896 Cheers, Rob

Check out the bump steer FAQ, rca's have no effect on reducing bump steer. 1) dunno 2) No need to change spring height as ride height isn't affected by rca as it sits below the wheel axis line. You could make a 5" thick rca an it would still have no effect on ride height - it would bugger up the geometry admittedly, so don't make one Cheers, Rob

Damn, get it out of the rain otherwise it'll just be a realtime film of a nice zed turning in to a heap of rust!!! Cheers, Rob

Briefly detouring back to the Cerbera AJP8, here's Clarksons review of it including a brief interview with Peter Wheeler (then TVR boss) about the engine. Lots of lovely braaaaaping going on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASpdWtXmce4 Cheers, Rob

Seems to be plenty of suppliers down in OZ: http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=wilwood+brakes&meta=cr%3DcountryAU Maybe you could do a deal with Dave to have him supply just the mounting brackets and hats to save you having to figure all that out, and just source the heavy disks and calipers locally. Cheers, Rob

LOL Tim, yep that's what I was getting at. Can't say anything about how the larger companion flange will effect the bearing, I've had to scrap everything here so I'm just going on theory and what I can see on the net these days. I've still got my design for a new strut/hub that uses Z32 hubs and brakes, dunno when that will ever happen. Techno Toy Tuning are also working on a similar hub set up, I suspect they'll get to market first Cheers, Rob

Looking at the pics in post 49: http://forums.hybridz.org/showpost.php?p=787925&postcount=49 It looks like it would be possible to have a larger diameter splined section whilst retaining the stock size bearings. That would of course mean a change in companiion flange to match, and possibly a larger nut to hold it all together, which might then have an impact on what CV axles could be fitted to that companion flange. I'm sure that Ross could come up with a complete set up though for those out there that are harder than hardcode Cheers, Rob

No experience, but just so you know they'll bive you the equivalent of a 3.833:1 diff ratio, unless my maths is wrong http://www.robshelley.btinternet.co.uk/240z/diff_calc/ Cheers, Rob

OK it's a 2.8, but Radical's RPB makes 455bhp apparently, admittedly it's got a life of 30 hours between rebuilds lol!! http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=16445 Cheers, Rob

All AJP8s come as standard with a WC T5, TVR don't do no stinking slushbox option However they use an remote gear linkage to reposition the lever in the cockpit, so you'd be getter off just getting the engine with bellhousing and hydraulic throughout bearing set up and plonking on a locally sourced T5 (1"x23 spline input shaft, same as some Fords). To glean more info start digging in the TVR General and Cerbera specific forums here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/ Attached is my cerbie on the day I sold it, uprated suspension, wheels, headlights and of course the straight-through cat back exhaust system. Cheers, Rob

Yep, it nudge the 180mph mark, dunno quite how accurate the speedo is at those speeds but who cares! The car ran so smoothly it was untrue, completely planted on the track all the way up. Only incident I had that day was cracking one of the manifolds when I downshifted in to third at slightly the wrong rpm. Man that was an interesting drive home (50odd motorways miles) keeping under 3k rpm sounding like a Spitfire the whole way - frikkin' awesome :D:D Mmmmmmmm Speed 12, potentially the fastest road car made at the time, just never tested to confirm. The only road legal one left was recently auctioned by Coys dunno what it went for but the guide price was £160k, stupid lottery let me down again!! Cheers, Rob

Get off, the AJP is my secret plan! Luckily for anyone outside of the UK it really isn't a viable option due to lack of parts availability, especially now that TVR is pretty much dead in the water and they stopped producing the AJP8 a few years back. It's been up to the specialist aftermarket - literally about 3 places - in the UK to support these engines. The good news is that the tuning of the 4.5s has got to the state where they can actually be made to produce the 420bhp as originally stated by TVR, most of them left the factory with 350-360bhp, with the 4.2s in the 320-340bhp range, so not much different really. There's not much that can be done to the 4.2 to improve on the rated 360bhp but it's good to know that the 4.5 is capable of producing the goods and must be insanely fast now. Check this video for a clue as to quite how fast: It should be noted that that although the Cerb on that run was supposed to be a 4.2 it was allegedly a factory special 4.7 Still that was from the mid-nineties. Here's a somewhat dull looking record of my speedy attempts a few years ago in the 4.2 I owned: http://www.robshelley.btinternet.co.uk/tvr/elvington/ I would also dispute the 'spartan' claim, the sculptured delight of the leather clad 2+2 interior has never been bettered in any car IMHO, blimey they even have aircon, which admittedly can only be felt in Winter over the heat from the engine Cheers, Rob