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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

anyone ever owned a TVR Chimeara or Cerbera


simonas

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I'm thinking of getting one next. I have never driven either which I will do as soon as I can but what are the pros and cons and are they as unreliable as made out?

 

Its one of those things that I know isn't a sensible move but sometimes you have to get them out of your system. I want the V8 noise and in the case of the cerbera I love the shape and the Chimeara is a convertible which appeals to me for next year

 

cheers

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Right the Chimera uses the Rover V8 so parts are dirt cheap plus they use the chasis of the Griffith so handle quite well. My old man runs a 1998 Griff 500 and has had it for 6 years with no problems at all. The Cerbera uses the speed 8 engine AJP8 I think and so costs more to service and more when something goes wrong, I was told to budget 5-6k a year minus petrol for a cerbie

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Right the Chimera uses the Rover V8 so parts are dirt cheap plus they use the chasis of the Griffith so handle quite well. My old man runs a 1998 Griff 500 and has had it for 6 years with no problems at all. The Cerbera uses the speed 8 engine AJP8 I think and so costs more to service and more when something goes wrong, I was told to budget 5-6k a year minus petrol for a cerbie

 

cheers for that . The Cerbera looks gorgeous but there are some suspiciously low priced ones wheras the Chimeara are all at my price range and I fancy a convertiboe again. The Griffith isthe best looking of lot and I may have a lok at those as well.

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I sold my tt 6-spd and bought a Cerbera because I always wanted one, it proved reliable, I bought it from a member of the TVR owners club, it drove like a dream,sounded the business, it's no way as refined as a Supra but I guess you know that already?,

there is a nice Cebrera close by going for £9500

I also wanted one really bad and had to get it out of my system, the Cerbie looks and sounds fantastic!

I do miss mine something awful, I may get another one day!

I was also told that yellow Cerbies have got an extra 25BHP, not sure if it's true? maybe they did this so they make yellow ones more attractive!

one last thing, make sure the steering rack is ok, I test drove 3 and they were all FOOKED!

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I sold my tt 6-spd and bought a Cerbera because I always wanted one, it proved reliable, I bought it from a member of the TVR owners club, it drove like a dream,sounded the business, it's no way as refined as a Supra but I guess you know that already?,

there is a nice Cebrera close by going for £9500

I also wanted one really bad and had to get it out of my system, the Cerbie looks and sounds fantastic!

I do miss mine something awful, I may get another one day!

I was also told that yellow Cerbies have got an extra 25BHP, not sure if it's true? maybe they did this so they make yellow ones more attractive!

one last thing, make sure the steering rack is ok, I test drove 3 and they were all FOOKED!

 

 

cheers for that. I've been buyig autotradrer and mags about them so I know its going to happen soon!!! but I'lldrive one soon to see how it is. It appeals to me that its less refined because my initial thought of Soop was that it was too refined. Although I do appreciate the refined nature of the soop at moment when I'm taking it easy at xmas in the busy trafic

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I was considering the Cerbera a while back. Absolutely gorgeous car but the reliability thing put me off. I don't do many miles but the idea of being stranded really put me off. Not too sure on the yellow cars having an extra 25bhp, i know that some of the cerbs had the red rose performance pack which added a bit more bhp. I've got an Evo8 fq300 for the winter at the moment but i may well look into the TVR thing again in the springtime

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I've been printing off a whole load of reviews off t'internet and most reliable is said to be the chmeara which happens to be cheapest. Not as nice as Griffith or Cerbera but 4.5 litre v8 and convertible should see me striaght!!!

 

I've aranged to have our petrol expenses at work raised so should help there :D

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if you can afford the griff go for that same as the chimera but looks 1000 times better. If some one tells you "dont go for an early one as they break cam shafts" they are talking crap they had a batch of 100 rubbish shafts and all were recalled by TVR and changed free of charge.

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Just buy my Tr 8 convertible.Same engine,cheaper to buy and cheaper to insure.And its not like sh*t in a field,I mean those plastic unreliable things are everywhere!Still if you dont want to be noticed......:innocent:

 

 

lol shameless plug there...... I used to like those but TVR it will be

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Dave, stroking it to 5.2l makes little difference to the performance on its own, but Omega forged pistons (10:1 CR), Arrow rods, a nitrided crossdrilled crankshaft, performance cam and stage 3 big valve heads, 45 mm intake trumpets etc. do :D

 

As a package it puts out a reliable (for TVR :D) 305 bhp compared with the 260 or so from the stock TVR built engine. Hopefully with the peace of mind that it's going to stay in one piece when I give it some stick.

 

Of course, getting that power down on to the ground is completely a different matter. :D

 

Personally I doubt whether I'd have ever got around to spending the money having it done, but having the chance to buy a car that had had loads of money spent on it (in the same way I'd have done myself) was an opportunity too good to refuse ;)

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I'm thinking of getting one next. I have never driven either which I will do as soon as I can but what are the pros and cons and are they as unreliable as made out?

 

Its one of those things that I know isn't a sensible move but sometimes you have to get them out of your system. I want the V8 noise and in the case of the cerbera I love the shape and the Chimeara is a convertible which appeals to me for next year

 

cheers

 

Well for starters a Cerbera doesn't sound like a V8! It sounds like a very rough four cylinder. Reliability can be good, can be bad, it depends on who built it, with what parts, and if he was having a bad day at the time. The Chim is more pleasent to drive, and doesn't want to kill you, the cerb is more rewarding IF you get it right. My mates Cerb is for sale and he gave me first refusal- I refused. Get a Griff, looks better, values are going up (others are in free fall) too.

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