Mechanic car abuse

In the recent past, they bought in Rover V8s and designed/built their own V8 and straight 6 engines. Reliability problems with the latter were one of the reasons they went down this time. A company the size of TVR making half a dozen models and 3 engines was bonkers.

I would imagine the emissions laws did for the Rover V8; its roots were pretty ancient.

Chris

Emissions, fuel consumption, specific power output, size and weight. The damn thing is 60 years old.

Except TVR developed their own engines and put them into production several years before Jaguar-LandRover stopped using the Rover lump in their own products.

The TVR straight 6 was a gem, pure racing technology on the street in terms of design. Unfortunately whoever mapped the ECU hadnt a f*cking clue. Complete absence of any notion of drivability, transmission shunt to snap your neck, and a mixture so rich it burnt your eyes at WOT doesn't even come close!! A watering can of petrol over an open inlet would run better!!!

I had the pleasure of strapping one of these on the rollers and starting afresh with an aftermarket ECU. Mapped the thing from scratch and it was like a different motor. Only found another 10bhp at the top end, but I think we gained something like 50 ft lbs of torque pretty much everywhere else.

Pretty much sums the British up. Nice idea, craply implemented!

That may well be true (I've never driven a Speed 6 TVR) but it is well known that the valve-gear was made of chocolate, some owners not even getting home from a rebuild before the finger followers failed again.

Now they're being built with proper materials, they're apparently a cracking engine. Or you can buy a re-engineered head from Racing Green.

In my state, we have "anti-hoon laws". A car will get confiscated if caught 50 km/h over speed limit. It is not uncommon for for mechanics test drive a Ferrari or Corvette, and guess what - the owner is without their prized wheels.