hello all, i've been away from this board for awhile;in in that time my "aston project"went down the drain,had a near fatal accident when my audi a6 was t-boned by a chinese drunk-driver driving a subara forester turbo as well as selling off some assets to fund new expenditures and such!whew! straight to topic: a friend of mine,a pro touring car racer;has informed me of the availability of the MOTHER of all front-engined homologation specials,the reportedly "concept-only" TVR SPEED 12.it was supposedly built for a high-profile billionaire(wasn't told which one!)sometime during 1999;and as such sports the ORIGINAL speed 12 front bodywork but a modified,widened rear track. it's 7.7l v12 has been detuned to 800bhp from 855bhp,and torque figures are 845Nm instead of 882Nm.couupled to a kerb weight of 1082kg!it's 6 spd gearbox,suspension,engine,bodywork are all built in-hse;only ap racing brakes,a stack intrument cluster,corbeau seats,speedline rims,mountney steering wheel,etc. are out-sourced. price?USD125k. what do you think?pictures are unavailable as yet,but here are samples. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I believe the car in those pics was scrapped. The "production" speed 12's looked a little different. And there was a red one for sale a while back. I don't know what happened to it.
Looks a bit like a Dodge Viper suffering an allergic reaction from the rear Don't mean that in a bad way though - I'm a big TVR fan!
Clarkson did a short test in one of the older Top Gear episodes and the car was white then, IIRC he said the car was an animal on the track, but a complete pig going around corners.
that's the MR 2000 version,a CERBERA speed 12,if you must! apparently the original buyer of this car preferred the "mk1" look(1998) ao there goes.i'm quite surprised that they even went on sale;i always thought they were just awesome concepts. this would smoke anything bar the bugatti veyron; 7.7l 60deg V12 48v,800+bhp(supposedly 715bhpRWHP) with an incredible 863Nm torque figure coupled to a lightweight but incredibly rigid body which weighs in at 1080kg.that is unbelievable,but independant tests have proved these statistics:- 0-62mph 2.88s,0-125mph 7.32sec,Vmax 218+mph! FYI:the silver car is the MYR2000(notice the rear track) the purple is MYR1998! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
This must be the car that was featured in an article in EVO magazine last year and an interview with Peter Wheeler the owner (at the time) of TVR. The Cerbera Speed Twelve was conveived as a flagship for TVR, with an intended production of 1 or 2 a month and the intention of racing it too. Unable to handle the torque, the dyno broke under stress during engine testing; it was supposed to handle 1000hp! The engine was originally detuned to 940hp (for racing, it was restricted to 680hp!!). One day, Wheeler took it home in that configuration to form an opinion: "I knew within 300 yards that it was a silly idea. Over 900hp in a car weighting just over a ton is plainly ridiculous on the road. It didn't matter what gear you were in, you just couldn't get to use the power. There is no tyre produced that can cope with that kind of power: even the racers struggle and they have tyres that are twice as wide and sticky; and anyway, they have only 680hp to deal with. At the end of the day, it turned out to be completely pointless as a road car". Wheeler concluded: "The trouble with all these high-powered cars being developed today, is that you can't use the power. With some other manufacturers, the only way they can produce such powerful cars is to develop electronic traction controls to limit the power you can use. So what's the point of having it in the first place if the electronics don't let you use it?" The Cerbera Speed Twelve project was canned after a few were produced. TVR tried to buy some road-going cars back, to avoid liability and warranty claims.
fantastic post.no wonder even the ferrari fx is non-road legal,and the veyron weighs 1820kg and has 4-wheel drive! still,since you've confirmed that there are DETUNED road-legal examples of this magnificent beast;an avid (wealthy) enthusiast could perhaps fit in some form of nannying devices such as ABS(!!!),TCS and other "luxuries" such as a/c,power windows,etc.... this car is rumored to be difficult to drive;but then again so is a countach or a carrera gt(difficult to master;but it's a rewarding car!) i'm even MORE intrigued....and USD125k suddenly sounds reasonable!
The red one was at the London Motorshow a few weeks ago on the TVR stand. Thought I'd got a photo of it but can't find it now!!!!
Oh, I forgot to mention too..... the rear bumper scares me. However it would be very useful for sitting your drink on if you take it to a car show. Maybe even playing a few card games on. Otherwise, I think it could have been designed a bit better.
turns out the bumpers are designed that way for aerodynamics and downforce... a car with similar bumper config. are the anniversario countach and diablo. the tvr's creates around 78kg of downforce at a speed of 210km/h. here are the "official" TVR performance stats:- (7.7l v12,880bhp/873Nm torque-MR2000) 0-62mph 2.88sec 0-100mph in 5.65sec, 0-125mph in 7.92sec and finally...a quarter mile of 10.426sec(the veyron does 9.753sec!!!!) please note however the speed 12 was developed on a tight budget,had off-the-shelf tires and quite primitive aero(compared to a veyron). but the sheer lack of weight of the speed 12(1078kg) versus the veyron (1890kg)enables it to run it close.a speed 12 would kill the veyron on track,but in real world situations the bugatti would leave it trailing.
Is it just me.......or from certain angles doesn't it look exactly like a slightly fatter and flattened out first generation Viper coupe ?
more interesting bits on (by popular opinion) "UK viper". the chassis,body,everything! of the mk1 speed 12(1997/98) and the cerbera speed 12(2000/01) differed greatly. the original was a race-bred custom while the mk2 is indeed based on a strengthened,elongated and widened cerbera.(note:the tvr cerbera was the test mule for the McLaren/Merc SLR) this 4-seat GT had everything,almost;lightweight and stiff construction(kerb weight 1020kg),more space than a jaguar xk/aston db7,a superb homegrown V8(ajp-v8 displacing 4.5l and packing 440bhp in it's latest guise),a good gearbox,fantastic performance/handling/speed....everything except BUILD QUALITY. still,anyone who's ever driven a cerbera,even in 350bhp I-6 form,will attest that this was a potentially fantastic car in ALL conditions except the wet!(ABS?TCS? not a chance...and the lack of airbags didn't help matters much) it's IMHO a 4-seat corvette z06!!! petition your state bureaucracy to allow a supply of TVRs to pass emmissions, safety and type approval tests;or just come to europe and give one a shot. the handling of a z06 plus the practicality of a m6?you bet. one question;did the cerbera speed 12 have 4 seats too?that would make it a VEYRON for 4! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
And why can't these car be sold in the US!?!. I have only seen two TVR's and my guess is they where late 70's early 80's models but they where nice. Hmm I wonder who would win a 3way race between the Z06, Viper GTS and Cerbera? I made a video of a Viper GTS racing a Tucson from GT4 no mods motor for motor.
hippo - Friend of mine have a green TVR just like the yellow car in the photo. I have not see that car with a license plate, I don't how he got into the US?? but he have been driving with us for the last three years.
that is just awesome. however,i'm not 100% on american type-approval laws.some buddies of mine managed to bring in the (in the US) non-road legal diablo gt-r(MY2001) into california,and he won't tell me how either!the maserati mc12,mclaren f-1 and several other supercars are also supposed to be non-legal and yet you do come across these things in florida! anyone care to explain?
