Yeh this is my first TVR, and I agree the mechanical grip doesn't feel to be amazing however there's room for improvement especially with a few small tweaks of the current suspension... However, I've got an e36 for track use so I really don't want to go turning this car into a track car.
I’ve mentioned to a few that when I got the car, first day of ownership wasn’t as smooth as it could have been, so here’s the story;
When bringing the car home I noticed the water temperatures were a little erratic at times and reading a little on the high side. Previous background info on the car brought up the fact it might need a new water temp sensor which feeds the gauges, however I wasn’t convinced.
First port of call was to bleed the cooling system, and although there was a minor bit of success this had not cured the issue. After an extended test drive I noticed a faint wisp of coolant under the bonnet.
Now this can be common... not just because it’s a TVR, but because the cooling system doesn’t have an expansion bottle so in higher temperatures if someone’s slightly overfilled the coolant, the coolant rises up the tower (where the blue cap is in the picture below) through expansion then it can self level itself all over the engine and floor, great design!!
I wanted to investigate further and ran a series of temperature gauges both infra-red and physical, this showed that the water temperature in the block and heater matrix was higher than that leading to the radiator which seemed strange. After a short while, and lots of panic that I’d have shagged the engine by running it hot, I decided to whip the thermostat out and test it in a pan of hot water.
Sure enough, the thermostat was goosed and wasn’t opening so I fitted the housing back onto the car and filled the cooling system with boggo water to see how its temperature management was this time round. Perfect, the car maintained temperature there was no fluctuations in the gauge and the fans were clicking in and out at the right temps. A new thermostat was ordered at a great cost of £18.44, £8.50 of which was postage. Upon its arrival it was promptly fitted and the cooling system was flushed through and re-filled with Silkolene Pro-Cool.
Now the car was running fine it was time for my first real drive, I took it to Specialist Cars of Malton’s Breakfast Meeting which raises money in aid of the North Yorkshire Air Ambulance. The car ran fine all the way there, and back... it’s a real hoot to drive and gives massive smiles both when on it or just cruising at steady speeds, here’s a few more pictures of the car after the drive out sat waiting to go back in the garage!
