Back in the happy, far-off days of March 2019, when Corona was that Mexican lager you had at barbeques and social distancing meant unfriending somebody on Facebook, Brave Pill featured a TVR Chimaera the week after writing about an Ulster-based Maserati 4200GT. Last week we tried to bring some cheer to the greyness of lockdown with another Northern Irish Maser - this time a 3200GT. Now, in what is, honestly, a total coincidence, we've got another TVR Chimaera, albeit a braver one than last time.
Indeed, it's doubly brave, both in terms of being a 25-year-old TVR, but also having the power-to-weight ratio of a modern supercar thanks to the unlikely decision to turbocharge it. If Pill awarded medals then the creator of such a vehicle would be in line for a really senior one. But although heroic, the act of creating such a car couldn't earn Pill's top gallantry award - a couple of brass orbs that clank together at the end of a length of ribbon - that one is reserved for whoever is courageous enough to buy it used, and with 120,000 miles on the clock.
Modifying cars is as much art as science, and that's especially true when it's time to move them on. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and while some may see a masterpiece that improves significantly on a base car, others are likely to perceive something closer to Tracey Emin's unmade, johnny-strewn bed. As the late '90s joke put it "how do you turn a nine grand Saxo into a three grand Saxo? Spend £20,000 modifying it."
That is definitely not the case here. Whether you can see the appeal of a 417hp Chimaera or not, it's impossible to read the advert and look at the pictures without feeling a deep respect for the care and attention that has been spent on modifying the car, and keeping it in tip-top condition. Nor is our seller falling into the classic trap of trying to recoup the entire cost of an expensive transformation through an optimistic asking price. Our Pill is more expensive than a standard Chim, but not by anything like the margin necessary to pay for what has been done to it: the vendor says the new owner will get a flight case packed with receipts and service history.
The more contentious issue, which can and doubtless will be hotly debated, is whether any TVR from this period needs so much extra power. Peter Wheeler had controlled TVR for more than a decade before the Chimaera arrived, but it and the closely related Griffith are still the models most associated with the renaissance he brought to the company's fortunes. Sure, the 1986 S-Series had begun to move TVR design from wedgy to curvaceous, but it took the arrival of the Griff in 1991, and the Chimera the following year, to start the brand's golden era.
Both were fine-looking sportscars, they were not technically sophisticated ones. Wheeler had realised that lots of buyers prioritised performance, style and V8 noise above ultimate handling finesse. This was an era when most low-volume British specials were either aimed at Bertie Wooster or had fibreglass bodywork seemingly moulded with concrete shuttering. The Griffith and Chimaera were a spectacular break from this, combining voluptuous design with Rover-sourced V8 power; meaning both aural and visual hubba-hubba.
Performance was searing. In what could be termed 'factory optimised' configuration the entry-level Chimaera 4.0-litre turned in a 4.8-second 0-60mph in magazine testing - just a tenth behind the F355 Berlinetta. But while the Ferrari cost £83,000 in 1994 the TVR was just £27,850. The rest of the driving experience was equally raw, of course, with owners soon discovering that the Chimaera's ability to bite hard if not treated with appropriate respect. And that was with 240hp.
The combination of famously variable build quality, and the adventurous spirit of your typical TVR buyer, meant Chimaeras were soon being tweaked and improved in all kinds of ways. And while few have been modified to the extent of our Pill, the changes wrought haven't just been about adding power.
Highlights include a single Holset HX35 turbocharger on a custom manifold delivering up to 12PSI of boost and feeding the engine through an intercooler. Gearbox, clutch and driveshafts have been upgraded and it also has the popular modification of Sierra Cosworth front discs. Suspension has been butched up with polybushes and Nitron Racing Red shocks, and the seller also reports the car's chassis only dates from 2004, with the pictures of it suggesting it remains clean enough to eat a (very cramped) dinner off, should you be so minded.
Performance claims for tuned cars need to be taken with a slap of salt, but our Pill's advert includes a printout from a rolling road session last year, where it recorded dyno peaks of 417hp and 450lb-ft. With the seller also reporting a weighbridge-verified 1040kg kerbweight that gives a reasonably well proven 400hp/tonne power-to-weight ratio - better than, among other things, a Ferrari 458, Mercedes-McLaren SLR and Lamborghini Murcielago LP640. Good luck finding any of those for less than twenty grand.
Although 120,000 miles is a sizeable tally for any Chimaera, most of our Pill's were acquired before the private seller bought it 12 years ago. Indeed the official MOT history reckons it has covered just 21,000 miles between 2006 and last April's test - it's currently on a COVID extension to October. The record suggests it has had a couple of periods SORN within that time, but has never failed a test, or even scored any particularly noteworthy advisories.
The seller admits that this is a tentative offer of sale - they may just keep what is obviously a much-loved car. They are also offering to the Chim back to something more closely approaching standard condition, although doing so would surely miss much of the point of a car like this. Every TVR is brave, but this might be the bravest of the lot.
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