TVR, Distinguished History

[Fit4aking]

TVR Testing Round 3

I had a chance to actually play for a while tonight and I went back to the A-class TVR project.  I decided that ALL of the cars would benefit from more grip over more power.  All were platformed and ready for more parts so I decided to add tires (width or Street) depending what was available and take weight away.  I know from experience that TVR's don't do well without weight.  A full weight reduction full tire S-class Sagaris is more than a handful to drive.  Add some of the weight back and it comes around.  Here is the preliminary QR for the grip builds on all 3 TVR's.  I haven't finalized any of the toons for the cars yet so no specifics till I'm happy.

Tuscan S A850 (grip)
Road Atlanta 2:  57.016
Sebring Short:  72.970
Tsukuba:  56.874
QR:  186.860
Improvement: 6.248

Tuscan R A850 (grip)
Road Altanta 2:  57.006
Sebring Short:  73.731
Tsukuba:  57.750
QR:  188.487
Improvement:  2.082

Sagaris A850 (grip)
Road Atlanta 2:  56.673
Sebring Short:  73.899
Tsukuba:  57.174
QR:  187.746
Improvement:  2.916

I really like the Sagaris.  I was super impressed with the Tuscan S.  I found that the Blooze Toon has to be modified.  Some of the weight needs to be over theback end of these things to make it work.  I've experimented with the 55% toon so far and its promising.  I think that the builds are set.  I went back over the Sagaris and took away some of the weight and rim width to add Street tires and it slowed down significantly.  The wider tires and low weight made all the difference.  The aero parts on these turd ADD PI instead of lowering it like most other cars.  I fit the Forza rear bumper on the cars when I could but no adjustable downforce on any build.  Scary, huh.  I'll continue to work on the toons on these A-classers and then I'm gonna move up to S-class with a fresh set of cars.  These babies are gonna stay where they are for now.  I want to try each of them out online before I scrap any of them. 

[Blooze]

I built out the Sagaris with DOT tires and some rims that reduced weight by 20#, and all the handling stuff with the exception of Weight Reduction.  I used 54.5 % and a slight increase to the ARB (6%) and springs (2%).  The damping agents were set for Exit Grip and Understeer, 2 each.

The car showed moments of brilliance which were quickly quashed by the appeance of a turn.  I think I could improve my times quite a bit if I spent some time in the car.  It probably didn't help having spent a week with C classed FWD cars.  I was just a tad squirrelly...

Road Atlanta 2:	58.114
Sebring Short:	74.733
Tsukuba:	57.158
QR:	190.005

$

[Fit4aking]

After a solid whoopin on the track tonight I do believe that all the grip in the world won't help out this thing with out aero.  I could pull top end on anything on Mugello, I was pullin in a couple on the Ring (till I stuffed it) but I was losing a lot of time in the corners.  The Sagaris is speed limited to 163mph in stock aero trim (unacceptabe) and the Tuscan R has long legs (174 on Mugello Straight) but can't get on all that power without crankin the rear around. 

It may have some to do with the fact I was runnin MR cars all night and my driving tendancies had shifted towards them so I'll have another go with them but I believe that Round 4 of testing will be the Tuscan-aero Session.

[Fit4aking]

Whoo, Hoooo, found it.

Tuscan S & R Factory Transmission gear ratio's.  Remember these cars were 5-speeds.

1st: 3.32
2nd: 2.09
3rd: 1.40
4th: 1.00
5th: 0.79

Final Drive: 3.31

Ha- Sagaris runs a 0.80 5th gear and a 3.73FD.

Sagaris Gearset

1st: 2.95
2nd: 1.95
3rd: 1.34
4th: 1.00
5th: 0.80

FD-3.73


Still hunting the Sagaris gearset but I'd venture its very similar.

[fndrbndr]

Unfortunately though, TVR fell into the trap of adding more equipment and as a consequence the prices went up. Suddenly, the market your cars were selling to can no longer afford your cars, so you need to find new buyers. What happened in Britain was that those new buyers could buy a TVR, with all the well-know quality issues, or for similar money they could buy a 911. No prizes for guessing what the new target customer went for.

I'm probably committing about six kinds of heresy saying this, but the 911 has always been kind of ho-hum in my eyes.  The first time I saw a Lotus Elise on the street, though, I followed it til I figured out enough to look it up online and see what it was. lol 
Honestly, that might be a dream car for me.  Too bad the lotuses are so incredibly good in the game.  I'll probably never spend that much on a car anyway, though. lol

[Fit4aking]

YEA, YEA, I have my Tuscan S back!

I had a bit of time to day to work on a project of mine.  The TVR testing I started way back when.  I had determined that the Tuscan was inferior to the Sagaris in full grip, non-aero build.  The Sagaris just outclassed it with no aero all around.  The Tuscan R had it on power by about 70hp and that took the power slot in A-class so the S version was an odd-man-out of sorts. 

At one time I had it built and tooned to run consistant 114's on Mugello long but trashed the entire setup when I baselined the car for comparisson testing.  I only had it in the grip build and hadn't used it in ages.  Well today that all changed.  I upgraded the car to full aero, Y-rated Bridgestones, and street level ignition.  I'll get the entire build together again and posted soon. 

I'm intending on taking a bit more time to sort the alignment specs on this version and leave it in A-class.  The Sagaris and the R will get moved up to S-class.  At least the Tuscan R will as I have a Sagaris in both A and 2 in S currently.  As I get the class finally built and sorted I'll post all of the variants in this section.  I'm very pleased with the car.  One thing worth noting the stock setting for the SWR is 78.3, very close to the default 75.78.

I've only gone so far as to the bias the car and I like a 52.5% on this more than I did the higher bias values.  The rear tires are still colder than the fronts but much more bias and turn-in suffers.  I increased the rear tire pressure 1psi and the heat ended up within 15-20 degrees on the fronts.  A small diff adjustment and the rear end wander faded, not completely, but noticably.  Aero is still default, as is gearing at this point.  I've only added 0.2 negative camber to the front and everything else, alignment wise, is default.  In just the 8-10 laps I ran on Laguna I was easily below my Sagaris times and can easily be in the mid 86's with a bit more tuning.  I can't wait to get this back to Mugello for some sub 114 second runs.  If I can catch my Exige time there I will be tickled pink.

[Fit4aking]

All of the recent about the Sagaris has me homesick for my old friend.  I parked her a while back to get my Tuscan S inline so I've probably got cobwebs in the cockpit.

Glad its working out for the Daytona Challenge.  It served me well in the Maple Valley Reverse challenge.  I didn't think that a high power, RWD car would be able to stay controlled around "The Turn" on MVSR but it suprised me.  After that I made every other version I could stand, higher power, more grip, and I kept my in between build.  Each serves me well.

I'll be running it the second my new beauty arrives.

[Drift2XL]

I have you to thank for the Sagaris Fit.

I remembered that you said it was skittish at full weight redux. You nailed right on the head. I haven't lightened it up, but I can tell its not that far off from getting that way.

I did leave it at full weight. 2400lbs full weight. I knew the engine was great everywhere. There was no reason to push the weight thing.

Hmm ....I think I need to further that thought.

[Fit4aking]

Its been a while since I've spent some time actually tuning a TVR.  Most time's I can hop in and just go.  I've soent so much time setting them up that I don't need to tweek them too much, if at all.  Well it turns out a new car came along and sent shockwaves down the garage this weekend.  My new S5 has taken the reigns for my A-class flowing cars.  I was 5 seconds ahead of my Tusan S on the Maple Valley Pro Series race, that's huge.  I took the S5 to Mugello (the TVR stomping ground) and managed to put .600 on my best Tuscan time.

Back to the drawing board for the old British beauty, the Germans have invaded and took no prisoners.

Spent and hour tweeking the Tuscan S and managed to run within .200 of the S5 but still slower.  The alignment and aero have made the biggest advancements in scooting this thing through the sweepers but there is still a bit of a push on the off-cambers.  I'm about 7 to 10 mph slower on them but nearly 30mph faster on the straight.  Looks like Spanky's may have a new challenge to take on.

The Battle of the S's:  TVR Tuscan S vs. Audi S5 on Mugello.  Bring on the personal bests, I think there are 112's in both cars. (That's fast for me so no snickering Serial, or Drift, or Spiny, aw hell, just no snickering from anyone.)

[bimmerlovere39]

I hope not - that could spell major trouble for Heidi if you can do low 112s... Heidi's in the mid 113s iirc.

[Fit4aking]

Before I hung it up last night I was running 113.385 in the S5 and 113.474 in the Tuscan S.  Looks like Heidi is already in trouble.  All times were run in under 7 laps, after that the tires were over 40% wear.  Not ideal for hotlapping.

[BarbecuePete]

Here at last is some good news about TVR....

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=18359

[Fit4aking]

....and in other Forza new TVR shocks at Sebring.  Piloted by Fit4king the lone TVR Sagaris outlasted the challenge of the mystery driver in his red Corvette Z06.  In what seemed like a lopsided heat the underdog TVR showed up in stock trim and fought nose to tail with the fastest car on the stragihtaways.  Victory was a challenge but in the end the better driver did win. 

whew, after all the crap I heard about this race series I was happy to see that my spec Sagaris, from Blooze!, was able to hold off the competition.