TVR Cerbera 4.5 - British Brute

[JJ]

Something of interest to you performance motivated enthusiasts. Friend has a fit TVR Cerbera 4.5 which I might add is the kiddie of the TVR bunch. This has a race exhaust on it too to add to its already monsterous performance - Max. output 420.0 bhp @6750 rpm Max. torque 515.0 Nm (380 lbft) @5500 rpm - weight 1100 kg – 0-100 mph in 8.5 secs and top speed of 195 mph.

Okay, so we’re tootling along and curiosity got the better of us of the little T04R Powered MR2 turbo. So off the roundabout we come, the MR2 behind the Cerbera…. 30+ mph… and the hammer goes down, the Cerbera instantly shreads 2/3 car lengths out of T04R-2 on acceleration as the turbo awaits a text message from me to spool up !… however, changing up, I find myself smiling as this blackpool burbler is gaining no distance away from me, a hard 3rd pull .. into 4th and we’re approaching another roundabout at an equal distance from one another…. on the brakes … off the roundabout … and this is where it gets interesting ….

As we both come out of a slight left hander, my hammer goes down first ( anticipated delay from laggy turbo ) … and suddenly theres the thunderous noise of the Cerby and the almost cheap screaming hallow sound of the MR2 both catapulting up the road. From 2nd to 3rd, the MR2 is behind blackpools AJP8 – an initially developed race engine for the road, 3rd gear hard pull found the MR2 pulling right up along side, with a little nudge past the drivers window when screaming towards 8300 rpm… into 4th and it seems these cars were quite evenly matched.. with an equal pace for the duration of stretching 4th gear and back on the brakes again.

Both parties very impressed with the pace of the little 2 litre MR2 and opened the flood gates for performance improvements of supercharging the AJP8.

The punchline to the antics is the fact that my little MR2 is still being ran in and is currently running 6psi of boost pressure with another 20 psi to go ! So in essence, the T04R powered MR2 is the slowest in accelerating at present. I must be doing something right !

This TVR Cerbera will have its ar5e handed to him on a plate in the near future.

Mine is fully weighted still, with leathers, cruise control, air con, in fact.. its appearance isn’t any different to when it left the factory other than the 17” wheels and a front spoiler enhancement.

[V8Killer]

Good story JJ!!! I agree those Cerbera's are monstrous!!! I remember going against one in my Scooby late last year in the wet. Needless to say, it was a joke. He made mine meat of me on the straight...as soon as a rounabout came, i drove right around the outside of him and after that there was no catching me

[MR2lover]

Been waiting for this on here after you said in e-mail

Good things are to come from your beast matey at 26psi but your never catch me

you must be laughing so much inside when looking at boost gauge seeing 6psi but i wonder how much extra lag you will gain when runnng 26psi.

500rpm

[EarL]

Cracking read JJ! =D>

I absolutely love hearing about the MR2's giant slaying capabilities.

I can just see the text message... COME ON YA TW*T! WAKE UP!!!! PMSL

EarL.

[JJ]

Do you know, this car of mine just grabs soo much attention in my local area .. I honestly don’t know why??? its as if.. people have been all sat in the pub one night and had chats of having a go at the sky blue mr2 !!! and go out of their way to have a crack at me !! Sure it take two to tango, but they do like to sit under the rear spoiler for some reason…. And because I don’t’ like people driving so close to me, I’m inclined to accelerate somewhat.

Scoobies.. by the day at the moment, the STi’s are noticeably quicker .. WRX’s are a waste of time now.. I reckon a normally aspirated pushed would keep with one of those. I came across a quick car last night….. and this may surprise a few of you… it was a Focus RS. Wasn’t no slouch too.. if I’m honest, it was only marginally slower than the Cerbera .. I could take it mid range and top end, but compared to the flavours of the week, STi’s, boosted GT4s, 185’s 205s, Evo VII’s it would have passed all of them !! Also to my surprise was his acknowledgement too, grinning over as I passed him and a couple of flashes… a rarity amongst Ford Owners…. Normally I’d have to drive some evasive manner to avoid side swiping.

You know.. I’ll still say it.. I’ve driven many cars, Many TVR’s, Cerbera’s, Ferrari 355’s, M3’s, Supras, skylines, 200’s, 300s…etc etc. and it still does it.. brings a smile to my face each time I drive it. Can’t quite explain it. Its got a lot of flaws in it…. hasn’t’ got the style and prestige like others, but theres just something about it being one of the cheapest all round packages with such amazing performance.

Sounds biased I know... but I have a very open mind !!

[Scotster]

Wow great story, i noticed you wrote 8.5 for the 60 in the tvr though. Did you mean 3.5??

Whats your car pushing out? Must be a bit of a brute if it handled a tvr at 6psi. What other mods do you have? I'm looking to seriously overhaul my engine next year and am looking at turbo's at the moment.

Cheers

Scott =op

Edit just looked up the HKS turbo and 700bhp is a bit much for what i'm looking for lol.

[EarL]

Wow great story, i noticed you wrote 8.5 for the 60 in the tvr though. Did you mean 3.5??.

...that was 100 mate.

[johnp]

has your mate's Cerbera been power tested?

i say this because the first 4.2 ones were 350 genuine but unreliable and were then de-tuned.the 4.5 was then brought in to make up the difference

--so although 420 was claimed this was really prob less than 350....perhaps your mate's only 300--who knows?

the other prob with cerbs is getting the power down --i was reluctant to floor it until i was in third otherwise the back end could come round---in a straight line on a dry surface!!

keep up the good work and you'll definitely end up faster !!!

[JAP BOY]

Good story JJ stories like this keeps me going all the time

[JJ]

i noticed you wrote 8.5 for the 60 in the tvr though. Did you mean 3.5??

Scotster - thats a 0 to 100 time not to 60 !! You can't really measure these cars to 60 !! The TVR will eat mine for breakfast with the instant torque it had V's my turbo charger that needs a fiesta engine strapped to it to spool it !!

"Whats your car pushing out?"

Dunno... not really a number chaser... will find out soon I guess when it gets mapped properly... I know its running seriously rich with the flames it kicking out and its such a pain to start when hot ! Probably why it goes so quick !!!

"Must be a bit of a brute if it handled a tvr at 6psi."

Its all about efficiency my friend !

has your mate's Cerbera been power tested?

Johnp - yeah.. I hear what you're saying... I know the history of TVR's is simply grab whats in the factory and stick it in to make an engine. Most don't put out what they're supposed to. It packs loads more than 300 though...In its defence, its one of the first 4.5's with 15k miles on it..... and I've driven many cars... this thing is fit ! Its the ultimate torque monster... and the engines are race developed, forged internals, motec ecu etc... full kit and kaboodal... sometimes doesn't even start too... typically a TVR !! Don't need to do a power run when nothings kept remotely up with it and goes staight past 180 mph on booting it - My other friend has a Ferrari 355 Berlinetta .. these are 380bhp ish.... walks over that.

Don't get me wrong, I totally doubted the MR2 keeping up with this, nevermind squeezing past it !!

[Steve Horrocks]

WOO HOO!!! Rock on John-boy!

Glad to see she's doing her stuff, keep passing round that video you sent me on me mob to the GF & her family, for some reason, doesn't get the excitement i gave it

Will have to call up (call down) to see this thing in the flesh soon dude!

[shadowninja]

as the turbo awaits a text message from me to spool up

what a brilliant way to describe turbo lag. my old 650bhp GTR was this bad.

[Hedgehog Dodger]

JJ you naughty blighter, racing on the street indeed

Good story mate. Those TO4's are good 'little' turbos, lad has one on this R34, but with 6 cyl it spools a lot quicker, full boost at 3500 rpm. Better than the T78 aswell IMO.

Bought myself an EVO 4 GSR now, sold the R32 as bought a house with the missus and couldn't afford 2 cars.....unlike some

[Caribbean_Blue]

A work college took me out in his Cerbera needless to say I was gob-smacked by the power.

That moment in my life made me HAVE to have a rear wheel drive monster

[matt_mr2t]

Who's the fella on here from Essex with a TVR?
Forgotten his name now, turned up to the Engine Advantages RR day in it. That made bout 360bhp IIRC and about the same in torque. Think that was a 4.2 V8

The noise and the looks though, think I'd rather go slower in that lol.

[pintovit]

I've never drove a tubby (I own a N/A) but I drove a Cerbera 4.5 (imagine the odds ) of a friend of mine. It was in Guadix Circuit (near Granada - Spain). I must say that I was really impressed how easy it was to drive. At the same time I had an enormous respect for it. First it wasn't mine, it was expensive and it wasn't mine!

If you are curious, have a look here:
http://www.pistonheadstv.com/videos/296.avi

Forgive my driving... First time out in a borrowed 420bhp beast...
And be patient... The rhythm keeps increasing...

Now performance wise, if the tubby could keep with a beast like that, I'm shocked! =D>

There are a few figures but those don't really tell the full story.
It's the 3.9 0-60
The 17sec or so to hit 150...

But the 1.8sec from 50-75 in second... that is out of this world.

Even if the Cerbera was only pushing 300bhp, it weights some skinny 1100Kg... so it has a big advantage over a tubby pushing the same power.

I don't know if you saw a top gear test but the 4.2 (it was 380bhp officially but a lot of people said it was a lot less) completly crushing some top machines in a 400m straight... Including a 911 turbo, if I recall correctly...
This was like in 1997 or so...

Anyway, just to finish, much respect to the TVR, what they acomplished so far and the current phase they are going through.
And buckets of respect for the tubby if it hanged in there!

[Bobby (aka Shaggar)]

TVRs arent all that next to an MR2 as hard as that is to believe. I , um, er, raced one ona private strecth of road somewhere near central London a while back and as we both took a rounabout at speed I pulled round hard as he went into a spin and smashed into the back of a lorry. Some may remember the post.

No offence but I cant rate a car that is out handled by a billy euippes MR2.


Bobby


ps. that was a 350c

[fizz]

TVRs arent all that next to an MR2 as hard as that is to believe. I , um, er, raced one ona private strecth of road somewhere near central London a while back and as we both took a rounabout at speed I pulled round hard as he went into a spin and smashed into the back of a lorry. Some may remember the post.

No offence but I cant rate a car that is out handled by a billy euippes MR2.


Bobby


ps. that was a 350c

Its all down to the driver... I saw a Micra take a 911 on track at the Nurburgring... dont mean the 911 cant handle as good as a Micra now does it?

[pintovit]

Exactly...

Those are very fast machines that in capable hands can be astonishing...

Of course that like the S2000 vs Civic Type-R, it's easier to drive the Civic at 90% capabilities than the S2000 at 60% (just an example)...

Regards,
Vítor

[Andy Champ]

No offence but I cant rate a car that is out handled by a billy euippes MR2.

Billy who?

I take it he's some Greek guy, but I can't find him on google...

Andy