UltraFlynn
20th May 2006, 07:12 PM
I had the opportunity to drive a 4.0 Speed Six TVR Cerbera today and I thought I'd share the experience....
The car was a 2001 Y reg, which obviously makes it just 5 years old, and guy who owns it paid just over 23K for it and it's a dream car for him to own.
It's a good looking car. Inside and out. Inside though it feels really really small. You sit either side of this HUGE transmission tunnel and the seat are pretty thin. Very funky designed interior though. I could have spent days cleaning the leather. It's everywhere. Some of the switches though looked very very cheap. Little plastic buttons and the like. In particular, the button to start the engine is small, black and cheap looking. You'd expect a bloody great chrome button to push but it's not there.
So what's it like to drive?
It's like a bloody great go-kart. The engine is far from smooth. Nothing at all like the Supra straight six. The clutch is soooooo heavy. The gearbox very difficult to get into gear until you get used to it. I had real trouble finding 3rd gear. There's no ABS, no traction control and my goodness do you feel it. If you hammer the anchors on you have to pray to God it doesn't lock up because you know that you'll get in trouble if it does. As for the lack of traction control...... it's got a lot of horsepower and it delivers it in a pretty linear way but because there's loads of torque down low it'll easily break loose at the back. Spinning this car out on a bend is very easily done.
In fairness though it does handle awfully well and sounds really nice doing it too. I quite liked the popping noises from the exhaust when you blip the throttle and then release your foot.
It's supposed to have about 400bhp and do the 0-60 in about 4.3 secs. And if you're really brutal with the gear change then I bet that achievable. I still think a BPU Auto Supra would beat it in a straight line 9 times out of 10 though. Just because the gearbox takes all the drama away.
Do would I swap the Supra for one?
In short ... NO.
Why ....
You certainly couldn't live with it as a daily driver. It would fall apart in weeks. Your left leg would end up huge compared to the right!
The power delivery has no refinement. That's something that us Supra owners can very used to but alot of other high power engines produce their power in a far harsher manner.
It's hugely over-priced for what it is unless that's exactly what you want. For less money you could have a Supra of twice the power and it's probably cost you less to run.
Enjoyed every second driving it though. I'm very happy for my mate because as I said it's his dream car.
The car was a 2001 Y reg, which obviously makes it just 5 years old, and guy who owns it paid just over 23K for it and it's a dream car for him to own.
It's a good looking car. Inside and out. Inside though it feels really really small. You sit either side of this HUGE transmission tunnel and the seat are pretty thin. Very funky designed interior though. I could have spent days cleaning the leather. It's everywhere. Some of the switches though looked very very cheap. Little plastic buttons and the like. In particular, the button to start the engine is small, black and cheap looking. You'd expect a bloody great chrome button to push but it's not there.
So what's it like to drive?
It's like a bloody great go-kart. The engine is far from smooth. Nothing at all like the Supra straight six. The clutch is soooooo heavy. The gearbox very difficult to get into gear until you get used to it. I had real trouble finding 3rd gear. There's no ABS, no traction control and my goodness do you feel it. If you hammer the anchors on you have to pray to God it doesn't lock up because you know that you'll get in trouble if it does. As for the lack of traction control...... it's got a lot of horsepower and it delivers it in a pretty linear way but because there's loads of torque down low it'll easily break loose at the back. Spinning this car out on a bend is very easily done.
In fairness though it does handle awfully well and sounds really nice doing it too. I quite liked the popping noises from the exhaust when you blip the throttle and then release your foot.
It's supposed to have about 400bhp and do the 0-60 in about 4.3 secs. And if you're really brutal with the gear change then I bet that achievable. I still think a BPU Auto Supra would beat it in a straight line 9 times out of 10 though. Just because the gearbox takes all the drama away.
Do would I swap the Supra for one?
In short ... NO.
Why ....
You certainly couldn't live with it as a daily driver. It would fall apart in weeks. Your left leg would end up huge compared to the right!
The power delivery has no refinement. That's something that us Supra owners can very used to but alot of other high power engines produce their power in a far harsher manner.
It's hugely over-priced for what it is unless that's exactly what you want. For less money you could have a Supra of twice the power and it's probably cost you less to run.
Enjoyed every second driving it though. I'm very happy for my mate because as I said it's his dream car.