TVR T350

Housey said:
Let's be clear the Speed 6 engine in this, the Sagaris, Tuscan and Cerb is a flawed engine. Have a look at the Speed 6 section of PH, it's there to see. It is not unreasonable to expect any Speed 6 engine to need rebuilding (£5K to £10K depending on who does it) and many have gone pop more than once too. The engine is epic when running but flawed in design and build, this is not conjecture or mythical, it's a proven fact. I had a Griff and it never went bang but was badly built and small things were always going wrong mainly with fittings and fixtures. The engine was OK but then it's a Rover nee Buick V8 so pretty solid but the TVR plumbing was far from ideal and it did overheat in traffic. Great cars Tiv's, very special but they are not a Porsche when it comes to reliability which the rational TVR owners will happily confirm. Still love em though, fag packet shed builds at their best.....and worst!
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True.
They are great cars that just need more looking after than a lot of others in the category, if you can afford to run one and pick up the bills then it's worth all the pain and heartache.

Dup said:
The T350 is one of the more neutral handling ones isn't it? Poor reliability and handling to kill is what TVR are about. Having a specialist nearby makes a 10k TVR sound appealing to my irrational mind. Probably not very "me" though.
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It's still a complete animal, and if you aren't awake in poor conditions can still kill you, and it did when Carl Smith took his out for a run a couple of weeks back.
 
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Housey said:
Let's be clear the Speed 6 engine in this, the Sagaris, Tuscan and Cerb is a flawed engine. Have a look at the Speed 6 section of PH, it's there to see. It is not unreasonable to expect any Speed 6 engine to need rebuilding (£5K to £10K depending on who does it) and many have gone pop more than once too. The engine is epic when running but flawed in design and build, this is not conjecture or mythical, it's a proven fact. I had a Griff and it never went bang but was badly built and small things were always going wrong mainly with fittings and fixtures. The engine was OK but then it's a Rover nee Buick V8 so pretty solid but the TVR plumbing was far from ideal and it did overheat in traffic. Great cars Tiv's, very special but they are not a Porsche when it comes to reliability which the rational TVR owners will happily confirm. Still love em though, fag packet shed builds at their best.....and worst!
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wow i was just about to ask when i scrolled down to this:

how would it compare to a porsche 997 carrera as they're roughly the same ball park pricewise and type? looks like i got my answer -from the general consensus: avoid the speed 6 like the plague and then if you buy a tvr it will never be as good as a porsche but it'll rival it for looks just not quality.

if i was paying £30k for a car i'd expect it to last a year without falling apart....
 
Hxc said:
The AJPV8 does not need a rebuild really; the early ones suffered crank issues, but the later ones are fairly reliable engines for what they are; a custom designed engine in low volume manufacture. The speed 6 is a whole different ballgame which WILL require a rebuild after it comes out of the factory, no questions. After that rebuild it can be a different story if it is done by the best; TVR Power offer 5 year unlimited miles warrenties on their rebuilds, indicating that they have got something right!

There's also been the development of the FFF engine which could prove to be much more reliable than the original supposedly butchered design.

These inevitable rebuilds come at a high price, going up to near 10k for the best....
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A friend of mine has arguably the nicest Sagaris out there and he has a Racing Green rebuild in it, which he simply had done knowing that it would have needed it at some point. It is effectively a new top end of the engine and is, so I believe, the best out there. I still remember the stories from the dealers when the Sagaris came out around warranties 'giving confidence' and the engines being 'right in this one' and I felt at the time they were at best optimistic. I drove one of the first Sags via Peter Smith cars down the road and felt it was fantastic, if both claustrophobic and poorly sorted at the rear getting rear end lift over a couple of bumps a GT3 or M400 never saw. They do have something about them, they do look and sound special and on the right day are special, but they are not that well sorted from the factory, will need a rebuild if a Speed 6 and will rattle and squeak at various times.
 
helpimcrap said:
wow i was just about to ask when i scrolled down to this:

how would it compare to a porsche 997 carrera as they're roughly the same ball park pricewise and type? looks like i got my answer -from the general consensus: avoid the speed 6 like the plague and then if you buy a tvr it will never be as good as a porsche but it'll rival it for looks just not quality.

if i was paying £30k for a car i'd expect it to last a year without falling apart....
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997 is much more sorted and reliable in the main, but then it's produced to a much higher standard in far great volume with far greater dealer support and back up, so you'd expect that. Different cars really, TVR is much more of an event no question, Carrera is far more rounded as a car however. Horses for courses.
 
I have a tvr t350c, 54,in spectraflair with 11k on the clock.

TVR were plagued by reliability issues on there S6 engines mainly due to premature wearing of certain parts, most of these issues were rectified after 2003.

I disagree with the statement regarding every car needing a re-build, this just isnt true.

The S6 engine requires a specific startup and run proceedure and if this is carried out correctly each time then it drastically reduces premature component wear.

I know several people who have t350s/sags and some have 50k onthe clock, without rebuild.

You also have to remember these cars are very special and are not a product of mass manufacture, you are buying a hand built car and with this comes all the running and service costs. You cannot buy one and expect it to have the same servicing/running costs as a typical performance Jap car.

Plenty of reading in the PH forums regarding this.
 
A friend of mine traded his MG ZT400 in for one of these, and then traded back within a few weeks. It sounds and looks awesome, but they don't drive particularly well. They are nervous and twitchy, and in real life driving he found the MG was significantly quicker, and massively more comfortable, and almost certainly more reliable. Still, depends on what your priorities are I suppose.
 
bubblebobble said:
I have a tvr t350c, 54,in spectraflair with 11k on the clock.

TVR were plagued by reliability issues on there S6 engines mainly due to premature wearing of certain parts, most of these issues were rectified after 2003.

I disagree with the statement regarding every car needing a re-build, this just isnt true.

The S6 engine requires a specific startup and run proceedure and if this is carried out correctly each time then it drastically reduces premature component wear.

I know several people who have t350s/sags and some have 50k onthe clock, without rebuild.

You also have to remember these cars are very special and are not a product of mass manufacture, you are buying a hand built car and with this comes all the running and service costs. You cannot buy one and expect it to have the same servicing/running costs as a typical performance Jap car.

Plenty of reading in the PH forums regarding this.
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I'm not convinced the issues were mostly addressed after 2003, there are plenty of post 2003 cars that have gone pop as have some of the many rebuilds as the independents/specialists continued to learn what was needed to keep them going. With TVR the notion of a development audit trail is sadly an oxymoron and this is the problem. You can never have total confidence that you have a good one, it is always a risk. I think you are right about running them properly from cold, it always amazed me how some Tiv owners at meets blatted them off from cold and never respected warm up procedures etc but the fact is the Speed 6 isn't THAT special if you are objective about it. Sure as a small engineering project by a small company in Blackpool it's an achievement, but S54 in a CSL to me is more charismatic as is the lump in a GT3, though I fully appreciate the development budgets are somewhat different.

Speed 6 was a race car design put into a road car, it's little wonder it acts like one much of the time but when it's running cleanly does sound rather delicious, not least from inside. Always thought the V8 sounded better outside mind.
 
I went out in one at the MPH Show last November (part of the Dream Rides charity stuff)

Oh my word is all I can say! The noise is immense, spinning the rears at 70mph in the dry was something I've not experienced before (obviously) and luckily the owner wasn't afraid to give it a bootfull :)

Until then I'd not go the appeal of TVR's personally, except the Cerbera which I think looks sublime, but now I'm well and truly sold!
 
I always thought the TVR reliability issue was blown a bit out of proportion, but my sister's mate has/had a T350 and he told me once that it spent the previous 2/3-3/4 of the year off the road at the time I spoke to him.

I'm all for something a bit different, but I don't think I could have a passion for a car I couldn't drive.
 
in a few years time people wont be able to justify the repair bills and the resale costs will drop through the floor putting them in the realm of the front garden spannerer, but i doubt workshop manuals would be easy to get hold of
 
You'd be suprised about workshop manuals; there is a comprehensive one available for the Sagaris which shares a vast amount with the other T cars. I'd say that the prices are not likely to fall much more tbh, you can pick up an MK1 Tuscan for 10k!
 
The AJP8 sounds better than the Rover V8 at full chat, but at idle until warmed up it sounds like a bag of nails.
 
MrLOL said:
the cherry bomb isnt an exhaust

its just a piece of domestic pipe tacked onto the engine :D
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My colleague wants to get a cherry bomb on his Griff. I'm betting he will be banned from the staff car park. :D

Hxc said:
The AJPV8 does not need a rebuild really; the early ones suffered crank issues, but the later ones are fairly reliable engines for what they are; a custom designed engine in low volume manufacture. The speed 6 is a whole different ballgame which WILL require a rebuild after it comes out of the factory, no questions. After that rebuild it can be a different story if it is done by the best; TVR Power offer 5 year unlimited miles warrenties on their rebuilds, indicating that they have got something right!

There's also been the development of the FFF engine which could prove to be much more reliable than the original supposedly butchered design.

These inevitable rebuilds come at a high price, going up to near 10k for the best....
Click to expand...

Cheers for correcting me. You seem to know your TVR engines - not thinking of getting one are you? :D
 
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