TVR Griffith 540 Special

It seemed to be such a good idea at the time, spending a week in September visiting the historical monuments of North East France and cruising the roads of Vosges Mountains. I had last visited the area a little over 20–years ago as a student, and now in 2006, I was keen to rediscover the historical delights of Verdun, the Maginot Line, Strasbourg and alike.

Back then I didn’t have a TVR Griffith, and so this had all the promise of being a truly memorable event. As it turned out, it was a memorable, but not in the way I would have planned.

Preparations went well initially, with on–board contingences identified and purchased, thanks to advice from other TVR Car Club members and owners alike. I also received some welcome advice concerning places to stay. This helped, but after having to rather hurriedly sort out a sticky fuel pump at the last minute (this being a particular weakness with the TVR Griffith and Chimaera alike) we were off.

The French Motorway was Boring,
But at Least we Could Have the Roof Off the TVR

After staying overnight in Kent, and making the 8.30am crossing through the Chunnel, the French adventure was on. Our first destination was Chateau d’Alteville, but to get there we had to cover 500–kms of French motorway driving.

This wasn’t as bad as it might have been as we were able to have the roof off. Time was also spent in the enjoyable company of two Belgian Porches and a French Morgan Aero 8, all three providing a little light hearted sport at different times.

I was really relaxing as we approached our first stopover. Getting away from it all, driving along in the warm late summer air with the roof down with Sarah next to me was just what the Doctor ordered. However, my senses were suddenly brought into focus by a sort of metallic chattering sound coming from the engine department.

After stopping, the visual inspection of the engine bay did not reveal anything to be loose or leaking, and with 15–kms to go to our first destination, I nursed the car along in a more gentle mode.

My Biggest Mistake That Day was to Take the TVR for a Test Run

After a quick call to England, some twiddling was done in the under–bonnet regions, as per the advice given. I then went out for a quick test run to ensure all was again well, but what a mistake, what a BIG MISTAKE!

After some 500–metres it was apparent the noise was still there, so I headed back to the Chateau. However, within a 100–metres of the gate, a huge discharge of oily grey⁄white smoke billowed as a silver cloud from the exhausts, through which you could have easily driven a battalion of tanks without being spotted.

Clearly something was wrong – very wrong. After a welcome push back to the Chateau the AA were called, and with the Griff unceremoniously loaded onto a flat–bed truck, it was transported off to a local garage, where thankfully no one was interested enough to investigate the issue.

The rest of the holiday was completed in a Peugeot 306 diesel, which seemed rather a disappointment. Not that I have anything against Peugeot’s, but it isn’t a sports car and it certainly wasn’t the kind of transport I had in mind when I booked this trip.

Anyway, at least the fuel bill was considerably less, and with all sorts of horrors running though my mind about under the bonnet of the TVR, spending less on fuel now was no doubt prudent. The Griff had gone back home, sharing the journey with two Jensen Interceptors, as it happened.

Reunited with my TVR Griffith

Upon returning to the UK, and at the premises of Neil Garner Performance Engineering I was reunited with my TVR Griffith. After the engine was lifted from the car to investigate the cause of the problem, thought centred around the head gasket. If only it had been that simple.

That’s the thing with events such as this. Never is it that straightforward. You know, just a case of taking something ancillary off the car and replacing it for a new one, and with a bill of less than three–figures. No, it always has to turn into a nightmare.

Well, one part of the diagnoses was correct at least, there was a problem with the head gasket. It had blown all right, but more than that, the metal of the alloy block had melted between two cylinders and caused a partial disintegration of the liners. The cylinder head itself was also damaged, but what had caused this to happen?

One Never Completely Knows
What Happens in a Car’s Life Before You Get it

The car had always been lavished with the utmost care and attention, so an incident such as this should not have been. However, one never knows for sure what goes on in earlier stages of a cars life and at a time prior to your ownership period.

So, with diagnoses made, and realisation this was not going to be a quick fix, what now? Selling the car as a non–runner was never going to be an option, so something had to be done about getting it in running order again. That would involve either a new engine or trying to repair the existing lump, so what was the best route to take?

I was not in favour of the weld and repair idea, if I am totally honest, as I knew I would always wonder if it was going to give out again. So what other options were there? I decided to put my trust totally in Neil and asked him to project manage the whole operation. After all, his knowledge and wisdom were way ahead of me, and he having a background of mechanical experience within Formula One and all.

The New Engine
Was Going to be Another Rover V8

We both did our research independently, and both came up with the same solution. It had to be another Rover V8 definitely, but who was going to build it?

For me there was only ever going to be one choice, and that was of Rob Robertson of V8 Racing, who has a huge reputation for his expertise.

Having decided this much the next thing to work out was that of what spec would the engine carry (you see, never easy is it)?

After much consultation with many good and trusted people, and here I include my thanks to Paul Bennett and Russ Bradley, a 5.4–litre race spec engine with Bosch injectors was chosen. This would have stage–5 heads, no CAT and one of ACT’s fine Y–piece exhausts that would be ceramised.

The engine management would come from fitting an Emerald ECU with wasted spark ignition and a custom–built set of Magnecour race leads. A twin carbon plenum would be supplied by ACT, and whilst none of this was cheap, it would as far as possible future–proof the car.

Whilst the Engine was Out
It Was a Good Opportunity to Spruce up the Engine Bay

Whilst awaiting the delivery of the engine there was a good opportunity to get at the chassis and engine bay, giving all a good spruce up.

I was hoping the whole project would be complete in time for the London Thunder. This event was to be a gathering of TVR’s for a cruise to Downing Street to show support for the displaced TVR workers, whose jobs were being lost due to the demise of TVR as a company.

However, these things never work out, and it was a week after that we had the engine in place and the car running again.

First stop was at Mech Motorsport in Cheltenham for the engine electronics to be mapped up to 4,000 rpm, and the advice concerning running in was not to take it above 4,500rpm for the first 1,000–miles. Final mapping occurred after I had covered 1,200–miles.

More Different Than Chalk is to Cheese

The difference between the car before and the car after was amazing. Chalk and cheese doesn’t do it justice. I had been pleased with the original engine, which had remained in standard trim and turned out around 251bhp, but the difference now was indescribable. Now, on the rolling road, readings of 354bhp were recorded, but it wasn’t just the amount of power it had, it was the way in which it delivered.

The whole episode really does epitomise the saying, every cloud has a silver lining, although I would never have thought it when I saw that silvery cloud coming from the exhausts outside the gates of the Chateau that day in France.

It was never my intention at this stage to start looking to upgrade other parts, but a series of events facilitated what did seem like a new modification every month!

The first episode happened only a few weeks after getting the TVR on the road again. I was out and about in my local town of Cirencester, with its close, high–sided buildings lining the streets. This is GREAT for noisy TVR driving, but when I passed a police car on a small section of urban dual carriageway, ensuring that I wasn’t over the speed limit, I saw it tucked in behind me.

The Police Officer who Stopped me Gave me a Warning

As I reached a roundabout the blue lights came on and so I pulled over and stopped. The police officer explained that my car, in his opinion, was too loud. He qualified this by saying that as I passed him the police car had vibrated. I must confess I had to stifle the grin that was making my cheeks ache in my futile attempt to prevent it from appearing across my face, and to be fair, the policeman joined in with my amusement.

He went on to explain that potentially I could be issued with a prohibition notice against the car if it was found to be too noisy. He actually handled it really well, and so I decided to take his advice and replace my straight through pipes with something else.

I had admired the look of the ACT 4 pipe system for a while, so I couldn’t resist giving Tim Lamont at ACT a call to sort out delivery. Upon fitting I received many comments (as is the way with TVR owners) that were mostly admiring, but some rather rude!

After changing the pipes I started thinking that since I had all this additional power, perhaps I should take some steps to ensure that the rest of the car, and indeed the driver, was enhanced to a high standard to ensure that the power could be used safely.

The Driver Training with Ride Drive Made a Great Improvement

For the driver–tuning part this involved taking a Ride Drive course, courtesy of Julian and his team, which I spread over two half days. I have to say I found it was excellent.

As for the car, first on the agenda was the suspension set up. Given I had a new and more powerful engine, I needed to ensure I took every step to make sure the beast would stay on the road. I had previously fitted Steve Heath’s rose jointed drop links front and rear, but now I wanted to upgrade the damper set up.

Next, I turned my attention to the headlamps. It is no secret amongst TVR Griffith owners that the original headlamp arrangement is seen as rather poor. I didn’t do a huge amount of night driving, but always felt that the existing output didn’t match up to the overall performance of the car in other ways.

After looking at all the lighting options available I decided to go for a twin spot set up whilst keeping the cowling to ensure the outward integrity of the body shape was maintained.

Well, what a can of worms this opened! Talk about debate! The pessimists were out in force and great conjecture ensued. My view was simple – I loved it: both for the looks and the effect on lighting performance. If the Griffith was re–issued now, would it have such poor headlamp performance? No, it wouldn’t, hence the need for change.

An Ideal Gift For a TVR Griffith Owner

2007 brought a significant birthday to me, which lead to the perennial debate in the Jeffs’ household of what to get, as apparently I am so difficult to buy for! Simple solution really: a set of SP12’s all round! 18–inch on the back, 17–inch on the front, all with low profile Toyo’s.

This situation came about mainly due to the fact that 15–inch rubber at the rating we required was becoming rarer and rarer, as Toyo had stopped producing that size altogether. The new wheels added to the enhanced suspension and the car felt even more planted than before.

The set up also allows you to keep the same balance of a larger wheel at the rear and smaller at the front. Plus, they looked absolutely stunning. As a bonus I also managed to sell my old Estorils, which made the whole exercise very reasonable, cost wise.

Uprating the Brakes

Shortly after sorting the rubber, I looked at the stopping performance of the car. I had never found the existing braking set–up to be found wanting, but given the extra performance I felt it necessary in my own mind to see what I could do to enhance this area as well. Looking around on the market, and listening to commentary, it again proved to be one of great debate.

I sounded out some friends on this, notably Simon Powell of The Griffith Pages and fellow Growl organiser added his input, and I went for a 4–pot system that TVR Car Parts were selling on special offer at the time.

The front kit came with grooved and vented discs and Greenstuff pads and I upgraded the rear discs and pads at the same time. This enhancement gave me noticeable improvement over what I already considered to be more than adequate system. Luckily I was also able to get the callipers to match the car in a very natty red, as well!

Next Came the Idea of a Custom Made Roll Bar

To this point I had only seen two types of roll bar. One was the factory original, which to all intents and purposes was cosmetic and provided little or no protection. The other would be some kind of ‘full on’ affair, that whilst undoubtedly provided the protection required, it threatened to turn the car into a race car. It also drastically reduced rear visibility, as well as taking up most of the rear parcel shelf.

These latter points were issues for me, as Sarah and I enjoy touring in the Griff, so didn’t want to lose valuable stowage space. The solution to this was to become involved in designing something new.

I discussed my ideas with Neil Garner (of Neil Garner Performance Engineering). I wanted some kind of 2–hoop arrangement, a la Audi TT, so most of the metalwork could sit behind the seats. This also needed to happen without taking up too much leg room (as I’m 6’ 1") whilst actually providing both side and top protection.

Using Neil’s experience from his Formula One days with Arrows and Renault, we scoped out a design and got a local fabricator, Tim Lane, involved in forming of the loops. The design brief was to ensure that we kept the legroom as mentioned; that the roof could still be collapsed; it didn’t reduce visibility; and also kept the parcel shelf space.

Tim had to secure some tooling to get the tight bends required, but the finished article took a couple of hours to install, and after visiting a local carpet trimmer to tidy up the parcel shelf carpet, we were done.

Tim’s TVR Roll Bars are Now Available to Buy on Ebay

The results have been received to great acclaim and Tim is now selling these roll bars successfully via Ebay. I had my roll bar powder coated to match the colour of my leather trim, which also reduced its visual presence and further removed the feeling of being in a race car.

There has been some debate over whether the height would protect in a roll, but I hoped we would never have to try it! There was also the question raised over access to the centre console, to be honest, I had never experienced the need to access this in over 2–years prior to fitting, so again the thought did not a bother to me.

From my point of view that was it for performing physical upgrades to the Griffith, but I had one more move up my sleeve. This would prove to be the most controversial of them all, but to be honest, proved to be the most beneficial.

The advantages of having a powerful engine speak for themselves, however one of the disadvantages is the generation of more heat. I had installed a two stage cooling kit (courtesy of Dave Beer at Mod–Wise), which is a great piece of kit. However, what this could not do was predict stationary traffic. As a result my engine would get too hot prior to the fans fully getting to work.

Adjusting the temperature at which the fans would come on also didn’t help. The other problem came in the form of where the heat could go to escape. By its nature the bonnet doesn’t make this easy, and as heat rises, it wouldn’t necessarily leave via the bottom of the engine bay.

TVR Chimaera’s Have Engine Cooling Sorted

The solution was therefore to allow the heat to escape through the top somehow. TVR Chimaera’s had this sorted since they were first sold, as they have a vented bonnet.

Sportmotive have also cottoned on to this and are now selling a Chimaera style replacement bonnet for the Griffith. I didn’t want to go this route, preferring instead something a little different. It was then, through Neil Garner, that I met John from Panel Craft in Swindon.

Panel Craft specialise in body works on performance cars, and even their address is that of a place called Scuderia House, which gives this away.

John and his wife both drove Maserati’s and it was his idea to look at fitting some bonnet vents from a Maserati 3200GT! This is one of those seminal moments in time, as when making a decision to cut into your beloved bodywork, there has to be the vision to see and believe in the end product.

The nature of the vents were such they mirrored the leading edge curve of the Griffith’s bonnet panel. The placement was crucial in that we could position them over the manifolds, which meant heat would directly rise through these and escape when the car was stationary. Whilst in motion, the fans had space to force the hot air through this route as well.

An Agreement was Reached
and my TVR Griffith was Duly Left in John’s Care

The work proceeded well, however the paintwork caused some headaches. My colour was Rosso Pearl, which is not a flat colour, and there were 3 different variants used on the TVR Griffith. Also, the car was 9–years old and so had weathered a little.

To add to this problem the regulations concerning the use of solvent based paints changed in March 2007, after which only water based paints could be used (once solvent based stocks had been used up).

The net effect of this was that on first showing the colour didn’t come out as Rosso Pearl! Further analysis was required, and I was happy in the end the correct formula was hit upon. The Griff received a full front–end re–spray.

I am happy to report that the vast majority of people commented on how sympathetic the work has been carried out. One or two people, whatever their motivation, only wanted to attempt to pick holes though.

It is a little sad that these people sit there and pour scorn on development, seemingly due to the fact it was not their idea being used. After all, if it wasn’t for enthusiasts trying things I guess we would all be driving Model T’s. I was even accused by someone, who should know better (given the state of his car), of having an ego thing. Interestingly, this was never said to my face though! Envy is a devilish thing!

The bottom line is that it worked. Coupled with a manual fan switch override in the cabin (simply by rewiring the dashboard light switch), I was able to drop the reported engine temperatures by 20–degrees in stationary traffic.

When the Car was Finished, we Repeated the Trip to France,
This Time Without Incident

I’m sure that there were one or two other things that were done to the car, but are not worthy of mentioning here. To celebrate the completion of the project, Sarah and I undertook another visit France, and to the scene of the original meltdown.

On this occasion, I can report, we had a very successful trip to Epernay with a couple of productive Champagne House tours to boot!

We even managed to bring back 24 bottles of the fizzy stuff as well. The Griff performed admirably, and 4,000 miles later, I was still extremely happy with the new engine and car set up.

All of the work undertaken led to much additional enjoyment of this wonderful car. To me many of the things I had done would be reflected in a new Griffith, should one ever be manufactured.

I make no apology to those who crave originality, and to those that are of that inclination I say, fair play to you and I understand where you are coming from. However, evolution brings progress, and if it were not for progress, we would all be getting around on horseback.

The end to this story, for may part, is that in the autumn of 2008, I sold the car. However, the irony is the new owner lives in France!

About Chateau d’Alteville, France

For anyone who may be interested, the Chateau d’Alteville is a really great place to stay, and with an owner who couldn’t be friendlier and is as nice a person you could ever wish to meet. The building is beautiful in every respect and I would recommend that you make sure you dine with the host, when he is there.

He will prepare anything you want, or you can let him choose. If you ask, he will choose drinks before hand, and the wine, and then liqueurs afterwards (produced at the chateau). In short, it is just fantastic.

To give you an idea as to the level of hospitality, when the TVR gave up the ghost, the host, David, offered for us to take his car to use for the rest of our holiday.

One note though: make sure to have cash to pay the bill as they don’t take any plastic!!

The Chateau does not have its own website, but if you just put Chateau d’Alteville into Google, you will soon find it.

First Published September 2008

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TVR Griffith 540 Special