Finally sun has been out and I have been able to snap a few pictures of my new pride and joy.
Some of you might have seen my previous project a Zetec powered MGB GT that ended in tears when the building that it was stored in during my 10 year restoration went up in flames due to reckless welding gone wrong.
www.turbosport.co.uk/showthread.php?t=127484&highlight=sonus+mgb
The MGB was nearing completion and I had high hopes and plenty of mojo to get it on the road this or next year. I was on the final stretch when the car was turned into a heap of scrap metal in under 10minutes.
So to get through the rather hard times I started looking for a replacement to the MGB. I remembered an advertisement for a TVR Vixen that had been on finn.no which is Norway’s largest used car market. It was advertised as being a TVR Vixen Prototype. I googled the site and found the ad that had lapsed two years ago, but luckily the seller hadn’t deleted the ad. The ad came up as “passiv” meaning it wouldn’t show if you used the site search engine, but by performing a site search (site:finn.no) I was able to find the ad. To get time to pass I sent the seller a message expecting the car to have been sold. A week passed and I was still thinking of what the MGB would have been when suddenly a response form the seller came. The car was not for sale by him no more as his son had received it as premature inheritance from the seller. But he also wrote that the car might be for sale by the son. My heart rate rose and I punched the given phone number. I told him I had gotten his number from his father and wondered if he still had the TVR and if he’d consider selling? My heart rate jumped another time as a positive response came. At that moment I was sold, hook line and sinker! The next few weeks I completely forgot about the mangled wreck of an MGB. I spent days and nights thinking of what it might be like to own a TVR. Since the car was located some 350 miles from my home I had my dad go see the car. Only fitting as it is my dad that is the cause of my car related obsession. The viewing was at the 12:00 am. 12:15 passed, 12:16 passed, 12:29 passed and then finally at 12:31 my dad rang. The car was good! Having had a light restoration at David Gerald TVR-specialist in the early 2000s and used very sparingly after that. 12:32 By by dad, “Hello seller?” “Yes?” “I’ll have it”. Ohhh… what have I done? I just purchased a car I have never seen in real life, a model I have never seen in real life. A car I know next to nothing about! But I just had to have it!
14:23 I attached my trailer and headed 350 miles south.
Early Sunday morning at 10:00am far into the woods in south eastern Norway I saw the car for the first time; Covered with dust after being used very very sparingly for the last 3 years.
Car started with the first push of the button, idled as smooth as anything have a right to do. But provoke the throttle and it emitted a combination of thunder and hell. The car had it’s nickname – “Little Thunder”. TVR Vixens were usually fitted with either MGB 1800cc or Ford Kent 1600cc, surely not something that would emit thunder and hell? So what makes this TVR so loud, so mesmerizing?
Well under the hood is one of Edward Turners gems; a 2500cc V8 with hemi heads usually found in either the Daimler Dart/SP250 or the Jaguar 250 V8.
Omit almost all silencers and the sound is in my mind truly epic. I always find myself down shifting in tunnels, backing off and then going for the self-imposed red line at 6000rpm. According to people in the know the engine is capable of a lot more rpm with a few tweaks that I might perform in the future.
The car is by no means perfect. I’ve had to replace the starter solenoid, coil, spark plug leads, spark plugs and door handles. It needs new spline hubs and knock-off wheels, but I might convert to bolt on as the splines might not be up to the plans of tuning the engine in the future.
There are also a lot more options for bolt on wheels.
I’ll update as I go, but now I need to go and have blast through some of the local tunnels – see you all later
Some of you might have seen my previous project a Zetec powered MGB GT that ended in tears when the building that it was stored in during my 10 year restoration went up in flames due to reckless welding gone wrong.
www.turbosport.co.uk/showthread.php?t=127484&highlight=sonus+mgb
The MGB was nearing completion and I had high hopes and plenty of mojo to get it on the road this or next year. I was on the final stretch when the car was turned into a heap of scrap metal in under 10minutes.
So to get through the rather hard times I started looking for a replacement to the MGB. I remembered an advertisement for a TVR Vixen that had been on finn.no which is Norway’s largest used car market. It was advertised as being a TVR Vixen Prototype. I googled the site and found the ad that had lapsed two years ago, but luckily the seller hadn’t deleted the ad. The ad came up as “passiv” meaning it wouldn’t show if you used the site search engine, but by performing a site search (site:finn.no) I was able to find the ad. To get time to pass I sent the seller a message expecting the car to have been sold. A week passed and I was still thinking of what the MGB would have been when suddenly a response form the seller came. The car was not for sale by him no more as his son had received it as premature inheritance from the seller. But he also wrote that the car might be for sale by the son. My heart rate rose and I punched the given phone number. I told him I had gotten his number from his father and wondered if he still had the TVR and if he’d consider selling? My heart rate jumped another time as a positive response came. At that moment I was sold, hook line and sinker! The next few weeks I completely forgot about the mangled wreck of an MGB. I spent days and nights thinking of what it might be like to own a TVR. Since the car was located some 350 miles from my home I had my dad go see the car. Only fitting as it is my dad that is the cause of my car related obsession. The viewing was at the 12:00 am. 12:15 passed, 12:16 passed, 12:29 passed and then finally at 12:31 my dad rang. The car was good! Having had a light restoration at David Gerald TVR-specialist in the early 2000s and used very sparingly after that. 12:32 By by dad, “Hello seller?” “Yes?” “I’ll have it”. Ohhh… what have I done? I just purchased a car I have never seen in real life, a model I have never seen in real life. A car I know next to nothing about! But I just had to have it!
14:23 I attached my trailer and headed 350 miles south.
Early Sunday morning at 10:00am far into the woods in south eastern Norway I saw the car for the first time; Covered with dust after being used very very sparingly for the last 3 years.
Car started with the first push of the button, idled as smooth as anything have a right to do. But provoke the throttle and it emitted a combination of thunder and hell. The car had it’s nickname – “Little Thunder”. TVR Vixens were usually fitted with either MGB 1800cc or Ford Kent 1600cc, surely not something that would emit thunder and hell? So what makes this TVR so loud, so mesmerizing?
Well under the hood is one of Edward Turners gems; a 2500cc V8 with hemi heads usually found in either the Daimler Dart/SP250 or the Jaguar 250 V8.
Omit almost all silencers and the sound is in my mind truly epic. I always find myself down shifting in tunnels, backing off and then going for the self-imposed red line at 6000rpm. According to people in the know the engine is capable of a lot more rpm with a few tweaks that I might perform in the future.
The car is by no means perfect. I’ve had to replace the starter solenoid, coil, spark plug leads, spark plugs and door handles. It needs new spline hubs and knock-off wheels, but I might convert to bolt on as the splines might not be up to the plans of tuning the engine in the future.
There are also a lot more options for bolt on wheels.
I’ll update as I go, but now I need to go and have blast through some of the local tunnels – see you all later
hat engine looks like a beast! 
