 If
you are familiar with TVR, you'll know their cars are always famous of
performance / price ratio. Look at the Chimaera, the slowest cars
available
from the company. Top speed 154mph, 0-60mph takes 5.1sec. How can it
achieve
this in the price of around 30k pounds ?
Simple. Because everything is simple. The engine comes from Rover's ancient pushrod V8, the chassis is traditional spaceframe, the body is made of fiber-glass, no ABS, no traction control, no airbag.....as a result, the small British company in Blackpool need no more than simple tooling to hand-made its cars. In
many respect, Chimaera is the best developed car in TVR's model range.
Its build quality, once found unsatisfactory in early production, is
vastly
improved to acceptable level as production experience gained. Although
it can still hardly compare with German sports cars, Chimaera is
definitely
better build than Griffith and Cerbera, possibly matching local rivals
like Lotus. Besides, its 4.5 litres V8 output progressively, matches
the
chassis very well. You won't feel the engine out-perform the chassis as
in Griffith 500. Handling is quite good although ride remains hard.
Overall
speaking, Chimaera is far more drivable than predicted.
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| The above report was last updated in 1998. All Rights Reserved. |