TVR Cerbera
Encyclopedia

The TVR Cerbera is a sports car
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....

 manufactured by TVR between 1996 and 2003. The name is derived from Cerberus
Cerberus
Cerberus , or Kerberos, in Greek and Roman mythology, is a multi-headed hound which guards the gates of the Underworld, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping...

 the three-headed beast of Greek legend that guarded the entrance of Hades.

The TVR Cerbera was the third car manufactured by TVR under the leadership of Peter Wheeler
Peter Wheeler (TVR)
Peter Robert Wheeler was a chemical engineer from Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK, who owned the Blackpool-based TVR sports car company for 23 years....

 (the first was the Griffith and the second was the Chimaera). The car represented three firsts for the Wheeler-led company:
  • The first hard-top—the Griffith and the Chimaera were both convertibles
  • The first 2+2—TVRs were traditionally two-seaters
  • The first to be driven by TVR's own engines—historically, TVR had purchased engines from mainstream manufacturers like Rover, Ford and Triumph


The prototype was introduced at the 1994 Birmingham Motor Show.

The engines

Prior to the Cerbera, TVR had purchased V8 engines from Rover and then tuned them for their own use. When Rover was purchased by BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...

, Peter Wheeler didn't want to risk problems should the Germans decide to stop manufacturing the engine. In response, he engaged the services of race engineer Al Melling to design a V8 engine that TVR could manufacture in-house and even potentially offer for sale to other car-makers. In an interview for the television programme Top Gear, Wheeler explained "Basically, we designed the engine as a race engine. It was my idea at the time that if we wanted to expand, we ought to make something that we could sell to other people. We've ended up with a 75-degree V8 with a flat-plane crank. The bottom-half of the engine to the heads is exactly as you would see in current Formula One engines
Formula One engines
Since its inception in 1947, Formula One has used a variety of engine regulations. "Formulas" limiting engine capacity had been used in Grand Prix racing on a regular basis since after World War I. The engine formulae are divided according to era.-Operation:...

."

Wheeler was quoted at the time of the car's launch as saying that the combination of light weight and high power was too much for a road car, a quote which ensured much free publicity in the press. Enthusiasts still argue about whether this was a typical example of Wheeler's legendary frankness, or an equally typical example of his PR chief Ben Samuelson
Ben Samuelson
Ben Samuelson was in charge of the PR and marketing for British sports car manufacturer TVR from 1993 until 2005, and is the brother of the British television actress Emma Samms.-TVR:...

's knack for saving on advertising costs by creating a story.

The result was dubbed the "Speed Eight"
TVR Speed Eight engine
The TVR Speed Eight was the name of a normally aspirated V8 car engine designed and manufactured by TVR. The engine was intended to power the TVR Griffith and the TVR Chimaera but delays in its production meant that it powered only the TVR Cerbera and the TVR Tuscan Racer...

 (official designation 'AJP8') after Al Melling
Al Melling
Al Melling is an automobile engineer.- Fashion Design :At the beginning of the eighties he became involved in the fashion industry. He owned a company in London throughout the eighties which designed ladies’ fashion garments. As owner he became interested in the whole lifecycle of garment...

, John Ravenscroft and Peter Wheeler
Peter Wheeler (TVR)
Peter Robert Wheeler was a chemical engineer from Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK, who owned the Blackpool-based TVR sports car company for 23 years....

, a 4.2 L V8 producing 360 horsepower (268 kW). A larger version of the engine was later offered that displaced 4.5 litres and output rose to 420 horsepower (310 kW). The smaller motor allowed the Cerbera to still achieve up to 185 mph (297 km/h).

The AJP8 has one of the highest specific outputs of any naturally aspirated V8 in the automotive world at 83.3 hp/litre for the 4.2 and 93.3 hp/litre for the 4.5. Later models of the 4.5 litre engine were given the option of being to the 'Red Rose' specification, which increased its output to 440 bhp (97.7 hp/litre) when fuelled with super-unleaded (high octane) and the driver pushed the unmarked button on the dashboard which altered the engine mapping to suit.

In some cases, real-world outputs for production V8s (4.5 in particular) were down from TVRs quoted output. Some of these have seen some form of modification (ECU, induction, exhaust etc.) to bring the power back up to the factory quoted output.

One of the attractions of the V8 Cerberas for many owners was the loud backfire produced on over-run, particularly at low speeds. In fact this was the result of an argument at the factory between one of TVR's executives and the engineers mapping the engine. The engineers wanted to map out this "irregularity" to improve fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions, whilst the executive insisted it was exactly the kind of thing owners would like. In the end a compromise was reached in which the popping and banging remained on the 4.5 L cars.

The engine is also unusually compact for a V8. According to TVR
TVR
thumb|right|240px|TVR No.2, the oldest surviving TVR, located at [[Lakeland Motor Museum, Newby Bridge, Cumbria]]TVR was an independent British manufacturer of sports cars. Until 2006 it was based in the English seaside town of Blackpool, Lancashire, but has since split up into several smaller...

, the total weight of the finished engine is 121 kilograms (267 lb).

With the success of the Speed Eight
TVR Speed Eight engine
The TVR Speed Eight was the name of a normally aspirated V8 car engine designed and manufactured by TVR. The engine was intended to power the TVR Griffith and the TVR Chimaera but delays in its production meant that it powered only the TVR Cerbera and the TVR Tuscan Racer...

 program, Wheeler
Peter Wheeler (TVR)
Peter Robert Wheeler was a chemical engineer from Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK, who owned the Blackpool-based TVR sports car company for 23 years....

 also undertook the design of a "Speed Six"
TVR Speed Six engine
The TVR Speed Six was the name of a normally aspirated straight-6 engine manufactured by TVR, and used in several of their cars including the TVR Tuscan, TVR Cerbera, TVR Tamora, TVR T350 and TVR Sagaris....

 engine to complement it. This engine also made its debut in the Cerbera. Unlike the Speed Eight
TVR Speed Eight engine
The TVR Speed Eight was the name of a normally aspirated V8 car engine designed and manufactured by TVR. The engine was intended to power the TVR Griffith and the TVR Chimaera but delays in its production meant that it powered only the TVR Cerbera and the TVR Tuscan Racer...

, the new engine is 4.0 litre inline slant six
Straight-6
The straight-six engine or inline-six engine is a six-cylinder internal combustion engine with all six cylinders mounted in a straight line along the crankcase...

 (I6) design. It also differs from the V8 in having four valves per cylinder to the Speed Eight's two.

The car

The car itself was designed from the start as a four-seater. The rear seats are smaller than the front, a design commonly referred to as a "2+2". However, the interior is designed so that the passenger seat can slide farther forward than the driver's seat. This allows more room for the person sitting behind the front passenger. TVR have referred to this as a "3+1" design.

TVR maintained its tradition of building cars that were not only exceptionally powerful but also very light for their size and power output. The Cerbera's weight was quoted by TVR at 1100 kilograms, although customers claimed the weight varied between 1060 kg (2,337 lb) and 1200 kg (2,646 lb).

The dashboard was designed especially for the Cerbera and uses a two-spar steering wheel as opposed to the typical three-spar previously found in most TVRs. The reason for this is that minor instruments are located on a small panel below the steering wheel and a third spar in the wheel would have made them difficult to read.

Like all TVRs of the Peter Wheeler era, the Cerbera had a long-travel throttle to compensate for the lack of electronic traction-control and very sharp steering. The V8 powered cars were two turns from lock to lock and the Speed Six car was 2.4 turns. This made it easier for experienced drivers to maintain or regain control of the car in the event of a loss of traction but some less experienced drivers complained that it made the cars feel "twitchy" and more responsive than they would otherwise have preferred.

In 2000, TVR changed the styling of the car slightly by modifying the headlights to more closely resemble those seen in the TVR Tuscan. The "facelift" features were available with all three engine configurations. In addition, the cars equipped with the 4.5 liter engine were offered with the "lightweight" option, reducing the overall weight through the use of lighter body panels and a slightly reworked interior.

The Last Cerbera

In August 2006, TVR held an online auction
Online auction business model
The online auction business model is one in which participants bid for products and services over the Internet. The functionality of buying and selling in an auction format is made possible through auction software which regulates the various processes involved.Several types of online auctions are...

 for what it billed as "The Last Cerbera". According to thelastcerbera.com, the website that TVR created especially for the auction, TVR's owner and chairman, Nikolay Smolensky (spelled "Nikolai Smolenski" on thelastcerbera.com site), brought the design out of retirement for one more unit as an homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....

 to the "beautiful but brutish bygone British sports car." The "last Cerbera" was a 4.5 LW right-hand drive car in Pepper white with Prussian blue leather interior trim. The auction failed to meet its reserve price
Reservation price
In microeconomics, the reservation price is the highest price a buyer is willing to pay for goods or a service; or; the smallest price at which a seller is willing to sell a good or service...

 but TVR still decided to sell the car to the high bidder. The final bid was under £45,000 to which 5% plus 17.5% VAT would be added.
This car is currently for sale at Racing Green Cars in Ash Vale

Speed Six 4.0L model

  • Engine type: straight-6 DOHC 24v
  • Power: 350 hp
  • 0-60 mph: 4.4 seconds
  • Top speed: 180 mph (290 km/h)
  • Torque: 330 lbft

4.2L model

  • Engine type: V8 OHC 16v
  • Power: 360 hp
  • Torque: 320 lbft at 4500 rpm
  • Redline: 7000 rpm
  • 0-60 mph: 4.2 seconds
  • 1/4 mile time 12.4 seconds
  • Top speed: 185 mph (297 km/h)

4.5L model

  • Engine type: 4475cc V8 OHC 16v
  • Power: 420 hp at 6750 rpm
  • Torque: 380 lbft at 4500 rpm
  • Redline: 7000 rpm
  • 0-60 mph: 3.9 seconds
  • Top speed: 195 mph (313,7 km/h)

External links

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