A common sight most will say, seeing a TVR sat at the side of the road in morning traffic…usually accompanied (as in the case here) by smoke and/or steam.
Never judge a book by its cover though as the saying goes. After checking the fluids at 6.25am before embarking on the journey to work I neglected to refit the coolant tank cap, 35 minutes later when I hit Richmond traffic the mistake was made clear to me when the car started to communicate with steam signals 
After a helpful trip to a local car spares with the AA man, the problem was solved and a little tip was learned.
Don’t go to TVR Power and spend £18 on a rad cap that comes straight from a VW Passat for £3. The end.
And so as another year starts to wind down, the Tamora is almost out of tax and ready for its winter sleep.
It’s been a good year (read the posts on here) and I’ve driven the car a fair bit putting around 3,000 miles on it all in. There are a few tasks to be done over the winter break in preparation for next year, I’m happy to report the oil issue is no more it was a combination of overfilling due to the terrible design of oil level checking and oil that was too thin. I’m also sad to report that I’ll probably part ways with the Tam next year when it’s woken from its slumber. This has nothing to do with the car, it’s more to do with me always wanting ‘something else’ and wanting to focus on track driving. Call me what you will but driving such a wonderful car in stop start London traffic a few days a month just isn’t what it’s meant for.
If you recall, after a brief but very violent altercation with my foot the passenger side parcel shelf was left in many many pieces. The task was on to repair it after I realised there was less than no chance of me buying a replacement…so with more cracks than the alibi of Madeleine McCann’s parents, it was slowly brought back to life.
Finishing with it sitting where it should do in the car tonight (and yes the fitment is really that bad from the factory). A massive thankyou once again to Geoff for loaning me a shelf to take a mould from
After doing an oil change with some 10W-40 semi I can happily report that it’s made NO difference whatsoever 
The car still smokes and consumes oil but for the time being anyway, it’s still making all the right noises and is great fun (not so for the person sat in the car behind).
More updates to come although my attentions have currently shifted to the Clio as I attempt to build a track car again, with the unique difference of actually driving it this time….and no…no blog on that.
Well it looks like at 1 year into TVR ownership, I may have fallen victim to the engine woes associated with the Speed 6 lump. I say ‘may’ as these engines are quite special and although failure isn’t exactly rare, something as simple as oil that is too thin can be the problem.
I’m going to swap the oil out this weekend with, well tar basically to see what difference it makes…if it doesn’t solve the problem, my 23,000 mile engine that has been very well cared for could be due for an upgrade
It’s all part of TVR ownership and if anything is an excuse to drive the car more and then drive it constantly when the rebuild is done. There’s also the small matter of upgrading the 3.6 to 4.3 ltr >:)
The more observant among you will notice that once again…the car you see before you isn’t the Tamora.
For the second year running I failed to take the car, last year because of the weather and this year because the car has a suspected engine problem (more on that later).
Once again, the magical region of Germany that houses the world’s most amazing curcuit, didn’t fail to impress us all with the weather, people and track action
Best time for me this year in the Suzuki Swift was 9.33, the best time for our group was 9.10 in the same car…we also managed to destroy one of the other Swift’s we’d hired (and land a 2750 EUR bill in the process)
You may recall some time ago when I started to go all Blue Peter and made a few trim parts in carbon…with varying degrees of success.
Although it may have taken so long, the task can no longer be quantified in earth time, I have finally finished one….ONE parcel shelf insert in 2×2 twill Kevlar/Carbon mix
The good news is that it looks decent enough, the bad news is that I had a small altercation with the passenger side insert and it’s now broken. This means more fascinating posts on the subject of Blue Peter soon as I try to figure out how to manufacture my own parts using squeezy bottles and sticky backed plastic.
After the checkup at The Garage, I was told the front pads would need replacing soon and given that I’m still planning to take the Tamora to the Ring in 3 weeks I thought it might be wise to get that sorted!
On a trip to the Hospital, shortly before baby v2.0 arrived my frustrated wife, failing to understand how you open the doors on a TVR had what I can only imagine was a panic attack and tried to tunnel out of the cabin via the footwell.
There were some seriously dodgy wiring ‘solutions’ to be found so I gave them a quick tidy with the cable ties.
Say hello to Lieve, born at home yesterday evening at 6.37
Normal service will resume over the coming weeks I hope…new pads have been fitted and one parcel shelf side is almost finished!
On my travels yesterday I found a disused business unit so pulled over to take a few photos…click the links below each image for the full fat version,
