the most awesome car that never was the TVR Cerbera Speed 12

Back in the 90's there was an eruption of awesome cars, the Ferrari F40 started it in the late 80's by touching 200mph, over the next 5 years that speed climbed to an intense 240mph set by the intense McLaren F1. The record stood for an amazing 12 years where it was broken by the Koenigsegg CCR by only 1mph. Now since the McLaren's debut in 1992 many vehicles have attempted to take on its record, heck Koenigsegg only existed to break that record. But there was one vehicle that showed promise, fear and a good dose of epic, the TVR Cerbera Speed 12.

TVR

“Owning a TVR in the past was like owning a bear. I mean it was great, until it pulled your head off, which it would.” Jeremy Clarkson

Ever heard of them? Nope? Well TVR is one of Britain's so called 'shed' car companies. A typical shed car company utilizes parts from other cars [chassis', engines, transmissions etc] and attaches them in various manners to achieve their own unique 'Frankenstein' creation. However, TVR was unique, especially under the ownership of Peter Wheeler, who moved TVR from a shed car company to a shed car company who made their own engines, which just spelled insanity. Pretty much if you can name a TVR model Peter Wheeler was behind it. TVR's most famous model definately has to be the Tuscan which had a cameo in Swordfish.

The Birth of A Monster

Now after seeing the McLaren F1, Peter Wheeler thought to himself, we can do better. The goal: more power and less weight than the F1. But first they needed a chassis, they decided to build up on their top of the line model, the Cerbera.

The Cerbera itself was a monstrosity, 420hp in a 1100kg package, [think of it this way, taking a Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale engine and putting it into a 01 Mini]. From there development went underway to look for an engine. TVR only made 3 engines, 2 V8s [420hp and 360hp] and a 4.0L inline 6 [350hp] none of which could match the McLaren F1's 627hp V12 grunt, but someone in the factory had a brilliant idea to weld together two engines so as to match [or even outdo] the McLaren's grunt. Thus came forth the name Speed 12.

The idea was to weld together two of their inline 6's to make a V12, simple logic would make that add up to a whopping 700hp, but TVR didn't stop there. Of course you cant just weld an engine like that, the bore stroke etc all had to be changed ensuring the engine was now a 7.7L instead of the supposedly planned 8.0L. Now something to note, usually engines are made of cast iron, some fancier engines are made of aluminium, but TVR chose steel, which is like unfathomably unorthodox. But still the key was to see how much power it made. When dyno time came around TVR bolted up its V12 beast to a dyno rated at 1000hp......and broke it. Probably more surprised than upset TVR decided to dyno only 6 of the 12 cylinders at one time after which they would add up the numbers. They rated it at a 'conservative' 960hp. So basically the TVR was successful so far, jus two more tests, top speed [pffffft easy stuff] and making production [the killer].

Now so far Peter Wheeler's mind was set on making this a kick ass race car then watering it down in order for it to run on the road, which of course makes perfect sense seeing thats how all great autos are made. But problem was that it was too kick ass and to quote Jeremy Clarkson: “Racing cars which have been converted for road use never really work. It’s like making a hardcore adult film, and then editing it so that it can be shown in British hotels. You’d just end up with a sort of half hour close up of some bloke’s sweaty face.” And boom......problem. While Peter Wheeler was driving one home he realised that it was waaaaaaaay too much to be driven on the road, immediately after Wheeler dumped the project claiming it was too much for the road.

Some stats to compare

2006 Toyota Camry

3.5L V6

270hp

1489kg

0-60: 5.8s

Top Speed: 149 mph

Mitsubishi Evolution X FQ400

2.0L Turbocharged Inline 4

410hp

1420kg

0-60: 3.8s

Top Speed: 155mph

1992 McLaren F1

6.1L BMW sourced V12

627hp

1140kg

0-60: 3.2s

Top Speed: 240mph

TVR Cerbera Speed 12

7.7 V12

1000hp+

1100kg

0-60: 2.9s

Top Speed: 240mph +

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