TVR V8 Gauges
Just to give you a flavour of what the gauges should be readingJust to give you a flavour of what the gauges should be reading on a typical example of the Rover Engined V8 Chimaera, Griffith or V8S here is what you should expect.Taken at a Speed of 82mph (taken on a private road in France)
Gauges On a Rover Engined V8 Chimaera Dashboard on a run
A. Fuel Gauge.
As this has no low level light warning system and the float in the boot is put in by a human it’s always a good move to keep it above quarter full.
B. The road ahead.
Try to keep an eye on this as well as the gauges
C. Speedometer.
On earlier examples under 2000 model year these are slightly dimmer at night than the rest of the dials, they tend to run about 6% ish above the speed the car is actually travelling at (as with most UK vehicle produced today)
D. Rev Counter.
At the indicated speed of 82mph the rev counter is reading around 3100 rpm in fifth gear. This reaches maximum power at 5500 rpm on most models
E. Temperature gauge
Fans are usually set to kick in at 90 degrees althought there are a few cool running kits that can be fitted to get this down to 70 degrees.
On a long run about 85-90 degrees is normal operating temperature
F. Oil pressure Gauge
On the slow turning Rover V8 derived TVR engine the oil pressure gauge will run very low and on full tilt reach 35 psi on a good day. Tickover will take it to 10psi or below in many cases.
On my first week selling TVR’s at a main dealer an experienced TVR Technician told me that.
If he had his way he would have removed all the gauges completely and stuck a huge warning light on the dashboard if there was a fault…
But hey would it have looked as cool as this lot?
I doubt it somehow.
