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For Sale: A Low-Mile, Original TVR Cerbera 4.5

This is a TVR Cerbera, it’s a low-volume British performance car that was built between 1996 and 2006. It was named after Cerberus, a three-headed beast from Greek mythology that guarded the entrance of Hades.

The TVR “Speed Eight” V8 Engine

The Cerbera (pronounced “Sir – Burr – Uh”) was the first vehicle to be powered by TVRs all new “Speed Eight” engine, an in-house developed high-performance V8 capable of over 440 hp. Prior to this TVR had always bought in engines from outside suppliers, like Rover, Ford, and Triumph.

Despite the relatively small size of TVR as an automaker they succeeded admirably in developing their own engine, an engine that would make the Cerbera one of the fastest production sports cars in the world when it was released.

The engine was designed by engineering legend Al Melling, a man who had designed engines for everything from Norton motorcycles to Formula 1 cars. The engine was developed with some input from both John Ravenscroft and (the then boss of TVR) Peter Wheeler, the project was named AJP8 as a result, taking the first initial of each man’s name.

Since its introduction the Speed Eight engine has been lauded as one of the best naturally aspirated V8s of its time, the highest performance road car version was capable of 97.7 bhp per litre – a figure that bests many full race engines.

The TVR Cerbera

The Speed Eight engine was fitted to the Cerbera’s steel backbone chassis which then had the lightweight fiberglass body fitted over the top. This construction method wasn’t dissimilar to the engineering of Lotus or Bolwell sports cars and it allowed low-volume manufacturing of lightweight sports cars that could best many of the world’s fastest.

Above Image: The passenger compartment of the Cerbera is surprisingly well designed and opulent for a low-volume sports car manufacturer.

TVRs have a well-earned reputation as a true driver’s car – there’s no ABS, traction control, lane keeping assist, or any other electronic driver aids. The cars offer a traditional, analogue driving experience that has won them fans around the world, and ended up with more than a few in ditches when a driver exceeds his or her own abilities.

The Cerbera was offered to buyers with four primary engine options including the TVR Speed Six with 350 hp, the 4.2 litre Speed Eight with 360 hp, the 4.5 litre Speed Eight with 420 hp, and finally the rarer 4.5 Speed Eight “Red Rose” with 440 hp.

The 4.5 litre variants are the most desirable, and depending on final specification the car tips the scales at between 1,060 kgs up to 1,130 kgs, or approximately 2,337 lbs to 2,491 lbs. Thanks in no small part to this relatively low weight, the Cerbera in 4.5 litre trim can do the 0 to 60 mph dash in 4.1 seconds, onto a top speed of 185 mph.

Inside the car you’ll find a 2+2 seating arrangement, that is two primary seats for adults in the back and two smaller seats with limited leg room in the rear. TVR designers ensured that the passenger seat can move further forward that the driver’s seat in order to provide more legroom for a rear passenger, as a result they called the Cerbera a 3+1.

The interior fit out of the Cerbera and all TVRs of the period is surprisingly opulent for a low-volume sports car manufacturer. Particular attention was paid to comfort and ergonomics, and there’s no other car with quite the same feel to it as a TVR from this period in the company’s history.

Above Image: The car’s sleek aerodynamics help it reach a top speed of 193 mph with the “Red Rose” engine option.

It’s believed that 1,490 examples of the TVR Cerbera were built over the production run, and less than 600 remain licensed on British roads today.

The TVR Cerbera 4.5 Shown Here

The car you see here is a 1998 TVR Cerbera with the desirable 4.5 litre Speed Eight engine, it’s finished in “Moonraker Black” paintwork and features a two-tone magnolia and biscuit leather interior.

The original 420 hp output of the engine has been increased somewhat with the fitment of a Whirlwind induction kit with blue inlet hoses, and an aftermarket ECU, as well as a “de-cat” large bore exhaust system.

The car is now showing just 18,597 miles on the odometer and it’s accompanied by the owner’s handbook and stamped service book, as well as documentation of its service history. It’s relatively rare to see 4.5 litre Cerberas in this condition come up for sale so this one will likely attract plenty of attention in the UK and further afield.

The car is currently being auctioned live on Collecting Cars, at the time of writing there are 7 days left to bid and the current bid is £16,250 with 20 bids cast so far. If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

Above Video: Jeremy Clarkson pits the TVR Cerbera against some of the fastest production cars in the world (at the time) and shows just how fast it actually is.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

The post For Sale: A Low-Mile, Original TVR Cerbera 4.5 appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/tvr-cerbera/
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Lorenzo’s Million Mile Porsche 356

This short film centres around Lorenzo and his million mile Porsche 356, Lorenzo is one of those older guys you might meet at a car show who can take a little time to warm up to you, but once they do the stories that come out of them are solid gold.

Sadly we don’t encounter all that many people who keep cars long term now, the average length of new vehicle ownership in the United States stands at ~6 years, though admittedly people who own classics do tend to keep them longer.

I won’t go into too much detail here about Lorzeno’s stories because it’ll just ruin the film, I will mention that when he talks about owning seven Porsche Speedsters at some point in the distant past those cars together would be worth between $700,000 to well over $1,000,000+ USD today depending on their condition.

It’s enough to make you which cars are laying around unwanted now that’ll be worth a king’s ransom in the decades to come.

This film is the work of the talented team over at Negative 25, a production company founded by Ean Sierra and Harrison Doyle. You can click here to subscribe to the Negative 25 YouTube channel and you can click here to visit the website.

The post Lorenzo’s Million Mile Porsche 356 appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/lorenzos-million-mile-porsche-356/
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The Dino 206 SP Reborn

You could easily mistake the car you see pictured here as being one of just 18 original Dino 206 S vehicles that were ever made. Although it’s a staggeringly close approximation it actually started life as a US-delivered 1971 Dino 246 that was subject to a cost-is-no-object build into a Dino 206 SP evocation.

So detailed was this conversion that a new body was fabricated from alloy panels by Giordenengo in Italy to original specifications, and a 206 alloy block engine was sourced and fitted in the correct orientation.

Ferrari had originally intended to build 50 examples of the Dino 206 S in order to homologate it as a production car to compete in the FIA Group 4 Sports Car class. Sadly financial difficulties resulted in just 18 original cars being built, three years later 50% of Ferrari would be acquired by Fiat.

Ferrari describes the 206 SP as “an open-top version of the Dino 166 P with a bigger engine” the 166 P being a very similar looking coupe with a 1.6 litre engine that had first appeared in 1965. Interestingly the first 206 SP wasn’t all that different from the car you see here, it was rebodied with a different engine fitted, though in this case the donor car was a Dino 166 P.

The 206 SP won a slew of European hillclimbs in the mid-1960s in the hands of Ludovico Scarfiotti, he would go on to win the 1965 European Hill Climb Championship. The car also competed in the Targa Florio and a number of other major events throughout the 1960s.

Above Image: The car has a bespoke alloy body built by Giordenengo in Italy to original specifications.

The style and performance of these racing Dinos won them fans around the world, Ferrari capitalized on this by releasing the Dino 206 GT road car in 1967. The styling of the 206 GT was directly influenced by the 206 S and SP, though the ultra-lightweight and raw nature of the race cars was replaced by a far more comfortable and civilian friendly fittings.

Originally Ferrari didn’t call the Dino a Ferrari at all, it was developed as a sub-marque of sorts to compete with the likes of the Porsche 911. Years later the Italian company would change its tune however, and today Ferrari’s historic model register proudly calls the car the Ferrari Dino 206 GT.

The Dino series would stay in production until 1976 under three main model families, the 206, 246, and 308. The sub-marque would be discontinued after this time and the lower-priced (though still not cheap) Ferraris would carry full Ferrari badging.

There was a time not too many years ago when these Dinos were almost affordable, many in the Ferrari community looked down on them, and it was during this time that the car you see here was converted.

The person who undertook the conversion project must have looked on it as a labour of love, the Dino 246 donor car likely wasn’t too expensive but getting a custom alloy body shaped by Italian artisans to exact vintage specifications can tend to be very, very costly indeed.

Above Image: The stylish though Spartan interior is characteristic of Italian sports cars of the era, with the addition of four-point racing harnesses.

As mentioned above, an original Dino 206 alloy block V6 engine was sourced and mounted longitudinally in the chassis, requiring some minor chassis work as the 246 was originally fitted with a transversely mounted engine to maximize space.

Correct wheels were sourced and impressively they even had two windshields made just for this car, once is fitted to it now and the other comes as a spare. The interior of the car comes with all the ribbed red leather you could possibly want as well as four-point racing harnesses and a gated 4-speed shifter.

Surprisingly the estimated value of this car falls in line with a lower-priced standard 264 GT, such is the climb in prices enjoyed by Dinos in recent years that this car would likely be worth more without all the work and money spent on it.

However to the right kind of enthusiast it will represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy an immaculate reborn Dino 206 SP and unlike the real ones, this car can be driven on the road without the fear of wrecking a priceless piece of Ferrari history.

If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Silverstone Auctions. It’s due to roll across the auction block on the 5th of June with a price guide of £150,000 to £180,000 which works out to approximately $212,000 to $254,000 USD.

Images courtesy of Silverstone Auctions

The post The Dino 206 SP Reborn appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/dino-206-sp-reborn/
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The Original Cizeta-Moroder V16T Design Study – 1:1 Scale

The car you see here the first 1:1 scale model of the car that would go on to become the Cizeta-Moroder V16T– one of the most genuinely remarkable supercars of its age powered by a transversely-mounted V16 engine.

If you read that last sentence and thought to yourself “this writer doesn’t know what transversely mounted means” I assure you I do – the car was powered by a hand-built V16 engine mounted sideways directly behind the seats in the rear-mid engine bay.

The car was designed by one of the greatest automotive designers to walk the earth – Marcello Gandini. Gandini’s work includes a slew of bedroom wall poster cars like the Lamborghini Miura, Countach, and Diablo (prototype), as well as other classics like the Lancia Stratos, De Tomaso Pantera, and the Iso Grifo 90 to name just a few.

The car you see here is the non-functional design study of the first design intended for the Cizeta-Moroder V16T, it was styled by Gandini using a slew of design touches that would help characterize the brand new supercar maker and influence their designs going forwards.

In the end, company Claudio Zampolli asked Gandini for a revised design based on this car, and it would be this revised design that would go into production as the car we know today as the Cizeta-Moroder V16T, or just the Cizeta V16T.

Above Image: This is the production version of the Cizeta V16T, click here to read more about it.

As a design study this car was never designed to be drivable, it’s essentially just a full scale body with glass and fixtures in place to showcase the design. The interior is not accessible though the car does roll making it easy enough to transport.

The styling of this model is quintessentially Gandini and you can see some similarities to both the final Cizeta V16T and the Lamborghini Diablo, a car that Gandini had designed up to the prototype stage before leaving Lamborghini after disagreements about styling direction. His original design intention for the Diablo would be more closely represented in the car that would become the V16T than the car that would become the production version of the Diablo.

The width of this model is a good indication of just how wide that transverse V16 is, Claudio Zampolli developed the engine with a small team of engineers in order to compete directly with the 12 cylinder engines in rival Italian supercars from Ferrari and Lamborghini.

As an original Gandini design study in 1:1 this vehicle will attract serious attention from collectors, particularly anyone with one or more Gandini cars in their garage. It’s currently being auctioned by Collecting Cars with two days remaining and the bidding is at €1,600.

If you’d like to read more about this car or bid on it yourself you can click here to visit the listing.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

The post The Original Cizeta-Moroder V16T Design Study – 1:1 Scale appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/cizeta-moroder-v16t-design-study/
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Elton John’s Ferrari Daytona Is For Sale

Sir Elton John is not a man famous for his discreet fashion sense or shy on-stage persona, so it should probably come as no surprise that he bought himself a Ferrari Daytona back in the 1970s. Over the decades since he first became a global star Sir Elton developed a reputation as a bit of a petrolhead, he’s owned a significant number of notable cars including supercars, sports cars, and luxury vehicles.

At various times in his life he’s owned an Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante, a Jaguar E-Type, a Bentley Turbo R Saloon, a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III, an Aston Martin V8 Vantage V550, a Ferrari 512TR, and of course the car you see here – a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona.

Now the first thing any red-blooded classic car person will tell you is that the Ferrari Daytona isn’t really called the Daytona, it’s called the Ferrari 365 GTB/4. The Daytona moniker was given to the car by the world’s motoring media shortly after it was introduced in 1968. The reason the nickname was chosen was due to Ferrari’s spectacular 1-2-3 finish in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1967, with their 330 P3/4, 330 P4, and 412 P.

It’s believed that Enzo Ferrari never really liked this nickname and still to this day Ferrari only rarely uses the name when referring to the car, instead preferring its official model designation.

The Ferrari Daytona And The Usurping Miura

When the Lamborghini Miura first landed in 1966 it’s safe to say that it sent shockwaves through the Ferrari headquarters in Maranello. The Miura is a beautifully sleek mid-engined V12 that many point to as being the first real supercar. The fact that it was faster than any street-legal Ferrari then in production and built by Ferruccio Lamborghini, a man who had become a nemesis to Enzo Ferrari, made it all the more galling.

Ferrari engineers set to work creating a new car to replace the Ferrari 275 GTB, and of course to trounce the gleaming new Lamborghini. Enzo was famously opposed to using a mid-engined configuration for his V12 cars, he felt that it would provide too much of a challenge for untrained drivers. Lamborghini has no such compunction and as a result, the Miura had turned into a global sensation.

Above Image: The Daytona was styled by Leonardo Fioravanti at Pininfarina, and today it’s lauded as one of his most popular designs.

The car developed by Ferrari for this herculean task was the 365 GTB/4, or Daytona, a sporting GT car with a front mounted 4.4 litre Colombo V12 producing 347 hp at 7,500 rpm and capable of 174 mph – exactly 3 mph faster than the Miura.

The Elton John Daytona

Depending on who you listen to Elton John took delivery of the car you see here in either 1972 or 1973. 1973 was the year he really shot to global stardom for the first time, the release of the album Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player went to number one on the charts in the UK, USA, Australia, and a number of other countries.

Later in 1973 he would release Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, this cemented him as a leading light of the glam rock movement and went to number one in charts around the world.

It was right in the middle of all this that Elton owned the car you see here – a right-hand drive 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona. The car is one of only 158 built by the factory in right-hand drive, it’s finished in the best possible color combination for a Daytona – Rosso Chiro with a Nero interior.

The car recently attained Ferrari Classiche “Red Book” status, meaning it’s been thoroughly examined by Ferrari experts and deemed to be all original, including matching engine and gearbox numbers.

If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Silverstone Auctions. It’s due to roll across the block on the 5th of June with a price guide of £440,000 to £500,000 which works out to approximately $622,000 to $70,700 USD.