trackdayweapons

Progress of sorts - stickered up, drove it hard, got muddy, cleaned it. Knackered now…

So the TVR Sagaris, what to make of it? Probably one of the evilist, most aggressive looking cars in existence today. The first time I saw one on the road it was like Darth Vader had commisioned HR Geiger to build him a car and it was coming towards me, growling at me, for even thinking of occupying the same piece of tarmac. A meaner looking machine it is harder to find.

It still holds that massive just roaring insanity appeal in looks for me, stunning. From the agressive intakes, the vents, the shark-like gills. It’s just stunning to behold from every angle.

Inside, it’s roomy enough, I’m 6′ and still had lots of head room. Not a vast amount of adjustability on the seat and you do sit close to the wheel but the pedal box is good, perfect for heel and toeing despite the long throw on both the clutch and throttle - personally, I’d like a clutch stop and a shorter throttle throw but that’s just how I like pedal boxes setup. The reassuring big tunnel and short throw gear lever is there all nicely surrounded by finished trim leather. It’s a nice feel, it is snug but space enough not to feel too cramped. The usual funky TVR finishing is evident everywhere, from the moment you click the button under the wing mirror to release the door you’re met with leather, alloy, LEDs and more and more curves.

The dash has a full logging (what looks like) Stack system, various pages of info and the usual alarms, controlled with buttons behind the steering wheel (which, you can’t stop playing with). Fire it up and again, that noise, the off beat burble out the side exit exhaust sounding gorgeous, a blip on the throttle and it revs quickly enough. It’s suprisingly simple to drive normally, sedately as such, the clutch isn’t silly and the power steering nicely weighted. The brakes are awesome, although relatively simple to lock up when pushing on. It’s very sharp on handling, Caterham sharp really, even though it’s double the weight. Lots of grip as you’d expect and progressive enough when it loses traction, not much judder, just nice and smooth although you do need to be quick to catch it.

And then the fun starts, over 70mph, the wind noise rattles various bits, it wanders around the road a little ensuring you’re kept wide awake. Any bumps in the road and you bottom out either the splitter catching or more frequently the rear body section/exhaust, sure, the resulting sparks look exiciting enough but you wince everytime you do it. The electrics are, well, it’s a TVR, so let’s not start on those as it’s just not worth it, it’d be a whole page on just them… so all this is preying on your mind as you’re driving along with people diving out of your way in the outside lane relatively sedately… and then you floor the massively long travel on the right hand pedal, pick through two gears as quickly as you can (which, given the box, isn’t actually that easy to do quickly) and you’re the silly side of 140mph.

Hmm, best slow it down, blip down the box and every time it passes back past 3000rpm it’ll brap crackle and pop a little lick of flame each side, the smile returns…in fact, it pretty much turns into a growl…

So, would I have one? Undoubtedly, just LOOK at it ffs. Would I pay £50k for one? Not a chance. It’s a kit car, not a particularly well built one at that either. However, it’s quick enough, it’s gorgeous, it’s not particularly silly to drive, however, I doubt I’d buy one this side of £20k…
Need any spares? … awaiting cages and a short block chevy or two…

See, all this without one mention of the word “Evocity” you bastards.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200083261874

Not to plan really, Motec wouldn’t talk to laptop so running with a bit of overboost, shaking out some naily connections in the engine bay none of this helped by me comprehensively beaching the car in the gravel in the first session…

Anyways, due to popular demand, here you go, comment yourselves out -

Brief vid courtesy of gRod - www.youtube.com/v/fEvFfnaG4i8

So, it was off to the Racing Line in Halifax to get the Group N car setup. Quite a few things to sort on it and in the end the quite a few things turned into a massive amount of things, Matt at the Racing Line proving patient, knowledgeable and (it needs to be said again) patient!

The first hurdle proving to be the Motec M48 installed, after a bit of headscratching it appear there are various versions of the M48, some older than others… this one being one of the older ones, so ensues fuckeries, short end of which is handmaking a comms cable onto the board itself!

Anyways, five days later we have -

• fixed comms lead in glove box
• Motec boost control solenoid
• Motec MAP sensor
• uprated fuel pump
• new fuel filter, plugs, etc
• nasty up the antilag a little

The car was mapped for both BP Ultimate (road running, cheap days out) and the more usual VP109 race fuel (stages, testing). The first image below shows just how much a 32mm Group N restrictor strangles the car, a measly 240bhp and 250ft/lbs of torque. Most of this was at 1bar of boost, further boost not making much difference whatsoever.

Then we move onto VP109, here we get up to a closer to normal 273bhp but the whopping 320ft/lbs of torque should prove fun. While not up to works Group N figures (and yet we wouldn’t expect that) it should prove entertaining, not least because the car should be light, very light. The graphs below show the torque curve and then the boost used. Just shows the difference a proper fuel can make!

Going to 1.4bar on a standard turbo… well, at least I bought a spare… along with 320ft/lbs through a standard box.. again, at least I have a spare…