In the beginning
A one off special - TVR built a yellow 420 SEAC racer in late 1984/early 1985
Chris Schirle expalins how the SEAC was created:
The request came from Peter Wheeler:
As the company has a competion history can we build any competition cars ?
I was set the task of firstly doing a couple of 390's - revamping them and changing suspension with quite a bit of success in club racing.
The SEAC was a typical Peter Wheeler idea - he had most of the ideas and was quite strong in making them come to fruition.
He was quite a brillaint designer (I rate him higher than Colin Chapman)
He wanted a slightly different bodyshape and as a marketing exercise can we do it in Kevlar? I'd had experience of Kevlar and Carbon in F1 and Indycar it was always vaccum formed then autoclaved - you can't wet lay it. PW insisted on Kevlar content in the car - he obviously had the name in his head so that's the way it was done.
We had problems with strength and flexibility, it never went hard - when done properly it's quite strong but PW insisted.
The wing at the back was a complete and utter PW wing - he had no idea about aerodyamics but he wanted that particular shape - it actually worked very well.
My role was more with the mechanical components - bodywork wise PW came in each morning changing shapes and evolved the design although I did the front splitter following experience in F1 with aerodynamics and applied it to the SEAC
Although never in the wind tunnel it was quite quick for what it was.
Here is the text of the press release from TVR
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"It has been no secret recently that TVR ENGINEERING
LIMITED, have been developing a new lightweight body design to be powered by
a high performance Vee 8 engine.
This in the form of the Special Equipment Aramid Composite
( S.E.A.C.) is currently been road tested in the tough field of competitive
racing against some formidable opposition.
Powered by a 4200 cc fuel injected Vee 8 powerplant, for the first time of
TVR's own construction, has some 365 B.H.P. on tap. A totally redesigned
stainless steel spaceframe chassis with wishbone suspension all round
enables the massive increase in power to be put down onto the road.
Body styling with shortened front end incorporates a glass cover over
indicators, driving lights and licence plate. Widened front wheel arches
bulge over special Compomotive split rim road wheels front and rear on
Bridgestone 225/50 x 15 tyres. Flared sill panels run into the extended rear
arches, with the back of the vehicle being dominated by the aggressive wide
spoiler covering the entire trunk lid.
Driving the TVR 420 S.E.A.C. this season is Steve Cole, who for the last
four has been competing in Morgans. Steve, winner of the Prodsports
Championship in 1982 and the Donnington Series in 1983, now finds the
increased power and handling of the TVR better equipped to defend his title
against the modern opposition found in this year's championship. Steve who
started his racing career in 1978 has gained wide and valuable experience in
Prodsports with Ginetta G15's, Formula Ford 2000, Sports 2000 and
Thundersports.
Pictured with the new TVR are ( right to left )
PETER WHEELER - CHAIRMAN OF TVR
JOHN RAVENSCROFT - DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER.
CHRIS SCHIRLE - COMPETITION
MANAGER.
DAVID BENTLEY - RACE ENGINEER.
Featured in the background is TVR's new £30,000.00 LEYLAND CRUISER cab and
trailer decked out in the Racing Team's livery. This when not transporting
the team around the country is used to ferry the 8 American specification
vehicles produced every week to the docks for shipment to the U.S.A.
importer."
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but first we need to rewind:
Rupert Kent
was kind enough to write about and provide pictures of his father's racing history:
In 1982, John Kent bought a TVR Tasmin 280i from Colin Blower.
A car that Blower had campaigned with some success in ProdSports carrying the silver
and blue BF Goodrich colour scheme. The car, although competitive, lacked the outright
performance of the well-developed V8 powered Morgans in Class A.
With some backing from TVR, this car was due to have
the Ford 'Cologne' fuel injected 2.8 V6 removed and replaced with a 3.5 litre V8
from a Rover SD1 Vitesse. This had come about after Peter Wheeler had done a deal
with Austin Rover to purchase the
Vitesse units which were a lower cost route to
power than the turbocharging of the Ford Cologne (remember the Tasmin Turbo...?).
The conversion was driven by two requirements - firstly, to give the car more power
and make it competitive, but also to use it as a testbed and to a lesser extent a
showcase for the proposed TVR 350i road car.
The car was the third TVR to be fitted with the rover V8 engine, being preceded
by two development mules (the one shown in the B&W photos at Donington being
piloted by Kent, and a white car that spend much of it's time in Ireland).
As a result of this conversion, problems were encountered,
not least the fact that the V8 engine would not fit into the chassis properly. As
a result, Kent and his engineer brother-in-law Peter Chambers stripped and rebuilt
the car around a new chassis during the Winter of 82/83 at their farmyard barn workshop
near Preston in Lancashire.
The Rover V8 used was a standard single plenum fuel injected 3.5 litre unit from
an SD1 Vitesse. The engine was tuned by an outfit, (the name of which is lost in
the sands of time), but ultimately was unreliable. The motor was given to Andy Rouse
to "Make reliable without spending money".
The car was painted white and with limited
backing from Castrol, sponsorship decals applied. This was 350i Mk.1.
Photo: Rupert Kent
The car was raced 7 times in 1983 at the following events :
14-05 : Oulton Park (National Meeting)
19-06 : Blackpool Sprint
25-06 : Donington Park (International F2 Meeting)
03-07 : Snetterton (National Meeting)
13-08 : Donington Park (International Meeting)
18-09 : Donington Park (GT Championship Meeting)
09-10 : Donington Park (International Meeting)
John Kent in the 350 racer
During 1983, the car was uncompetitive against the Morgans and Porsches. The car
was still underpowered and the poor implementation of the trailing arm rear suspension
setup meant that setup of the rear of the car was to all intents and purposes complete guesswork and ultimately, useless. One upside was that Rouse came good and the motor
held together for the rest of the season, the injected unit developing around 210bhp
vs. the Morgans which ran carbs and approximately 235bhp.
For 1984, Further TVR backing came in the form of more work from Rouse on the engine
that he built engine for Kent. This engine was good, and indeed was better than
the "reliable" unit, proving smoother although still lacking in outright power.
The car was also rebuilt by Kent and Chambers in the service department at Bristol
Avenue, featuring the 350i style body of the then new road car and modified suspension
to cure soggy handling. This was 350i Mk.2.
Development continued throughout 1984 with small body mods and
suspension tweaks. The car at this stage still ran trailing arm at the rear and although more competitive,
was still not a championship-winning car.
For 1985, TVR's newly formed racing department under the watch of Chris "Hermann
the German" Schirle built two brand new cars with all new stainless steel
chassis along with the 390 style body and fiberglass copy of an SD1 rear
spoiler. One car in white for Kent and a red car for Rod Gretton. Whilst Kent was lumbered with the
Rouse motor, Gretton received a £10,000 ex-TWR engine (which was in fact a 3.9).
Kent's car was 390i Mk.1.
Neither car was composite, just very thin glass fibre. Built as racers, the thin
bodies would have produced some awful paint finishes (even by TVR standards)
In 1985, as a result of the new chassis, and not least it's new A-arm style rear
suspension, the car was much better but was being held back by the 3.5 Rouse motor.
The engine blew up after a few rounds and was rebuilt by John Eales of JE
Motors in Coventry to 3.9 litres. The revelation was the JE motor produced almost as much
power as the TWR motor and a lot more torque for 80% less cost. As a result, Kent
won a number of races,
easily outpacing the Gretton car. Kent unfortunately missed out on the championship to
a all-conquering car in a lower class.
John Kent in the 390 racer
Having seen off Gretton for a fraction of the cost, Kent was offered a drive in
1986 in a new car that was to be shared with Steve Cole. Instead, Kent elected to
take a sabbatical from racing to concentrate on his
healthcare business.
The Gretton car was bought by Tim Exter and repainted green - AKA Kermit
An "Ex-John Kent Racing" 350i did appear in early 2007 Clasisfied of Autosport Magazine
- If genuine, it could only be the Mk.2 350i of 1984. This was a conversion of the Mk.1...
John Kent returned to racing and to TVR in 1987 to drive the Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth
powered "Evolution S" in Macau where the SEAC also raced
(see below)
And so began another chapter...
fast forward to the SEAC racer
Let's go racingIt was campaigned in 1986/1987 - the car was continually developed by Chris Schirle and driven
mainly by Steve Cole in the
750 Motor Club
Sporting Cars Magazine Road Going sports series and
BARC (NW) Sports
Saloon Challenge in the production class.
It achieved 21 class wins out of 24
races before being banned on homologation grounds (not building the 200 cars required)
The latter series was the 1275GT Centre/Howley Racing Sports Saloon Championship organised by the BARC (NW)
The Championship was split into five classes
A: Special Saloons and Modified Sports Cars over 2500cc
B: Special Saloons and Modified Sports Cars over 1501 cc - 2500cc
C: Special Saloons and Modified Sports Cars over Up to 1500cc
D: Production Saloon and Sports Cars Over 2300cc
E: Production Saloon and Sports Cars up to 2300cc
So basically any GT or Saloon car could enter, there was often a varied and wonderful entry.
The TVR would have run in Class D and as I recall always ran at the front of the field with the Class A cars. It therefore always won its Class.
Peter Dron, Andy Clarke and Gerry Marshall also drove the car during this period
The 1986 season was supported by the TVR factory
"SAT. 26th APRIL 5th CHESHIRE CATS TROPHY MEETING AT OULTON PARK
As for the racing it really was a good day with some very exotic machinery there.
Astons, Cobras, 935/930 Porsches, Ferraris, and of course the factory's all new
420 SEAC in bright yellow and looking very nice. This year's driver is Steve Cole,
who last year was racing a Morgan V8, and indeed won this particular race last year.
The race itself was very exciting as from the start Steve was in 3rd place for a
couple of laps, until he took the second place Porsche on lap 4. From then on it
was just a case of how long before Steve caught the 911 Carrera which was holding
first place. By lap 10 Steve was attempting to take the Porsche, and for the next
7 laps or so was dicing for the lead. With the slower traffic giving the Carrera
more problems than for the TVR. However from lap 15 we were noticing that the Tiv
was bottoming badly and lap 18 the 420 had to retire with what was later found to
be diff problems. A very promising start to the season. This car is fast!! If the
new car due out soon from the factory looks anything like this one, TVR Engineering
have got it right, visually and mechanically .. ."
Reproduced from Sprint courtesy of TVRCC
Early failures to differentials were due to overheating (lack of airflow
and proximity of rear brakes)
1986 race resuts
That wing again!
Steve Cole asked Chris Schirle what the wing did. Chris took it off and after
a of lap Steve came back in quickly and said put it back on it's almost undriveable
Banned
"Also, because the yellow racer was developed from the 390SE racer by Chris
Schirle it took the early chassis # sequence. I believe TVR never wanted to
identify a SEAC from the rest as they were trying to pass off the SEAC as a
derivative of the 390 which as you know was a derivative of the 350. This would
allow them to race in production sports car category, SEAC was banned from
racing in this group because having won most of the races that year the
opposition complained that TVR hadn't produced enough road cars to qualify, TVR
tried several times to re-enter the group making up SEAC numbers they had
produced for the road, because of the chassis # sequences, nobody could prove or
disprove how many were actually built. By 1988 TVR had moved on to develop the
Tuscan Racer and one make race series so the production sports car group was
left"
David Gerald 1987
David Field and Gerald Jinks bought the racer with a view to opening a race dept and asked
Chris Schirle to run it which he did with his business partner Julian Knapp
The car was then raced under the name of David Gerald Motorsport and driven by
Andy Clark with Steve Cole as a guest driver
The engine was rebuilt by Alan and Graham Nash at NCK
Macau 1987
Gentlemen Racers Club
Click on image for report from Sprint courtesy of TVRCC
At Macau John Kent also raced in the 500+ bhp flame spitting Turbo S which won the race
1988
1989 was the year that the Tusscan Challenge started
From Sprint November 1989:
"Julian Knapp (partner of Chris Schiirle in David Gerald Motorsport)
called me to inform of his exploits in the ex-Factory
420SEAC racer. He has competed six times this year, achieving two overall thirds,
one class win, one 2nd in class and two 3rd in class. A fastest lap was gained at
Oulton Park and a new lap record set at Pembrey. We'll try and update the Scott Moncrieff
table accordingly for next month."
At Oulton Park in 1989
The Scott-Moncrieff Trophy was commissioned for and presented to the TVR Car Club in 1965 by Avril
Scott Moncrieff in honour of her husband Bunty who was a key figure in the early
days of TVR. He owned a Rolls Royce dealership in Staffordshire and in 1955
started selling TVRs. In 1958 he was invited to join the board of directors in
Blackpool and rapidly became intimately involved in the development of the
Grantura, especially in motorsport where both he and Avril were amongst the
first regular competitors in TVR motorsport in their brown Grantura Mk1,
nicknamed the “coffee bean”. In 1962, when TVR first appeared at Le Mans, the
Scott Moncrieffs drove one of the support cars to the famous La Sarthe circuit.
Bunty was also important in the history the Car Club being appointed its first
president when the Club was formed in London in the same year.
The trophy was traditionally awarded to the driver who won the most points in a
single season of motorport in a TVR and has some very famous names engraved
around its base including Gerry Marshall, Tommy Entwistle, Rob Farmer and Paul
Weldon.
Back to Macau
The racer was seen at Macau in 1987 by Richard Witts
who was running an E type Jaguar in
the race. He is reported to have said that the SEAC sounded like thunder and
went past as if I was
standing still.
He bought the car in late 1989 or early 1990. All
his cars had been green and the SEAC followed
suit. Chis Schirle flew out to provide support for every race.
The car came back to UK in the middle of 1991.
Back home
Many thanks to Jeff Statham for enduring hours of questions from me:
Jeff saw an advert in Autosport November 1991 for the racer and wrote the phone number down.
He was at that time running an MGB with modded supension on Dunlop Formula R's
but it was always a compromise and Jeff was looking for a TVR track car.
Each car was described over the phone and a deal was done The MGB was
part exchanged for the SEAC - the former went to Germany.
Restoration
Car was in a bit of a mess but Jeff knew from pictures that it could be restored:
for example the drivers seat was broken in half held in by rope, both seats were hanging through
the floor. The wing (which was not on the car) was supplied by Chris Schirle.
Over the next 3 years Jeff undertook a sympathetic restoration during which he completely
rebuilt the car from the ground up. Where possible original items were repaired
or refurbished - the following were replaced:
The dash
The bonnet (a lightweight version at only 7Kg), was made by TET mouldings
Nose cone came from David Gerald
He then strengthened the boot to provide support for the wing
Some updating was also undertaken as part of ongoing developement:
Silicone heater hoses
Goodridge Aeroquip fuel, brake and oil hoses
Alloy expansion tank
Alloy radiator
Alloy oil catch tank
Alloy oil tank
Nuts replaced with bolts on inlet trumpets
Image billet wheels (for slicks)
A smaller bore exhaust made by "Mike the Pipe" to reduce the noise though it did
not decrease performance
Everything was done by Jeff apart from the respray by Jim Gamsby and finished in early 1994.
Most of the body panels were stored in the bedroom during restoration (and he's
still married!)
"I wouldn't dare add up the receipts but you do it for the enjoyment and track days"
First outings
Tried out at North Weald - overfilled oil and ran hot at 90 - ideally 85
On it's second outing at
Brands Hatch the engine was not running right - it wouldn't rev over 4.5k. He
Bought a book on Dellorto carbs and started from scratch - changed jets and chokes and asked
Tuscan racers for advice as it is basically same engine.
Driving
Jeff thumbed through some of his log books from trackdays - he started at Goodwood on road tyres
with a lap time of 1m 42s in 1995 and was down to 1m 26s in 2006 on slicks.
All the heat comes into car I don't know how Steve (Cole) drove it with hood up - it makes me sweat even on
a cold day.
It doesn't understeer (on the limit), 4 wheel drifts (neutral) but if you over do it slighlty you
have to be quick to catch it
"It brakes and goes round corners"
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The (relative) lack of power at low revs and race clutch makes the car tricky to
get off the line. High revs and dumping the clutch = wheel spin - still looks
like fun trying to perfect the technique |
Jeff's fastet time for the 1/4 mile sprint is 13.02 seconds
Specifications and differences to road car
A stainless steel chassis
Chris Schirle explains:
Peter Wheeler was adamant to make the racer with a Stainless Steel chassis but I told
him it won't work with our jigs
The welding is complex and when removed from the jig they twist which is what happened
with the first 2
2 were made for 390 racers and also I had to make one for the (SEAC) racer
They were no stiffer and not much lighter (4lb less than mild steel). They should be normalised
and heat treated to make it work but we didn't do that - we did not have the facilities
The chassis was built on original factory jigs but was strengthened in several areas which were
I thought flexible but basically it was a Wedge chassis
Peter Wheeler did have some good ideas but this was not his best idea
Bodywork
The bodywork was a mixture of Kevlar and fibreglass which saved substantial
weight. It was later fitted with a lightweight glass fibre bonnet.
Nose cone (which was originally integral), bonnet, sills, and rear valance all removeable which made it easier to work on.
Chris Schirle:
Originally the car
had a Carbon fibre rear wing made by Rolston who did bodywork for March Formula 1 - done
in an Autoclave from the original mould. It was later painted yellow (that was
sacrilege) beacuse David Gerald did not think it looked "Period".
A special Kevlar bootlid and bonnet were also made in an autoclave just for the
racer
Interior
Full roll cage
Engine - Group A (Rover SD1 touring cars)
Dry sumped
Stainless steel valves
Chrome molybdenum springs
Cosworth pistons
Steel rods
High compression
Solid lifters
256 cam
4 downdraught 48 Dellorto's
Originally running on single then twin plenum fuel injection
Running off one alloy fuel tank with 2 pumps and swirl pot in boot
Oil cooler
Engine capacity was increased to 4.5 Litres
The engine was originally built by the factory, but has since been rebuilt
by Graham Nash at NCK Racing.
Lightweight steel flywheel,
AP racing clutch
Getrag gearbox
Torsen differential with oil cooler