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 Donington 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.
but first we need to rewind:
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 Classified 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...
It 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.
Steve Cole had been racing Morgan's in the early eighties and in 1982 won the British National Sports Car Championship in Prodsports with his ultra
lightweight Morgan famous for its one-piece alligator body. After the SEAC he drove in the TVR Tuscan Challenge winning the Championship in 1991 and gaining
three Championship 3rd places.
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 results
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
"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 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
At Macau John Kent also raced in the 500+ bhp flame spitting Turbo S which won the race
There are videos of the Macau Grand Prix here
From Sprint November 1989:
"Julian Knapp (partner of Chris Schirle 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 trophy was traditionally awarded to the driver who won the most points in a single season of motorsport in a TVR and has some very famous names engraved around its base including Gerry Marshall, Tommy Entwistle, Rob Farmer and Paul Weldon.
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 September 1989 and it arrived in Hong Kong just in time to be put on a boat for the race in Macau. All his cars had been green and the SEAC followed suit. Chis Schirle flew out to provide support for races.
The car came back to UK in the middle of 1991.
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 more focused 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.
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 later 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
The SEAC racer was tested at North Weald but was overfilled with oil and ran hot at 90 - ideally Jeff wanted the temperature down at 85.
On it's second outing at Brands Hatch the engine was not running right - it wouldn't rev over 4.5k. Jeff Bought a book on Dellorto carbs and started from scratch - changing jets and chokes. Tuscan racers were asked 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"
A stainless steel chassis
The chassis was changed to mild steel by David Gerald during the racing life of the car in 87/88. Not sure exactly when, but it was because the stainless one kept cracking.
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.
Interior
Full roll cage
Engine
Group A (Rover SD1 touring cars)
11.2-1 Compression ratio
Dry sumped
Stainless steel valves
Chrome molybdenum springs
Cosworth pistons
Steel rods
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.
24lb Lightweight steel flywheel,
AP racing clutch
Getrag straight cut gearbox
Torsen differential with oil cooler
A selection from magazines - more can be found in the database or articles sections
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and here is the gallery of pictures: