A race car with a 7.7 liter V12, who wouldn’t want that. Even better: he can take to the streets. Even better, this TVR Cerbera Speed 12 can be yours!
How do you make the fastest car in the world? For Gordon Murray’s team behind the McLaren F1, it was simple: science. The McLaren F1 was only trumped when the Bugatti Veyron with 1,001 hp could only drive 20 km / h faster. The McLaren F1 needed ‘only’ 627 hp for it. So you have a choice: everything down to the neurotic calculation and make it efficient, or just build a huge engine with ditto power in a lightweight car.
TVR Cerbera
TVR claimed themselves that they owned the fastest car in the world with the Cerbera Speed 12. The story behind this bizarre car is too nice to remember, so here it comes. We have to start with the ‘normal’ TVR Cerbera. The Cerbera was the third TVR under Peter Wheeler’s leadership in the 1990s and was a relatively successful model. You could get it with a six-cylinder (Cerbera Speed 6) or a variation of eight-cylinder (Cerbera Speed 8), the first engines that TVR built itself and did not borrow from Ford or Rover.
Speed 12
The Speed 12 was added in 1997, although that car was almost impossible to compare with the regular Cerbera. The basis of the Cerbera was taken to create a car that would be ready for the then GT1 championship in the FIA GT series. There the Speed 12 would have to compete against greats such as the Toyota GT-One, Nissan R390 and Porsche 911 GT1. Then you have to come with a lot of violence and TVR did that.
Fastest in the world
For example, the brand claimed during development that the TVR Cerbera Speed 12 was the fastest car in the world, but TVR was always a bit vague about numbers. The race series set a limit of 660 hp, but according to TVR, the Speed 12 delivered without restrictions against 1,000 hp. This thanks to a club of an engine: a 7.7 liter V12 that was created by combining two six-in-line engines from a Speed 6. Together with the 8.0 W16 from Bugatti and the 8.4 liter V10 from the Viper, the largest engines from the recent history.
Street version
A thoroughbred racing car, but the TVR Cerbera Speed 12 ultimately only participated in a few races. Changing regulations made it too difficult and too expensive to realize the GT1 dream, so Wheeler and co. on the street version. And that didn’t go smoothly either. For example, we said that the unlimited horsepower number is ‘around 1,000 horsepower’ because that has never really been proven. There is a story that the dynamometer could not handle the violence of the Speed 12 and the result ‘stayed at’ 1,000 hp. Tests per cylinder bank came out at about 960 hp. Down payments had already been taken and the car was due to go on the market for £245,000, so buyers were eager.
Too powerful
However, it was Peter Wheeler himself who was reluctant. He went around the block with the Speed 12 and even though he is an experienced racer, he was terrified. The car was dangerous because of this enormously powerful engine. Everything around the Speed 12 project was scrapped except for one car, a red TVR Cerbera Speed 12 with the license plate W112 BHG. This was sold in 2003 by Peter Wheeler himself and the device had to be purchased through a kind of job interview in which Wheeler indicated whether you were skilled and wise enough to tame this beast. It was a street version under the skin, but all the bodywork had already been demolished. The only road car therefore has the body and interior of the racing version.
For sale
In short: there is only one TVR Cerbera Speed 12 left in street specification and we now find it for sale! As said, with the 7.7 liter V12 and the engine in its 850 hp strong version, which is more than enough. The bodywork is a combination of carbon fiber and Kevlar and still contains everything you expect from a racer, gigantic carbon fiber spoiler and center lockwheels included. Switching is done via a manual six-speed gearbox and that should mean an acceleration of less than 3 seconds to 100 if you can stir a bit. If you are really tired of life, the cake is only at ‘more than 240 miles per hour’ (386 km/h) which would be faster than the McLaren F1. However, no one has ever tried that.
The fact that it is allowed on the road does not make the TVR Cerbera Speed 12 a Volkswagen Golf. The interior is as spartan as they come and the kevlar bucket seats with harness straps don’t scream comfort either. Not to mention the roll cage that you have to limbo under to be able to sit at all. It is also not really practical in city centers due to its low bumpers and wide wheel arches.
You also buy a racing car for the street that many, including its maker, see as a car that you really have to tame. So it’s just cool to see the engineering behind it. Take the detachable ‘bonnet’ and ‘trunk’ that removes the entire body so you can look at the huge engine. And we wanted to say so that you can put your suitcase in the back, but that is also not recommended.
And what strikes us personally is that this advertisement is decorated with photos that are as crazy as TVR itself. Well, luck is a dominant factor for the rainbow, but we don’t suspect that the helicopter just happened to land behind the car. And what about the personalized information in the screen below the counters. Think a coarse British accent under this and it is suddenly humor.
To buy
Writing a book would actually still not do the TVR Cerbera Speed 12 justice, so today we will stick to the message that you can buy it. We don’t know what it may cost, because it is an auction. It won’t be cheap, we can tell you that. The auction is on Silverstone Auctions and takes place in May.
This article Unique racing car with 7.7 liter V12 can be yours appeared first on Autoblog.nl.
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