This page will talk you through the work involved in transferring our
TVR Griffith from a Category ‘D’ salvage write off to a race car in around 8 months of evening
and weekend work! Here are some of pictures taken when we first bought the car:
As you can see from the pictures, there wasn’t actually that much damage
to the car, other than bodywork, and luckily no chassis damage. Our sponsor, TBR Repair Centre,
repaired the body for us and once this was complete, we set about completely stripping the car
back to a bare body/shell. Parts we could re-use we did but the rest we sold to help fund the
project and then began the months of sheer hard work.
Our first major job was to remove
the body from the chassis to examine the condition of the outriggers, as well as to set about
moving and adding chassis bars to help us get the most from the car. We discovered the
outriggers had the usual problems... we fabricated new sections to replace those that had
corroded and welded them in place. Next, we moved the rear cross bar linking the top of the
main chassis to the outriggers to allow us to fit wider wheels and also some additional
strength bars to help minimise any flex. With the chassis now ready for the roll cage, we
needed to check that the body would still fit, having moved bars around - it didn’t! But after
some cutting and re-fibreglassing all was well and the body was back on the car.
The
next big job was the roll cage. Safety is obviously the most important thing when building a
race car, and given how the MG ended its life, there was to be no compromise with the roll
cage. Weight is also a big factor when racing and to help keep weight to a minimum, maintaining
strength and safety to a maximum, we opted to get the roll cage fabricated in T45 metal, which
is substantially lighter and stronger than conventional steel. Protection and Performance Cages
were the company chosen; based at Skipton, Yorkshire,
they are reasonably local for us and happy to take on board our suggestions. We took the car to
them and collected it 5 weeks later, complete with new outrigger bracing and more strength bars
within the chassis for the bolt-in cage to be mounted to.
With the major chassis work
now complete, it was time to clean the chassis up and make it look nice! We spent a very long
day grinding, both of us, but then all the paint, underseal, waxoil, and whatever else was on
the chassis previously, was gone and the chassis was ready for new paint. We decided to keep to
the factory standard, silver, and a couple of tins and several brushes later, this too was
complete. Here are a few pictures of before and after:
With the roll cage complete and the major changes to the body done, the body was sent off to TBR for paint, in our usual colour - Radiant Red. In the meantime, we concentrated on assembling the wishbones, new race suspension and new race-spec brakes, bolting them to the chassis, and we took advantage of the body being off to fit the Diff, driveshafts and drive train - a job made much easier with access from the top! We also trial fitted the engine, complete with exhaust manifolds, to ensure that everything fit in place as it should. This was the good bit as you could really see the car start to take shape. By the time we collected the newly painted body, the chassis was just about ready to accept it for the final time. These photos show the almost complete chassis work, with the newly painted, shiny red, body in the background, and then with the body bolted back onto the chassis:
With the car now back ‘as one’, we could begin to concentrate on the
ancillary components on the chassis/body and also work inside the cockpit. It had become
apparent that our previous ‘wet-sump’ oil system was no good due to possible ground clearance
issues, and so we had to change to a ‘dry-sump’ system. We also needed to fit an
oil cooler, as a standard Griffith doesn’t have one. New brackets were made for the oil pump,
oil cooler, oil filter housing and various other ancillaries. We also had to fabricate a
mounting ‘tray’ to house the reservoirs for the new pedal setup, as we are now running
independent front and rear brake lines, as well as for the clutch. The conventional battery
housing was cut away to allow more space for the wheels, and the dry sump oil tank located in
the passenger foot well. Metal plates were welded under the floor to provide secure mounting
points for the oil tank, battery box and fire extinguisher, and the floor-mounted pedal
assembly and driver’s seat. Brake and fuel lines were piped in, along with oil and water pipes.
Under the bonnet things were becoming somewhat tight for space; what had looked like acres of
room at the start was suddenly filled with engine and ancillaries and exhaust manifolds! The
rest of the exhaust system was homemade, 3” in diameter, with twin tail pipes. The bonnet
needed cutting and a scoop moulded into place to allow space for the quad Dellorto carburettors
and induction boxes. After we cut the hole required, TBR moulded a scoop on for
us.
Meanwhile, inside the car we still needed to make a dash, wire all of the switches
in place and bolt the all important roll cage into place. The roll cage was first then, once
fully bolted in, the seat was fixed into position to allow us to see where the dash and
switches would need to be. And then it was time to turn our attention to the many ‘little’ jobs
that needed to be done. Things such as, lights, fasteners, bleeding brakes (and clutch), and so
many other things that take so much longer than you ever expect. But, after the months of hard
graft, the car was finally ready to load onto our trailer and travel to Snetterton for its
first outing!
Snetterton proved to be a mixed weekend. The car showed good pace straight out of the box, setting a reasonably competitive qualifying time that saw us third in class on the grid; not bad for a debut drive (the race was the test drive!). While the first race provided good competition between Tom, Mike Saunders and Cliff Jobson, with Tom eventually taking third in class, race two did not go so well... The oil pump failed about a third of the way into the race, causing serious engine damage. With an eight-to-ten week lead time for a new oil pump, it would be August before it arrived; we decided not to compete in any more of the 2008 races, and instead have the car prepared for 2009.
Dave Stewart
29th June 2009