Steering in the right direction

Virtually a carbon copy (pardon the pun) of the OEM Personal Grinta steering wheel on pretty much every Chimaera out there - until you hold them next to each other - with the essential distinction of being entirely made of carbon fibre and trimmed in Alcantara. More steering feel, more direct feedback through the non-squishy rim. Only about a quarter of the original's weight at around 300 gram. Not cheap at around 650 euro (but if you get together with other interested Tivosi, a small group buy discount is a possibility) - but then again, the best never is...

Although it's strongly recommended that owners of non-power assisted cars stick to the OEM 350 mm size, 330 and 315 (slightly different design for the latter, not that you'd notice...) mm sizes are available as possible alternatives for PAS applications.

Superlight brake upgrade (Chimaera/Griffith)

As part of the upgrades developed for 'Rosenrot' we are offering a brake kit that - unlike all others on the market - doesn't add significant rotating weight compared to the small 239.5 mm brake discs on early Griffiths and Chimaeras and will reduce unsprung weight even compared to these tiny early standard brakes! It consists of a pair of Wilwood Forged Superlite calipers bolted straight to the Sierra-sourced front uprights (no adapter plate or bracket to compromise stiffness of the assembly) and 280 x 24 mm Tarox billet steel discs mounted on custom aluminium bells with AP Racing mounting hardware. Total weight of the disc/bell assembly is 4.6 kg (OEM Ford 239.5 disc weighs 4.35 kg, 260 mm dics on later cars weigh 5.3 kg each); we've weighed the Ford Sierra Cosworth disc that is usually included in a brake upgrade of this size at 6.6 kg (if you look at the disc where it meets the bell it's obvious there has been no effort made to reduce the weight;  the braking surface is about 1.5 times as wide as the brake pad depth of the calipers it's normally used with...) . The four pot Forged Superlite calipers are much lighter than the standard cast iron Ford calipers and slider brackets at 1.9 kg each (four pot cast iron Sierra Cosworth calipers weigh closer to 5 kg each...). For brake pads we usually recommend Ferodo DS 2500 but we can advise and supply different compounds if desired.  

The very high quality disc/bell combination (probably one of the very best on the market in terms of materials and finish) however does significantly affect the price of the conversion. As an alternative for those who are willing to accept a 2 kg penalty in exchange for a circa 50 %

 saving on price, we can supply grooved Tarox discs or plain 'Group N' aftermarket discs to work with the same direct fit calipers.

Because of different Ford brake disc offsets having been used by TVR we would advise stopping by with the car or supplying a brake disc that came off the car.

Let there be light

The Mk3 front conversion with covered headlights not only looks good, but also opens the possibility to use any 'universal' 7" headlight unit (as per Golf Mk1 - which TVR used on the Mk3 Chimaeras - Jeep Wrangler and Land Rover Defender) including the latest LED upgrade lights.

We chose the Truck-Lite 7"LEDs for the following reasons:

They are E-marked and thus fully road legal (most of the Chinese copies are only ECE-compliant which means they may be sold in Europe but are only legal for off-road use)

Being a reflector unit rather than a projector lamp, they don't look like a Dalek and as such don't stand out like a sore thumb on a classic car like our Chimaeras

Excellent lighting performance and very solid build (actually they are 'mil-spec') at a reasonable price

Comes with an H4 plug for dipped and main beam and built-in position light (you only need to crimp on some blade connectors and you're good to go with the original TVR wiring harness).

The conversion involves cutting the area under and behind where the original Mk 1/2 headlight surrounds sit and requires a bit of care not to damage the surrounding bodywork. It can be done without any subsequent paintwork. The headlamp pods with the Perspex covers are then inserted and bonded with the body from underneath.  To match the 'smoked'/dark effect of the factory rear lights behind the Perspex covers and the headlights themselves, we chose to paint the headlight pods satin black rather than body colour. It looks jolly nice, doesn't it?