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Converting a TVR 280i roadcar in to a Tasmin Challenge racecar By:
Patrick Weightman So what does it take to build a Tasmin Challenge Race car I hear you say, well for me it was about 6 months, a lot of help from Moore Racing, and a lot of patience from the wife and kids. If like me your idea of "working on a car" is changing a wheel or topping up the oil then read on, because that is the level of my mechanical skills when we started this project. First up, we needed a donor car and a couple of thousand pounds got me what looked to be a good car. I had already been told not to worry too much about the condition of the engine (as this would need work anyway), but to concentrate on getting a good chassis and that’s exactly what I tried to do. However being a Wedge with ‘hidden’ outriggers and covered body mounting points, it is almost impossible to tell the real condition of these cars until you get the body off.
Pic 1: Well this is me, about 4 months into the rebuild at 2:00 o-clock in the morning screwing around with the air box cover ;-) Pic 2: The finished product out in the open for the first time at the TMS Performance Vehicles Open Day.
Pic 3: A little lightening work - remove the braces and meshing from the back of the bonnet. If you ever do this yourself I can recommend not sticking the chisel right through the bonnet, it takes ages to repair. Might as well mention Dominic Porter my chief helper in the project. Pic 4: A few leftovers from the build, I think this was load no. 3 that went to the local tip. Not sure what the front bumper of my Land Rover was doing in there though? After advertising the rear glass panels many times and having no interest, I even ended up throwing these out as well.
Pic 5: What a mess, although my daughter thought it was great. It was at this point, we decided to throw away the original Wiring Loom and start again. Pic 6: Well, having spent several months stripping the car down it was time to call in the professional, and send the car of to Moore Racing for the Body off bit.
Pic 7: Hmmm I doesn't look as good as we thought it would, but at least it didn't fall apart when we lifted he body off. Pic 8: Well, all in all a good donor car, only one meter of chassis tube needed replacing in the off side outrigger (very very lucky), just a shame the engine was a no hoper.
Pic 9: it looks a lot better after the shot blast and repaint, all ready to start rebuilding, note the nice red differential (which took 15 hours with a grinder to get the rust off) and 4 coats of paint...... Pic 10: Much more time and much more paint for the drive shafts and stub axles etc.
Pic 11: Shiny brand new Nitron Dampers in place together with the reconditioned stub axles and trailing arms. The original alloy trailing arms have now had to be replaced with steel ones, as they seemed to have a habit of snapping!!!!! Pic 12: Front near side suspension again all the red bits are original parts, also the steering rack was retained (this had to be replaced later as it was found to have play in it) the motto hear is ‘replace it anyway’ if you are going racing. |
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