- The TVR Cerbera Pace 12 is the wildest TVR ever to be unleashed on the road.
- Constructed to compete within the GT1 racing collection, this one-off road-legal model of the Cerbera has an 800-plus-hp 7.7-liter V-12 and weighs lower than 2200 kilos.
- This automotive, the lone surviving instance, is coming to Silverstone Auctions this Could.
The TVR Cerbera, launched in 1996, was a strong fiberglass-bodied sports activities automotive that might be seen because the U.Ok.’s Chevrolet Corvette—or perhaps its Dodge Viper. In inventory type, the Cerbera topped out at 450 horsepower. It additionally lacked such rudimentary driver assists as traction management or anti-lock brakes. We referred to as the Cerbera “equal elements terrifying and superior.” What, then, to make of this one-off that almost doubles its output?
With the Pace 12, TVR constructed a 7.7-liter V-12 engine out of two of its inline-sixes and crammed that engine right into a Kevlar and carbon-fiber physique that weighed roughly the identical as a first-generation Mazda Miata. Harmful? It is like taking part in cricket with hand grenades. However now, this lone survivor Pace 12 could be yours.
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Blackpool-based TVR does have a popularity for constructing brutishly insane automobiles, however the Pace 12 was not merely a match of insanity. As a substitute, it was constructed as a possible competitor to the likes of the McLaren F1, the Porsche 911 GT1, and the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR. In the present day, these three are a number of the most fascinating highway vehicles ever constructed, homologation specials exactingly engineered for racing dominance at Le Mans.
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TVR’s tackle the GT1 class was much less a racing scalpel and extra a board with a nail protruding of it. There have been a number of teething points in getting this English-bred mad canine into manufacturing. First, the FIA took one take a look at the monster engine of the Pace 12 and slapped a few consumption restrictors on it, knocking energy all the way down to 675 horsepower. Porsche and Mercedes-Benz had big R&D budgets subsequent to tiny TVR, and on this case, the German Goliaths stomped David into jelly. The Pace 12 did win a number of races in Britain however by no means competed at Le Mans as supposed.
No drawback, mentioned TVR. If we will not construct the world’s quickest race automotive, let’s construct the world’s most homicidal highway automotive. Its engineers strapped an unrestricted model of the 7.7-liter V-12 onto the dyno—and the dyno promptly exploded. Ultimately, energy was confirmed to be within the mid-800-hp vary.
On the time, TVR was headed by Peter Wheeler, a chemical engineer who made his fortune within the U.Ok.’s North Sea oil increase. Wheeler was one thing of a larger-than-life character—in a single occasion, his canine attacked the prototype physique shell of the Chimera, and he favored the ensuing holes a lot the manufacturing automotive bought them. He was imposing in particular person and succesful behind the wheel. However the Pace 12 was an excessive amount of even for him.
Coming back from a drive within the prototype, Wheeler declared the Cerbera Pace 12 to be too outrageously wild for the highway, and the production-car program was scrapped. The highway vehicles had been scavenged for elements for the restricted racing the Pace 12 did, and that was that. Nevertheless, one prototype shell survived, and in 2003, TVR put this lone instance up on the market. Wheeler personally vetted the client.
Now, the Cerbera Pace 12 is up on the market at Silverstone Auctions, prepared for a brand new proprietor. If you’re the kind of one who simply learn that bit a couple of automotive’s design being based mostly on a canine attacking the bodywork and thought, “That sounds tremendous and regular,” then that is the automotive for you. Massively highly effective, dangerously quick, and a whole handful, the Pace 12 is actually probably the most TVR of all of the TVRs. It may be yours—for those who dare.
Contributing Editor
Brendan McAleer is a contract author and photographer based mostly in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British vehicles, got here of age within the golden period of Japanese sport-compact efficiency, and commenced writing about vehicles and other people in 2008. His explicit curiosity is the intersection between humanity and equipment, whether or not it’s the racing profession of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught each of his younger daughters how one can shift a guide transmission and is grateful for the excuse they supply to be perpetually shopping for Scorching Wheels.