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Tvr speed 12


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Hi chaps. 

Does anyone know of a kit of the tvr speed 12? Had a Google, and can only come up with a 1/43 scale resin kit, and it either seems to be out of production, or very expensive. 

Has no one done an injected kit in 1/24 scale? 

Thanks for looking. 

 

Matt 

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I think the answer to that question is a big no. I don't know of any 1/24 kit of any TVR, or even a slot body, in injected plastic or resin. 1/18 (or Matchbox-sized) diecasts for sure,  if that floats your boat. You best bet (and believe me, it's at long odds) might be to do a load of scratchbuilding work based on a 1/24 Viper GTS...

 

If there was an available 1/24 injected TVR, I'd have it in the stash, somewhere... maybe Beemax will add one to the list...

 

best,

M.

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Hi Matt,

                 I'd guess you'd be referring to the SMTS kit of the Cerbera Speed 12 kit in 1/43. Scalextric did the earlier and original Speed 12 as a slot car but it's nothing like the later Cerbera. The early car was also done by Hot Wheels as a 1/18th diecast. The slot car and diecast frequently appear on eBay and it wouldn't take too much to make a decent static model from either. Depends on how much you want one, I guess.

As for a 1/24 injection kit, I can't see anyone being brave enough to tackle such a niche subject. Great car, either of them, but no demand.

 

Dave

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24 minutes ago, Fastcat said:

Great car, either of them, but no demand.

Well... I suspect whoever it was could sell three of them to us... that's almost worth £150k of tooling costs right there!

 

Seriously, while I never expected a mainstream injection-moulded 1/24 Metro 6R4 either, I'd much prefer the mythical "someone" to make a state of the art Series 1/2 E-Type coupe and convertible to the standards of Tamiya's 300SL or Ebbro's DS19/21 before they got as far down the wish-list as a Speed 12...

 

best,

M.

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Thanks for the replies guys. 

It was indeed the smts resin kit I found, but it's too small for my liking, and a bit pricey. I've seen the die cast cars they are well represented on ebay and Google. 

Would be nice to see MFH tackle the car in one of their Wonder kits but doubt I could afford one. 

To be honest I never thought of it as a niche subject to cover, as I have seen more "niche" cars made by mainstream manufacturers. 

Shame the real car never made it to the roads, but it comes to something when the head of TVR called it "too dangerous" for the general public! 

Mind you, I'm sure I remember years ago that Keith Flint, late of the prodigy, actually owned one. I could be wrong on that though, my memory does like to play little tricks on me like that. 

 

Matt

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I liked the Speed 12 and Cerbera Speed 12 because they were different from all the rest. The Cerbera Speed 12 road demonstrator in Metallic strawberry red was simply awesome while the metallic blue race car was something else. But I have to agree, far too many great mainstream subjects waiting to be kitted.

 

Dave

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Hi Matt,

                        Profil24 have issued some of the less well known cars but unless the owner takes a shine to the car personally (he also does the masters) then there's little chance of a model from him. Be considerably cheaper than anything MFH make. Mainstream kit makers of cars are very few in number and don't expect a high return for their investment which is why they stick to the popular stuff.

In truth, I think Peter Wheeler was more worried about reliability issues than about it being dangerous. It had a fabricated V12 home-built engine after all. Good publicity too. Just drop it out that you make a car that's too difficult for the public to cope with and watch the demand grow. Can't have been much more of a beast of a machine than an Aston Martin Valhalla!

 

Dave

Edited by Fastcat
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Sounds a lot like Peter Wheeler publicity!

 

I think their dyno was calibrated in donkeys rather than horses too, but the cars were still very, very fast.

 

I know of no 4.5 Cerberas that ever made 420bhp from the factory with 330bhp to 360bhp being more normal. It was/is possible to get them over 400bhp without too much work but 420bhp is really not common without going up to 4.7 litres to unshrowd the valves.

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I know of no 4.5 Cerberas that ever made 420bhp from the factory with 330bhp to 360bhp being more normal. It was/is possible to get them over 400bhp without too much work but 420bhp is really not common without going up to 4.7 litres to unshrowd the valves.

Ah, but the Speed 12 version was just under 8 litres and a V12 to boot. In effect, it was two straight sixes using the same crank.It was fabricated from steel, not the more usual aluminium.

Some of the confusion is due to the casual use of names for existing cars. The original Speed 12 was nothing like the Cerbera and I think it was a one-off race car. The Cerbera Speed 12 road car was more like the GT race car than the Cerbera road car. It was way before its time and I remember how awesome it looked - absolutely stunning for the time. You have to remember that this was over 20 years ago and there was nothing like it at that time. If I was rich, I'd buy one and keep it in the house just to drool over!

 

Dave

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1 hour ago, Fastcat said:

Ah, but the Speed 12 version was just under 8 litres and a V12 to boot. In effect, it was two straight sixes using the same crank.It was fabricated from steel, not the more usual aluminium.

Some of the confusion is due to the casual use of names for existing cars. The original Speed 12 was nothing like the Cerbera and I think it was a one-off race car. The Cerbera Speed 12 road car was more like the GT race car than the Cerbera road car. It was way before its time and I remember how awesome it looked - absolutely stunning for the time. You have to remember that this was over 20 years ago and there was nothing like it at that time. If I was rich, I'd buy one and keep it in the house just to drool over!

 

Dave

 

Hi Dave,

 

Thanks but I do know TVRs really well. Like many Tiv owners past and present, I've long suspected the 1000bhp dyno tale for the 7.7 litre Speed 12 engine to be a bit of marketing folklore rather than truth - the point being that hardly any TVRs actually made the power they claimed to have.

 

My own TVR was a Cerbera 4.5 AJP8 hence the specifics on what power those really made.

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Hi Jamie,

                    Yes it's quite a bragging point to say that you can't quote the power output of your car - it broke the dyno! And Wheeler was a bit of a character but while he was interested, he did a lot for the brand. There was a lot of design talent at TVR before Smolensky vandalised it. Such a pity.

 

Dave

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