40 replies to this topic

[Mr Small]

Anyone driven one? Owned one? Any reports good /bad welcome!!!

[jasvxt]

Bloody fantastic, and should last maybe a couple of days longer than the wedding day

[Mr Small]

Bloody fantastic, and should last maybe a couple of days longer than the wedding day

if i last 3 minutes on my wedding day it'll be an achievement!

Paul Weller on Jonathan Ross as i type, he still rocks out for an old fella.

[jasvxt]

Grith is not a contender to the Vx on the twisties though. Why do you feel the need ? Small lottery win ?

[Mr Small]

Why do you feel the need ?

Small lottery win ?

i dont know....

when i got rid of the elise and got a ppp scooby with oodles more power i hated it and 3 months later the vx was on the driveway. a £10k mistake.

i guess i have gotten a bit fed up of not being able to drive it much all winter and not really had enough opportunities this summer so far.

also i like the sound of v8 engines, they ARE addictive.

i'll most probably regret it though, rubbish reliability and for the £10k i want to spend its a big risk. money is a bit tighter these days due to a real mortgage and not a toy one. maybe a throttle body conversion would be a better bet.......... i cant make my mind up.

[jasvxt]

Why do you feel the need ?

Small lottery win ?

i dont know....

when i got rid of the elise and got a ppp scooby with oodles more power i hated it and 3 months later the vx was on the driveway. a £10k mistake.

i guess i have gotten a bit fed up of not being able to drive it much all winter and not really had enough opportunities this summer so far.

also i like the sound of v8 engines, they ARE addictive.

i'll most probably regret it though, rubbish reliability and for the £10k i want to spend its a big risk. money is a bit tighter these days due to a real mortgage and not a toy one. maybe a throttle body conversion would be a better bet.......... i cant make my mind up.

Supercharge your Na and forget a cheap Tvr, your just asking for big trouble, big repair bucks on your budget, just not worth the risk IMO

Don't blame you though, nearly fell into a similar Tvr trap also.

You really need to spend more on Tvr with a decent warranty or loads of cash in reserve for repairs

[Mr Small]

Why do you feel the need ?

Small lottery win ?

i dont know....

when i got rid of the elise and got a ppp scooby with oodles more power i hated it and 3 months later the vx was on the driveway. a £10k mistake.

i guess i have gotten a bit fed up of not being able to drive it much all winter and not really had enough opportunities this summer so far.

also i like the sound of v8 engines, they ARE addictive.

i'll most probably regret it though, rubbish reliability and for the £10k i want to spend its a big risk. money is a bit tighter these days due to a real mortgage and not a toy one. maybe a throttle body conversion would be a better bet.......... i cant make my mind up.

Supercharge your Na and forget a cheap Tvr, your just asking for big trouble, big repair bucks on your budget, just not worth the risk IMO

Don't blame you though, nearly fell into a similar Tvr trap also.

You really need to spend more on Tvr with a decent warranty or loads of cash in reserve for repairs

i know what i am like, an sc conversion will lead to a group n clutch and a new flywheel, alloy rad and suddenly ive spent 6.5k+, thats a nice robin hood ...

Edited by Mr Small, 06 June 2008 - 10:55 PM.

[Baron Von Scubadaddy]

Mr Weller sure can Rock wicked set

[jasvxt]

I know just what you mean, evil i tell thee pure evil

[Tfp]

Had a lovely 500 Griff while ago, would have another just because of the sound and presence, but not for the way they drive. They sound orgasmic, especially with race exhaust. Very quick in a straight line, especially if fettled with. Thats where the fun ends. Im 5ft 5" and could never fully depress the clutch comfortably as the seat didnt go far enough foreward. I may not be the best driver in the world, but it scared the s..t out of me, it would break into wheelspin on dry road, in the end had so many scary moments I only throttled in a straight line. Always leaked oil, fixed then would come out somewhere else, coolant also. Was quite reliable, only had to do a starter motor in 18 months. The worse thing is the chassis, TVR must have painted it with water colour, it peels way and serious rust follows. When I bought managed to find one never been in wet and was good, had it waxoiled. Many I looked at were in very poor shape with alarming amounts of rust, and bear in mind that it was 4 years ago I bought, I think many now will be needing welding or maybe new chassis and that would be serious cost. Many we looked at had accident repairs, you will see why when you drive one. The 5.0ltr Griff will always be desirable, not sure that 10k will buy a good one. Strong advice is to take along an expert on TVR. Be prepared to spend on repairs/maintanence If you love racing around country roads buy something else, I know I may be opening myself up to all sorts of abuse here, but I couldnt drive the thing safely, never felt safe in it, and seen a couple that that were destroyed having gone off the road and they killed driver and passenger. It always felt too much power and would happily lose traction, if Nigel Mansell is reading this he be thinking w..k.r but I never had a track to gain confidence with the car. So if you are happy to plod around it will be ok, the sound is awesome and makes everyone smile when you go down the road, but if you want to drive hard you will need to be an above average driver with sideways experience. When I bought my first VX in 2003 it felt so safe and put the power down so well. Good luck if you buy, but do plenty of research.

[MaDFreeBiRD]

I dont own one, but a friend of mine does they are seriously mental cars! I drove that before i got a vx and they are quite a scary car, if you were to use one in the wet i would be very careful as the previous post says that it spins up on a dry road no problem. The pulling power and sound is actually insane, but i have a standard NA and my mate in his griff had no chance round the twistys, but wen we got to straights my god that thing goes. When they are in tip top condition they are just immense, however my friend had someone from austek TVR go with him to get his and inspect it all, it was easily one of the best condition cars he had seen and it has had a fair few problems. Nothing major but they could be if they wernt spotted i.e. oil leaks from everywhere (think we have finally cracked it!), recently a fuel leak, starter motor, leaks from roof, suspension etc. etc. etc. If you have the budget for the repair bill please by a griff as you will have such a huge grin on your face if you do the noise is just.......WoW. Colours - the only one to go for is the midas yellow gold colour, its lovely Another thing if you have only got 10k to spend on one i dont think your going to get a particularly good example as they are becoming classics now and actually increasing in value, if you find one with above 50,000 miles it will be cheaper as all cars tend to lose value after that. Best thing to do mate is go on some griffith forums, ie. the one on pistonheads or the griffith pages. When i was looking at fast cars i was considering TVR's there is alot of good information on the pistonheads site. I originally wanted a Cerbera but they just arent reliable enough - and i didnt have the budget to keep getting the thing repaired. Sorry for this post going all over the place but, The guy from Austek also said to buy a griffith because they are the best/reliable TVR's ever made. Obviously for the age as in 10 years or so, just re mortgage and buy a Sigaris........ Hope some of this helped

[Mr Small]

cheers for the sound advice guys.

[malcz]

Griffith 500 is a fantastic car as a lot of people have pointed out. My mate at work has one and when I'm behind him in my VXT I can't hear my own engine over his, the sound is awesome. But it is no faster than the VXT until you are getting well up into tripple figures. My VXT is standard by the way. He has had 4 TVR's in his time the last two of which have been Griffith 500's, he traded the first one in to get a porsche which he had for about 4 months and then got his current TVR, and he would only trade this one in to get one of the special edition 500s. It has been a very reliable car, although he has recently had clutch issues which he sorted out himself due to the ammount garages wanted to charge. It has oil leaks as well from the sump which needs resealing. He is always tinkering with it. If you like working on cars then the griffith 500 is definately a fantastic car. But if you generally pay someone else to do the work, don't even think about it.

[Mr Small]

If you like working on cars then the griffith 500 is definately a fantastic car. But if you generally pay someone else to do the work, don't even think about it.

hmmm, this could be a turning point, i can do plug and play and thats my limit.

[walkes]

buy one and you'll spend ages polishing it and looking at it, cause you will not be driving it anywhere except back anf forth to garage.. One word - sh*t

[theotherjonnymac]

A neighbour had a Griffith a few years back. He only ever used it as a weekend car and yet he was always moaning about reliability. Awesome car but also I suspect one of the most frustrating car you would ever own for this reason.

[bennyboysvuk]

I spoke to an ex-Griff owner recently who said that on top of servicing costs, budget about £1500 per year to fix things that go wrong. I followed one on track earlier this year and I was amazed at how slowly we were going when he spun it.

[TurboTomato]

A neighbour had a Griffith a few years back. He only ever used it as a weekend car and yet he was always moaning about reliability. Awesome car but also I suspect one of the most frustrating car you would ever own for this reason.

TVRs always run better when they are not left as weekend playthings and are instead used regularly.

Walkes - I drove mine a lot further than the garage and back and mine was a Speed Six engined one ffs!

I wish sometimes people would reserve their judgement on owning something until they've actually done it.

[Alex L]

Fantastic car, I'd buy one in an instant if servicing/running costs were lower.

My father bought one new in 1995 so a Serpentine engined car with the decent gearbox, I'm surprised about the comment about it not being any quicker than the standard VXT as the Griff acceleration is brutal and only really feels comparable to something like Stage 2.

My dad had his for a few years without many problems unlike the 420 SEAC he had a couple of years ago.

Handling wise they are pretty predictable and yes they will light up the tyres in 1st 2nd and 3rd but if you don't expect that then you probably shouldn't be allowed to own one.

Below taken at Snetterton..

[Jameshs]

I know there expensive to run and break down but they look and sound stunning