TVR Griffiths 200/400 and their Chassis Numbers

[DaveGT6]

I'm suprised that no one has commented on my Mark Donahue posting in that the race number #01 Griff is allegedly the first production Griff that was raced by Mark - anyone got info to the contrary? Also it appears to absolutely have a Grantura MkIII body -no flared arches here.

[jellison]

Originally Posted by DaveGT6

Jon,

Your car and your right to do what you want with it but it seems a shame that as you seem to have a pukka 200 series that you are building it to hot-rod spec when there are so few original spec 200s. Isn't your target to beat a modern kit car anyway so why start with a historically valid car?

What is it with this paranoia on here with a car having to be built a certain way.

Non of the cars left the factory with any mods. All race cars went their own way in the few month Griffs were out racing before he end of 66. But they have raced ever since thery were first built in 65 in any number of forms. No one spec is any more valid than the next.

This really gets prety thin after a while. Most Griffs and most likely most other Ford 289 engined cars in the 60's, 70's 80, etc ran all sorts of mods and engine sizes and specs and I'll just be doing this. Building to fia spec has ZERO interest for me.

Really alot of you guys on here need to realise the racing world did NOT stop at the end of 66!!!

Lets move on.

Oh one last thing - alot of the cars with papers now were Grantura rear end cars and alot of them have had the back ends cut off and gone to the later 200 / 400 Ban the Bomb rear end (how much of a HotRod does that make these things (a darn sight more than anything I'll be doing to mine)!!

You should see my Road TVR -NOW THAT IS A HOTROD!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...50591650&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...09094136&hl=en

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by jellison

What is it with this paranoia on here with a car having to be built a certain way.

Not paranoia just many interested people who deserve respect. And if you care to look around, there are as many who may share your view.

Originally Posted by jellison

Non of the cars left the factory with any mods. All race cars went their own way in the few month Griffs were out racing before he end of 66. But they have raced ever since thery were first built in 65 in any number of forms. No one spec is any more valid than the next.

Surprisingly what you describe is exactly what homologation means. Manufacturers took advantage of the various changes made either by racers or due to geography and included those changes as homologated parts. It does seem that Trevor was somewhat naive in this respect.

Originally Posted by jellison

This really gets prety thin after a while. Most Griffs and most likely most other Ford 289 engined cars in the 60's, 70's 80, etc ran all sorts of mods and engine sizes and specs and I'll just be doing this. Building to fia spec has ZERO interest for me.

Which is fine and well done, however, where exactly will you be racing this or indeed any car in 2009?

Originally Posted by jellison

Really alot of you guys on here need to realise the racing world did NOT stop at the end of 66!!!

I can support this as far as it goes. It did not stop at 65, but it did provide a cut off for classes of car and as such many excellent racers who, let's be fair, are (or were) far superior to us, excelled in cars built to those regs in period. Is it so bad for people to want to drive the same cars?

Originally Posted by jellison

Lets move on.

If people want to?

[jellison]

Have fun discussing this tedious stuff (you certainly are not discussing much related to Griffs, on here bar one dull area, everything on here seems to come back to fia as if there is no other form of racing (not just this thread) - really you need to open you eyes to what esle is out there and get you head out of the sand).

That it from me as far as contributing to this (and I see other Griff owners and people very closely involved in them have long since give up on this too).

unsubscribe engaged.

[Peter Mallett]

Don't go yet.

You haven't told us of your plans for racing the car, other than the "Barry" race at Spa, indeed there are many who are interested in seeing your car if it is to be as you say.

[jellison]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Don't go yet.

You haven't told us of your plans for racing the car, other than the "Barry" race at Spa, indeed there are many who are interested in seeing your car if it is to be as you say.

Soon then! It is being built as I want it, and will be the Ultimate (well for me at least TVR for occasioanl road exercise - why just run it on the track, my other racers are all road legal.

Things this could race in in the UK (load more abroad along the same lines no doubt - but don't have the time or inclination to do this), Amoc Super GT, Thoroughbreds, The TVR series, load of stuff.

Does no one else have any pictures or video's with these Awesome devices in?

[Peter Mallett]

Taking your available series/championships, where would you prefer?

Seems to me (and I have no real inkling as to history or whatever) that you have a pretty wide range of places to run.

[esper]

Jellison you seem to be very religious to have had painted your chim in bishops colour?. If you paint your Griff that way I will lift my hat and kneel at the track. (no matter how wide the wheelarches will be)

[jellison]

Originally Posted by esper

Jellison you seem to be very religious to have had painted your chim in bishops colour?. If you paint your Griff that way I will lift my hat and kneel at the track. (no matter how wide the wheelarches will be)

It is quite a loud colour - it is great in the flesh. It is not a stoneage Rover engine (btw). The non moving vid - pity the Griff will not be allowed to be that loud!

Oh and the Intermaque series, the one with Rouse and Thurtle, etc in.

[terence]

Whilst I understand your desire as far as the car is concerned,I think that Davegt6 was only expressing his amazement that someone would actually be prepared to basically *******ize a pretty rare car Jon.Lets face,there are not too many with a genuine standard body.The choice is yours and good luck with your quest,be a shame if your Nemesis should breakdown though.

[Dinkel]

Originally Posted by jellison

Dink - building mine to beat Boss/Cheng at the 1 hour at some point in the future (hopefully inside 2 years) Jelly

A 500+ brake Tusc? based on a historic car? Did you see that orange Tiger? And did you hear the peeps talk about it?

Really, that should not be a goal.

My advice: stick to the TR6.

Good luck Jon.

[esper]

common Terry dont kill my trade I was just going to offer a z06 with blower. as the scruts turn their attention to 289s and wide arches that z 06 engine could slip through

[FISCracer]

Originally Posted by DaveGT6

Jon,

Your car and your right to do what you want with it but it seems a shame that as you seem to have a pukka 200 series that you are building it to hot-rod spec when there are so few original spec 200s. Isn't your target to beat a modern kit car anyway so why start with a historically valid car?

Jon's plan is not really 'hot rod' spec any more than a lot of other cars out there. He's just being honest about not wanting to run on standard GT6/LC brakes, Herald uprights etc to be FIA legal. This is partly for safety reasons but also because his approach is to make a car go as fast as it possibly can ie he likes the engineering challenge - look at his TR4, TR6 and roadgoing Chimera with an LS engine in. For those of you who know Steve Watton's old Griff which ran very well in the Thoroughbreds a couple of years ago, I reckon it will be very similar to that. It could easily be converted to FIA spec at a later date.

Personally I like racing with people in 'equal' cars so that we know who is the best driver rather than builds the fastest car, hence racing in BCV8, MGF Cup, FISC and now an FIA MGB. If scrutineering is enforced it should be a level playiing field. I support what Jim and others are trying to do in setting a proper stand for Griffs, I just hope they do the same with other marques eg E types that can beat GT40s...........

[Flyingfox_01]

Originally Posted by FISCracer

Jon's plan is not really 'hot rod' spec any more than a lot of other cars out there. He's just being honest about not wanting to run on standard GT6/LC brakes, Herald uprights etc to be FIA legal. This is partly for safety reasons but also because his approach is to make a car go as fast as it possibly can ie he likes the engineering challenge - look at his TR4, TR6 and roadgoing Chimera with an LS engine in. For those of you who know Steve Watton's old Griff which ran very well in the Thoroughbreds a couple of years ago, I reckon it will be very similar to that. It could easily be converted to FIA spec at a later date.

Personally I like racing with people in 'equal' cars so that we know who is the best driver rather than builds the fastest car, hence racing in BCV8, MGF Cup, FISC and now an FIA MGB. If scrutineering is enforced it should be a level playiing field. I support what Jim and others are trying to do in setting a proper stand for Griffs, I just hope they do the same with other marques eg E types that can beat GT40s...........

Couldn't agree more...... whats good for one is good for another, well said both of you

[John Turner]

Frankly, as with several of our threads at the moment, some of this discussion would be better on the development thread. However, I think that the views expressed here just show what a broad church historic racing is. The forum was set up to encompass all of these and I think that we should rejoice in this diversity. It's been said before here that there is a clear distinction between cars built for racing and road cars modified for racing. However since the dawn of motor racing people have wanted to make their cars go faster; even those that were built for racing in the first place. Road cars require some modification to allow them to race; they would be unsafe otherwise .... and probably slow and uncompetitive. The level of that development and modification is surely down to the owner, provided it is entered in a series which caters for that level of modification. We should not confuse this issue with the one which taxes many of our posters here and that is where an organiser allows a car into a race or race series, when it is blatantly modified/developed beyond the regs laid down by them.

Whilst Jon's post is in his usual forthright manner, and I would not have necessarily expressed it in such a way, I have sympathy with his position. He feels, I think, that some are challenging his right to modify his Griff beyond that which they feel appropriate. However, rare and fabulous though these cars are, there are, pleasingly, quite a few in racing at the moment, and they are built to different specs to fit into different race series. There is surely nothing wrong with that. There are also loads of historic races and series that do not comply with FIA spec. HRSR saloons, Swinging Sixties, Virgin GTS come to mind but there are loads more. Jon has indicated the series that he is thinking of running it in. Frankly, it'll need to be quick to compete in some of them. To those who have said that if you want to race in that way, you might as well buy a modern racer or a new 'old' car, I feel that you maybe missing the point. If I had the financial wherewithall and skill to race a new Chevron GR8, Ginetta G50 or a an old modified Griff, it would be the latter everytime. It's horses for courses. So to those who think that Jon is (bluntly) 'butchering' a rare car, I point to my comments above. As a final thought on this point, one of the series that has given me the greatest pleasure over the years is the AMOCs Classic Championship. Not as rare as a Griff maybe, but rare nonetheless, there must be at least 50 DB4s in this country capable of running in one of the modified classes of that series, yet you cannot get a road car much more classic, charismatic or valuable from that period than that. These cars have been hugely developed; they are still DB4s. Originally 3.7 litres 240 bhp (claimed), the top class racers now have 4.2, 4.5 or even bigger, and push out 420+bhp. Great machines to watch and hear; quick and exciting, too.

My aim in starting this thread was to try to learn about the number of Griffs racing now, and their chassis numbers. It's inevitable that we digress, but I'm getting precious little of the latter. Frankly, I don't care whether the modifications of some of them make them illegible for certain types of class or series, (a different discussion surely), this is still the info that I am after. Afterall, no-one would surely want to try and race a Griff in its original undeveloped form and I'm betting that every one of those currently racing or being built for racing are better screwed together than they were originally, and a whole lot quicker, too.

I’m sorry; this has gone on a whole lot longer than intended, but I was trying to address these issues in one post. I hope Jon stays around to continue contributing because he is clearly passionate about these cars (see all the pics he has posted) and it will be interesting to follow the fortunes of his car. Furthermore, I believe he has quite a bit of the info, that I sought, and am still seeking, when I first set out on this thread. Right having probably upset everyone from both sides of the discussion I think I'll tiptoe quietly away, now!

[jellison]

Heres a few cool (well maybe not!) pics of a road one. LUSH.

I was thinking I'd do my inside and outside like this.........................

[terence]

Yes,lovely,soooo errr,American!

[jellison]

I love the interior All it needs is a lapdancing pole in the back!! - Barff!

Bit his history from the Register

This is 2--5-191. Register (back in 02) had it down as owned by Henrik Lindberg's - think it is a full fia papered car with alot of successfull history.

But this is how I want mine to look.

Car was sold originally to Dr. Richard Basford in California. Car was then sold several time before David Gerald got it. The car was (partially) crushed in 1969 in shipment to the Phillipines. A place called CarCraft of California put a 400 series tail on it (only thing available in 1969) for $1900. When DG got the car they refitted the proper early 200 / Grantura tail (that it left the factory with) on the car (i.e. not the other way round!!).

How Awesome does that look.............





More later

[DaveGT6]

Jon,

Looks great. I loved the Steve Watton car. Keep us up to speed with your build - PHs is not the only forum for TVR lovers.

[John Turner]

I've moved the last 4 posts to the Spa 2008 thread because that is a completely different discussion.

Terry, I've emailed Gregor about chassis 4 to see if he has any docs/records detailing Gerry's driving of it.

[GBRM]

I have replied JT.

[terence]

And????????

[Dinkel]

Hi Gregor :wavey:

Cheers, Albert Mensinga

[Dinkel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jabm...e=channel_page

Dutch guy William Waardenburg:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/p...memberId=23593

[Mike Wroe]

Seeing jons postings reminds me that I promised to upload some photos of the Mongoose so here goes, the first one is from 1965 and the others are as the car is now