- The TVR Cerbera Velocity 12 is the wildest TVR ever to be unleashed on the road.
- Constructed to compete within the GT1 racing sequence, 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 robust fiberglass-bodied sports activities automotive that might be seen because the U.Ok.’s Chevrolet Corvette—or possibly its Dodge Viper. In inventory kind, 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 components terrifying and superior.” What, then, to make of this one-off that just about doubles its output?
With the Velocity 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 Velocity 12 will be yours.
Blackpool-based TVR does have a popularity for constructing brutishly insane automobiles, however the Velocity 12 was not merely a match of insanity. As an alternative, it was constructed as a possible competitor to the likes of the McLaren F1, the Porsche 911 GT1, and the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR. At the moment, these three are a number of the most fascinating street automobiles 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 couple of teething points in getting this English-bred mad canine into manufacturing. First, the FIA took one have a look at the monster engine of the Velocity 12 and slapped a few consumption restrictors on it, knocking energy right 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 Velocity 12 did win a couple of races in Britain however by no means competed at Le Mans as supposed.
No downside, stated TVR. If we won’t construct the world’s quickest race automotive, let’s construct the world’s most homicidal street automotive. Its engineers strapped an unrestricted model of the 7.7-liter V-12 onto the dyno—and the dyno promptly exploded. Finally, 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 growth. 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 individual and succesful behind the wheel. However the Velocity 12 was an excessive amount of even for him.
Coming back from a drive within the prototype, Wheeler declared the Cerbera Velocity 12 to be too outrageously wild for the street, and the production-car program was scrapped. The street automobiles have been scavenged for components for the restricted racing the Velocity 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 Velocity 12 is up on the market at Silverstone Auctions, prepared for a brand new proprietor. In case you are the form of one who simply learn that bit a few automotive’s design being primarily based on a canine attacking the bodywork and thought, “That sounds high quality and regular,” then that is the automotive for you. Massively highly effective, dangerously quick, and an entire handful, the Velocity 12 is actually essentially the most TVR of all of the TVRs. It may be yours—if you happen to dare.
Contributing Editor
Brendan McAleer is a contract author and photographer primarily based 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 started writing about automobiles and folks 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 the right way to shift a handbook transmission and is grateful for the excuse they supply to be perpetually shopping for Sizzling Wheels.
