| CAR CLUB 18-30
HELLO TVR
CERBERA
A
mythology, Cerberus
was the monstrous
three-headed hellhound
who guarded the gates to
the underworld (remember
movie?). It was a good name
for TVR’s brutally powerful
sports car; with its growling
V8 and twitchy handling,
it had a bad reputation for
biting its less talented pilots if
pushed too hard.
be built under TVR’s new
to be powered by its own
engines. Designed as a fourseater coupe, it featured a
passenger seat that could be
slid further forward to create,
worried that its supply of
3.5-litre V8 powerplants might
dry up. To future-proof its new
model line up an entirely new
4.2-litre V8 was designed
by Formula 1 race engineer
Al Melling, and christened
52 | MotorPunk January 2014
piece of viral marketing TVR’s
slip to reporters at the car’s
was worried that the new F1inspired engine might be too
powerful for his light-weight
road car. This kind of notoriety
simply reinforced TVR’s “bad
boy” image and the Cerbera
sold well.
enlarged to 4.5-litre. These
cacophony of pops and bangs
emanating from their chromecapped exhaust pipes. In
“Red Rose” high performance
one of the most powerful
normally aspirated V8s ever
made.
However, the ultimate
No accurate record of this
car’s power output was ever
recorded, as it destroyed the
attempt; rumour had it that
it could have been nudging
1000bhp! Priced at nearly
£200,000 only one roadgoing version was ever sold.
The closest most folks ever
got to that tyre-shredding