THE WORLD'S ONLY ROAD-LEGAL TVR CERBERA SPEED 12 HEADS TO AUCTION - WITH ALL 7.7-LITRES OF V12 POWER.
Back when driving games were just starting to get really good, Gran Turismo introduced a host of cars that we mere mortals would never be able to afford, and so we had to drive them in the virtual world. While there was a racing quest in the games the car featured in, some of us did our best to raise the funds and pass the tests to be able to get the best cars in the garage, and one of the Holy Grail cars was the TVR Cebera Speed 12. While everyone in the virtual world “owned” one, in the real world there was only ever one single street-legal variant created, and it’s about to go up for sale at Silverstone Auctions in the UK. This auction house consistently has the coolest cars in its sales lots, and this TVR is just another in the long list of awesome. The car was created under the name of ‘Project 7/12’ which stood for the proportions of the powerplant, which was basically a pair of TVR Cerbera Speed Six in-line 6 blocks mated together resulting in a completely bonkers 7.7-litre V12. Apparently when the power was measured the car snapped the input shaft of the dyno machine that was rated to handle 1000 hp, and so TVR’s engineers decided to measure each bank of cylinders separately which resulted in an output of 480 hp per side, but that figure was rounded down to 800 hp for streetability. The race version of the car was meant to compete in Le Mans GT1 but after just a few races a rule change to accommodate purpose-built GT1 cars, and the withdrawal of the class in other championships, rendered the TVR obsolete. Attention turned to the street version - the Cerbera Speed 12. Oddly, after a test drive on the streets TVR boss man Peter Wheeler said the car was too powerful and canned the project and the remaining cars were parted out to service the ones running on track. All except for one. This one.
In August 2003, TVR advertised a Cerbera Speed 12, but it didn’t exist at the time and the interest in the car spurred the creation of the best-of-breed road-going Cerbera Speed 12. It was completed in 2005 and saw fitment of the monster 7.7-litre V12 – the last of its kind. To get the car road-legal a plethora of new items were used, like the gearbox, transmission and brakes, and the race inspiration is seen in the carbon-fibre/Kevlar bodywork. The performance was actually increased, new parts and a remap saw the power rise to around 634 kW with in the region of 1 225 Nm of torque. The car was eventually sold to the current owner in 2010 and went through a few changes, including a full re-commissioned in 2014 that was so good the car won best in class at Goodwood’s Festival of Speed’s ‘Style et Luxe’ Concours d’Elegance and is now always kept in full race-ready mechanical and cosmetic health. The owner has commissioned Silverstone to auction the car off, and it comes with some additional parts including an ECU and exhausts for MOT testing. The seller is clearly a little obsessed with the monster TVR and has noted that the new owner “is very welcome to stay in touch with him and Brian Hosfield as their combined knowledge, experience and engineering know-how about this 'race-car-for-the-road' might prove invaluable in getting the best out of it, at least in the short-term.” The price is reserved at auction, but it’s no doubt going to be rather expensive and so will land in the hands of a serious collector or private race team. One thing we’re sure of is that the prospective new owner will have racked up many, many hours driving the car in Gran Turismo about 20 years ago.
Take a look at the YouTube video from the auction house used to showcase one of the most mental racecars for the street from almost a full quarter century ago, the TVR Cebera Speed 12, complete with circling helicopter and everything: 2000 TVR Cerbera Speed 12 | Silverstone Auctions
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