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-Spotlight on… Tower View Race Services
Dave Wallis has been working with TVRs for over 25 years and started at John Britten Garages who were destined to become The TVR Centre. He has been a member of the car club and proudly has a membership number of 1350. He has an extensive set of old club magazines and photographs, including many of the cars he has worked on. This work has included several competition cars, such as John Britten's racing Morgan and Chris Alford's 1600M which was successful in the modsport production class, as well as the routine servicing and repair of TVRs and Morgans. His first ever TVR was a 1600M and since then he has owned over 20 cars and worked on hundreds. His current TVR is hidden under dust sheets awaiting an engine transplant but more about that later. One of Dave's joys is working in GRP and he has been responsible for not only restoring the bodywork of many cars but also for some interesting hybrids, including the famous Noddy car that appeared on the Jack Dee show on BBC television. There is even a second Noddy car mounted on an external BBC office to promote the Children's series.
Mark started out at the TVR Centre and joined Dave about five years ago. A big afficianado of the Rover V8 engine, he is currently restoring a ROVER Vitesse SD1 back to its former glory. "It is surprising how many cars we see back at Tower View for servicing that I originally did the pre-delivery inspection or servicing when I was at The TVR Centre many years ago. It is like old friends coming back you often wonder what has happened to them in the time you last worked on them." Apart from servicing and repair on TVRs, Dave and Mark really enjoy making things for these cars and they have developed a range of upgrades for these cars. "Very often it starts from a simple request from a customer or a throwaway comment. We also see a lot of cars and sometimes that prompts us to think of a better way of doing something. The exhaust inserts we developed are a good case in point. One of our customers with a 350i was concerned over noise limits at track days. The wedges are probably the loudest of the modern era TVRs and can have real problems with noise limits. He ideally wanted something that could be inserted into the tail pipe so that it could be removed and fitted as required. Steve Heath brought his Cerbera in to have a scratch touched up and mentioned that he had been measuring both the Cerbera and his 390SE because of similar concerns. He had found a set of simple inserts that he had used on his Cerbera where his car had virtually been the only one to get through the noise regs at Thruxton, despite its loud sports exhaust. All this got me thinking and I ended putting these ideas into practice and making up several versions for Steve to test for both noise reduction and power loss. Meanwhile, we made one for a 350i that started the whole process and it was so efficient that it made the car sound like a sowing machine! It also was a little too restrictive, however. Steve came back with the results from his own tests and some conducted by some RAC scrutineers at a sprint meeting and we had the final design. Although they were intended as a removable solution, several owners have fitted them and left them in place. I have even made a unit for my Renault 5 Turbo and for the first time in years, I can actually hear the stereo!"
"The problem is that the braking system on many of the older cars are quite a few years old and compared to today's brake technology, are sadly lacking. Add to this the fact that the brakes may not have been overhauled and it is not surprising that many owners end up not feeling confident about their car's ability to stop. The solution is to upgrade the brakes. The problem is that an upgrade kit can cost over a thousand pounds which is beyond many people's pocket, especially those on a tight budget. We came up with a set of upgrades that can reuse the existing callipers but provide a dramatic improvement in brake performance for about 3-400 pounds. This starts to make it feasible for owner especially if they need to replace discs, pads and overhaul callipers. The track day and sprint enthusiasts have been raving about them and we are seeing more and more interest in these kits." Dave has enjoyed a wide and eventful competition career in motor sports. He has driven in grass track and oval racing as well as sprints and hill climbs. He has even been known to race Duttons and take a Jaguar E-type powered Land Rover on a 24 hour endurance race on a tank testing ground in Hampshire. "The most memorable race for many reasons was during an MG Car Club race at Snetterton. I had just finished building a Dutton and I had practised out of turn and as a result was relegated to last on the grid. I had made my way to 6th by the 2nd lap but spun the car into 12th place. I worked my way up to 4th but spun under the bridge. I managed to finish third and first in class but had to report to the RAC stewards. I was not quite sure what would happen but in the end I received a quiet word and the spins were put down to over enthusiasm." Based on this, it should not be surprising that Tower View have been involved in the recent upsurge in sprinting TVRs in the south. They have worked on many of the cars and have added safety equipment such as roll bars and re-inforced seat mounts as well as the tuning and race preparation that make so much difference to the performance of these cars. "The safety aspect of any form of motor sport is very important and can mean the difference between life and death literally. We have fitted roll bars to Wedges and S series cars using a jointly developed design with Rollcentre in Cambridge. A 1998 RAC motorsport recommendation resulted in us producing reinforced seat mounts so that there was a little more than just the GRP holding the seat in place. We developed a set of bars for almost all TVRs that allow the seat to be bolted through the floor to the chassis. I found out how effective these and the roll bar when I was in the passenger seat in Steve Heath's 390 when it hit the tyre wall at Goodwood. I'm thinking of putting a 'Crash Tested' logo on them now. It did bring home however the fact that you never know when something may go wrong and both Steve and myself were thankful that the roll bar and mounts were there. The more prepared you and the car are, the better the odds are that you and the car will survive and what could be a tragedy becomes a talking point and experience instead. Having close contact with the sprinting community does give us an insight in how to improve the safety of these cars. They are immensely strong in their own right judging from some of the accident repair work we have had to do and the stories we have heard but there is always room for improvement. The real issue is that many of the older cars are starting to get corrosion problems: we are finding wishbones and trailing arms on S series cars and even early Griffiths are starting to corrode badly. It is becoming even more important to check the car and its chassis to ensure that its integrity is 100% and we are happy to inspect cars for buyer before purchase. We have put some pictures up on our web site so that owners can check their cars for themselves. " While safety is an important aspect of race and competition preparation, both Dave and Mark really enjoy getting the most out of a car and have recently been involved in some serious engine modifications. "With Pete Humphries and Steve Heath in the roadgoing modified sprint class, there has been a real power war taking place. We have rebuilt Pete's V8S engine with special lifters and fitted stage 3 heads, carbon fibre plenum and enlarged throttle body and had Mark Adams rechip the ECU. Steve's car has had an enlarged throttle body, and a Jaguar air flow meter and fuel injectors fitted along with a Mark Adams chipped ECU. The results on both these cars are quite spectacular with quite considerable increases in response and power. Steve's car was quite fun on the rolling road as it was wheel spinning despite the tethers and a burly mechanic in the boot. The resulting power curve is like a map of a mountain pass with all the hairpins, as the car broke traction as the power increased. Not everyone wants this level of modifications and simply want an improved response or with the demise of 4 star petrol, the ability to run smoothly on unleaded fuel. We can provide this level of tuning as well and often suggest this as a good starting point before moving into more extreme modifications." With over 1000 accesses a week to their web site and customers in America, Australia and Europe, Pella the Great Dane has certainly steered Tower View well so far but resting on your laurels is not part of the plan..
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