James Hall reports

It started with an email from Martin Short which included the following words:

"GT3 Car is coming on well. Roll cage going in now. Incidentally, I have come up with some handling tweaks for the Cerbera. I will shortly be doing adjustable dampers."

Adjustable dampers? For my Cerbera? I had to investigate further.

Now don't get me wrong. The Cerbera is one of the most incredible cars on the road. It'll go round corners very very fast. It'll go down a bumpy road very very fast with very little drama. Basically, it handles well. The only thing is, every car is a compromise. It has to be. You want power and handling? Buy last years Ferrari F1 car. "1 careful(ish) owner, only raced 16 times, never (intentionally) rallied."

"I bought it for me wife mate, but there's no room for the shopping." So you buy the car, but can't get it home, because the local council haven't made sure that all the roads are surfaced like a Grand Prix circuit. In fact, they've deliberately put lumps in it!

Fast and comfortable as standard...

So you compromise. You buy a Cerbera (the next best thing). It's set up to just clear a speed hump. It's set up so that you don't rattle your fillings loose when you drive down a B road. Basically, it's set up to drive very fast, and very comfortably on the road. It works. It's good.

Then, you go to a track day. If you've got a Cerbera, or any TVR for that matter, and you haven't done a track day, you don't have a clue what your car can do. On the road you have to slow down for corners because there might be a horse just on the other side of it, or a tractor. On a track day, you slow down for corners just enough to be able to come out the other side with all 4 wheels pointing in (approximately) the right direction. If there's unseen danger round the corner, a nice man will wave a yellow flag at you to warn you.

...but not a racing car

You go to your track day. Let's say it's at Snetterton. There's a small balding man there with basically the same car as you. OK, it's lighter. It's only got one seat. It has a little bit more power. It's a funny green colour. He takes corners twice as fast as you. What's the difference? His car has got racing suspension that he can adjust to take into account how bumpy the track is, how sharp the corners are, what sort of speed he's going to enter the corners. As a result, his car is perfectly set up for driving round a track. Suddenly, your all conquering Cerbera seems to wallow round the corners. You're constantly adjusting your steering inputs.

You wish you had some knobs to twiddle on your suspension to turn you very fast road car into a complete nutter racing car.

Then, several months later you get an email form that little bloke with the funny coloured car. "Incidentally, I have come up with some handling tweaks for the Cerbera. I will shortly be doing adjustable dampers."

Options

You have to ask. A quick call to Shorty and there were 2 options. An adjustable damper that he has developed and will cost about £800 + VAT, or full Tuscan race suspension consisting of Ohlins racing adjustable dampers for about £1800 + VAT. It's a tricky situation for a lot of people. As a confirmed gadget freak and follower of the Tuscan series, there was no choice. I had to go for the full Monty.

From race car

A day spent with Shorty and his talented assistant Luke (Luke does all the work, Shorty manages, I make coffee), I've got the suspension from last year's Mole Valley Tuscan on my car (my shocks have won races you know). Luke did a quick "that should be a good starting point" setup on the car, then we went to the flat floor to set ride heights and corner weights. It was spot on. I suppose that 5 years of setting up racing Tuscans does that for you.

Onto the private test track...

Then it's out for a quick test drive with Shorty at the wheel. It's good. Very good. He lets me have a go. It's incredible. I'm doing 130mph down a bumpy part of Shorty's private test track and the car is sitting solidly on the road. Now this is race car suspension. It's supposed to be rattling my teeth loose, but it doesn't. Shorty explains that it came from a race car, but it's adjustable. You can make it soft or hard depending on where you're driving and how you're feeling.

We go back to the workshop and Shorty gets Luke to make some adjustments (it seemed fine to me, but Shorty wasn't happy with it yet). OK, so Shorty and Luke have now spent from 9 am to 5 pm working on my car (well, Luke has, Shorty has spent lots of time talking to me about this and that and making new anti roll bars for the car). I hand over a cheque and off I go. I'm doing a track day on Saturday. Thrash 99.9 at Thurleigh Aerodrome near Bedford. Shorty offers to come along and set the car up for me. Well that's a bit of a no brainer. "Thanks very much. I'll see you at about 8:30."

...onto the road

The drive to Thurleigh was great. The car is set up for the road just how I like it. A bit firmer than the standard suspension, because that's how I like it. TVR fit non adjustable dampers. It has to be something that will be OK for everybody. I've got dampers that can be adjusted for ride height (Shorty asked me if I drive over a lot of speed humps and how high they are), bump (how quickly the damper compresses) and rebound (how quickly it opens up again). I'm happy.

Onto the track...

Saturday arrives, and so does Shorty. I go out for the first session and I've never driven so fast in my life. It's incredible. Shorty takes the wheel for the next session and decides that the car is rolling too much, so he increases the rebound. Next run and he's happier, but not completely. Another adjustment and he suggests I try it again.

...to road car

The overall effect is that I can get a lot more power down a lot sooner. Instead of hitting the apex and gently applying power while applying judicious amounts of opposite lock, I'm able to be really aggressive with the loud pedal, without the drama. Just gently unwind the steering and nail the throttle. On average, I think I was coming out of corners 10-15 mph faster than before. The car felt more settled, more stable. I could brake a lot harder and later, because the car didn't pitch forward like it used to. All 4 wheels were in good contact with the road, so I could use the full braking power of the big AP Racing brakes.

It's even faster!

Shorty took a few people out for rides in the car so that they could compare it with their own. The universal opinion was that it's a "must have" mod.

I wind off the extra stiffness and venture back onto the road. It's comfortable. It's set up just how I like it, so it's better (a lot better) than standard. If I decide that I want a "limo" ride and a bit of extra ground clearance some day (really likely!) I can have it. Don't you just love being in control?

Martin Short can be contacted at rollcentre@aol.com or on 07973 560327.