Hi All,

I am new to the forum but have been an STR owner for a number of years.

I bought my 2006 STR a while back now with some 46k on the clock. It was an odd ball choice, originally I was in the market for an M3 or Audi S4/RS4 however after a few sensible chats with some friends of mine in the industry I took a punt on the STR. Now stupidly I took the first one that I came across because at the time they were few and far between. I got it for an OK price knowing it had some bush requirements and it was a bit unloved, and after purchase took it to a friends performance centre to have it looked at, 'you seem to have bought a decent one' comment was a massive relief. I've had a few issues though:

• Propshaft centre bearing noise (prop replacement)
• Fuel cover flap failure (had to replace pin unit pain to get at)
• Bushes, Some wishbones, links, ball joints etc (lost rear end in the winter and tapped a kerb bending one tie rod)
• Air con condensor
• Coolant pipe from tank to just under SC air intake
• Alternator (most painful as car completely shutdown due to loss of all electrics)

Thankfully nothing major although I still haven't done the Valley pipes at 58K, next on the list as well as a 60k gearbox oil change.

The car has been great, loads of power and 4 doors to get the kids. Recently I had the opportunity to run it on a dyno at a TVR meet. The leader board was interesting, some pretty loud TVRs and the leader was a modified Griff 500 who only managed around 310bhp. Now the dyno boys were a bit nervous running the jag due to the auto and had never seen an STR. The first run it hit 316bhp which immediately disappointed me, however i was comforted as it was explained to me that it was a calibration run. Now each TVR had 3 to 4 runs, they attempted over 7 with my STR. No matter what they did (all traction control off etc, sport mode, 3rd, 4th and 5th) it still either kicked down or spun its wheels on the rollers (they were a tad worn). On the 4th run they left it in 4th, but it dropped to 3rd at the point of measurement taking it up to 388bhp. This run was a failed run due to it dropping down to 3rd on acceleration, so the 6th run it was gradually accelerated in 4th and hit 385BHP. This hit the top of the power board for most of the day until a LS7 powered Tuscan hit 470bhp (a few weeks before it was rumored to have been dyno'd at >500BHP). The TVR boys were all complaining about the dyno under reading, however I'm pretty happy with 385bhp from an 11 year old car dyno'd by a couple of 'autobox' amateurs.

My car was directly compared to a 2008 XKR which 'felt slow' in comparison to my STR according to the mechanic that looks after it.

Has anyone else managed to get any power results from standard STRs?

Cheers

M.