Chamberlain Synergy Motorsport

The initials TVR come from the name of one af the sons of the founder of this make which first saw the light of day in
central England in 1956. It has always been known for the robustness of its cars and first raced at Le Mans in 1962.
TVR returned to the Sarthe in 2003 with a team based around a structure created by Hugh Chamberlain with back up from Synergy
Motors. The cars in 2004 was identical with those from 2003 apart from a few detail mods like enlarged tracks and weight reduced to
around 1100 kgs. The chassis was still a turbular steel one reinforced with honeycomb powered by a straight 6-cylinder engine
turned by TVR.

Both cars were driven by 100% British teams with Bob Berridge,
Michael Caine Evans and Chris Stockton in the no. 89 and Lawrence
Tomlinson, Nigel Greensall and Chris Evans in the no. 96. They all had
one thing in common: they had never raced at Le Mans before!
In practice on the 25th of April the two TVRs racked up the kilometers
at a rhytm of around six or seven laps per hour. The no. 89 covered
60 laps and the quickest lap was in 4m 17,013 secs which was slower
than at Le Mans 2003.
In practice at the 10th of June over 6 secs. separated the two TVRs
and while it wa a case of "no worries, mate" for the no. 89, it wasn't
all plain sailing for the no. 96 which had to be pushed in the
Indianapolis escape road.
No. 89 lapped in 4m 13,368 secs while no. 96's best was 4m 19,980
secs putting them in 36th and 41st place on the grid.
All ready in the start of the race Greensall's TVR had problems finishing
the first lap and managed only six laps in one hour, seven fewer than
its sister car. Once the electronics had been sorted out, the British
coupe ran like clockwork for the rest of the afternoon.

In the TVR camp steadiness was now the watchword. The Tuscans
were now showing a reliability in the Sarthe and driving their own sweet
little race not worrying about the other GT cars. With an excellent
performance no. 89 slowly moved up the leaderboard as the hours
passed by and in the late afternoon they were in 28th place overall and
6th in the GT class.
Around midnight the no. 89 had a 15 minute pitstop to repair the
exhausts. It lost contact with the private Porsches and dropped 30th
place overall. Both TVRs were still in the running, but no. 96 were
gradually falling back. The no. 96 which had it dampers changed in the
early morning hours, suffeered less problems than its sister car. It was
still in the back of the GT class but in the morning set off in pursuit of
the Khan-Sugden-Smith Porsche which it overtook in the afternoon.

The two TVRs crossed the finish line beside of a third all-british line-up - the Morgan - and the TVRs came home in 21st and 22nd
position which was the first classified finish for a TVR make.
The no. 89 did 300 laps in the 24 hours, 79 laps behind the winner and the no. 96 did 291 laps.
The no. 89 was 8th and the no. 96 was 9th in the GT class.

Hour by hour (#89):
Start - 39th
1h - 42nd
2h - 34th
3h - 28th
4h - 32nd
5h - 30th
6h - 29th
7h - 27th
8h - 26th
9h - 30th
10h - 30th
11h - 28th
12h - 25th
13h - 25th
14h - 26th
15h - 27th
16h - 27th
17h - 24th
18h - 23rd
19h - 24th
20h - 24th
21h - 22nd
22h - 22nd
23h - 21st
24h - 21st

Hour by hour (#96):
Start - 41st
1h - 48th
2h - 48th
3h - 43rd
4h - 41st
5h - 38th
6h - 36th
7h - 37th
8h - 37th
9h - 37th
10h - 37th
11h - 35th
12h - 32nd
13h - 32nd
14h - 31st
15h - 31st
16h - 31st
17h - 26th
18h - 27th
19h - 26th
20h - 26th
21h - 25th
22h - 24th
23h - 23rd
24h - 22nd