What happened to the carbon-fibre inlet pipes on the 4.5?
The carbon fibre pipes shown on the magazine review cars were dropped for the production car due to cracking problems. Although they don’t look as good, and on first sight appear to restrict airflow due to being squeezed, apparently they are actually better than the carbon-fibre pipes. According to a technical source at TVR, they just tried the rubber pipes as a solution to the cracking problem and were surprised to find that the power had increased. This is possibly why the original quote of 440bhp, which was dropped to 400bhp after the state of tune was found to be too radical, then went back up to 420bhp by the time customer cars were delivered. The rubber pipes are also quieter than the carbon fibre ones as they absorb some of the induction noise, however many Cerbera owners will not consider this to be an advantage!
