The Tvr Pro Stock Bike team have been very busy over the winter, readying their European record holding Suzuki for the 2010 season. 11-time and current British Champion and former European Champion Dave Beck has spent many hours planning the new campaign with Tvr Power proprietor Dom Trickett. “We have set ourselves three goals for the 2010 season” said Dave, “we would like to win some of the European rounds and defend our British title. But as importantly, we would really like to have a go at running the first 6 second quarter mile run outside of the USA.”

The 2009 version of the bike had set a new European record of 7.07 seconds for the standing quarter mile, but in a sport where every extra hundredth of a second makes a difference, this meant the winter had to see some comprehensive changes to the Tvr power bike.

Dave and Dom agreed that a new chassis would make a difference, as the 330bhp plus carburetted petrol motor had found the limits of the old chassis. So a new PMFR chassis arrived from the US a few days before Christmas. The Tvr Power team spent many, many hours building the new rolling chassis, crowning it with a brand new carbon fibre body. Most of the chassis has had new powder coating applied and the final stage will be a new Tvr Power paint job.

A lot of work has gone into the engine programme as well, with many new parts coming from MTC Engineering in Florida. The team have been looking hard at the cylinder heads in addition – Dave and Dom have many years experience in cylinder head development and together with US-based Rick Ward, the designer and builder of the heads, they are confident there is more power to be found. Ward Engineering have developed some new technology for the heads in recent months and this may find its way onto the bike during the year.

No stone is left unturned in the quest for more performance, an example being the ceramic bearings throughout the chassis and engine. Dave is looking closely at all areas, including exhaust design and vacuum pumps.

“We spend hundreds of hours looking for the tiniest increase in power, or reduction in drag or rolling resistance” noted Dave “the competition at European level is intense and with more new riders entering the class it will be even more competitive in 2010. Tvr Power bring a lot to our racing programme and I’m confident we will have the right hardware to achieve our goals”