And its a first time pass as well!
Arrived early and waited for them to open. The tester, Dennis, a really nice chap arrived at about 0745 and opened up. The test went really well, emissions first and well within which was good as I hadn't been able to test my car with its new weld in CAT. Then we rolled on to lights and the dipped lights were too low but I was allowed to adjust them so no issues. Then general checks of the car, no idea what the tester was really looking at. He wasn't happy with a radius on my aero screen, a bit of rubber edge trim and sorted. Onwards to brakes, took ages with tests done with engine running and without as I had a servo fitted and the brakes had to perform correctly with or without it working. Next speedo check. I have an MX5 gearbox which would usually match with a 4.1 diff. Mine has a Sierra 3.92 diff. Normal tyres are 185/60 x 14. Mine 195/45 x 15. When you do all the calculations it should give a result that was within 1% at the standard MX5 speedo.... and it did! 2 mph high across the range which is brilliant. Then it was a drive by the examiner and he came back saying self centering of the steering was not good enough. He gave me time to look at it and I added some toe out and he took it for another drive. Success! Finally it was noise. I was fairly confident on this one. I had a 400 cell cat welded in and it was followed by a 24" x 7" stainless silencer, and it sounded nice. 4,500 rpm and it gave me 94 db which was the final test passed.
Throughout the tester Dennis was brilliant. He explained what was going on throughout and gave me the opportunity to fix the minor things he found which could have caused me to fail.
Next thing is to get registration with DVLA sorted and I'll be ready for a - er - nice - November drive :-)

Nice one!

Well done that man!

I added a very nicely worded letter with my application and got my V5 back within 10 working days.

Congratulations again, especially a first time pass.

Congratulations

Look forward to the all important pictures, especially with the fab autumn colours

Well done Ian!

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jamesc
Well done Ian!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by ianhurley20

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jamesc
Well done Ian!

---

Thanks for letting me follow your car through the IVA test when it went through at Norwich, it helped me no end when mine went through. And thanks for all the other replies, I've got to sort out a couple of photos of it on the road then ;-)
Just wading through all the paperwork for registration at the moment

---

Well done!

quote:

---

Originally posted by ianhurley20
And its a first time pass as well!

---

Well done always a good feeling need to see some pics now

Raceway

This is the car a few days before IVA when I got access to the Swaffham Raceway. I did about 100 laps and could have carried on. Brilliant. Gave me the opportunity to try everything out. Glad I did as when I got home I found I have lots of toe out. On looking the very nice wishbones made from stainless steel by a professional TIG welder had been made with only 3mm plate steel on the lower wishbone and both sides had bent badly at the lower ball joint. IVA was booked and no time so I got a properly made set from Phil @ Talon. Problem solved! I'm going to see the welder who fabricated them to ask why he used 3mm steel not 5mm as specified in the book mainly to stop him doing the same to someone else.

[Edited on 5/10/16 by ianhurley20]

And just 11 days after IVA I have a registered car. Must say Dannielle at Kits and rebuilds has been an absolute star! I phoned to ask how long the lead time was and she immediately said she would find the file and sort it the same day - and she did!
So now its legally on the road. I took it out for a 25 mile ish drive and the car is er brilliant and terrifying at the same time. Performance, brilliant, steering, very precise, so much so that you have to stay on top of it all the time, no relaxing, hmmm wind buffet is a bit of an issue at higher speeds so the next project is a screen - and maybe a hood - oh yes and side screen. Its taken 2 years to get this far, looks like another two to go!
Cost? £3030.21 to date! Just finally added up all the receipts :-)

Well done must be one of the best budget builds this year yes windscreen and side screens is the way to go and a half hood for rain showers I found it impossible to drive my kitcar without a screen if you do a crash helmet is a must .

[Edited on 16/10/16 by ian locostzx9rc2]

Agree completely on the crash hat, I don't want to get hit in the face by stones, insects and particularly raindrops ;-)

First thing I did was treat myself to a lid. Didn't fancy a bumble bee in the face at speed.

[Edited on 16/10/16 by Toprivetguns]