Got my SVA date in the post yesteday.
22nd July 8.00am at Beverley. Shiiiiiiiiiite!
reality bites, i thought i was ready but seem to have forgotten about a hundred things, the next two weeks are going to be busy. Looking forward to the drive over though!!!!

Al.

Hi Alan

Car's looking great, I hope all goes well with the SVA. Are those carbon/kevlar seats from Play's Kool? I was thinking of getting the fiberglass ones from them, the're more in my budget, and seem to be the same design. If so what are they like for support, comfort and fit etc.?

Cheers Steve

Cheers Steve
yes they are from Playskool, they seem to be ok for fit and comfort, not sure about long journeys though!
alternatively when i went to MK to pick up the bonnet scoop, their fiberglass/carbon supplier was there, and he showed me a prototype seat which i think MK are going to be selling, looked exactly like a superlight caterham one, Very light and sexy, the one he showed me was black fibreglass, buy he said he could do carbon as well, dunno how much but i reckon they will be reasonable from Martin.

Al


]Originally posted by highspeeddirt
Hi Alan

Car's looking great, I hope all goes well with the SVA. Are those carbon/kevlar seats from Play's Kool? I was thinking of getting the fiberglass ones from them, the're more in my budget, and seem to be the same design. If so what are they like for support, comfort and fit etc.?

Cheers Steve

Did he say when MK are thinkin of selling them? I take it u mean the R500 ones?

Yes just like the R500, but sorry he didn't say when they would be ready for sale, i'd give MK a ring if i were you.

Al.



i]Originally posted by greggors84
Did he say when MK are thinkin of selling them? I take it u mean the R500 ones?

Hi,
Where abouts in Leeds are you and do you have anyone going to SVA with you?
Cheers,
Pat (Dewsbury - www.mytigeravon.co.uk)

Hi Pat
I live near Rothwell. A mate is maybe going to follow me over in my van (just in case of mishaps) but he had to check his shifts and i aint heard yet. if you fancy coming over, your more than welcome, but unfortunately it will be an early start, i want to go the scenic route!

ATB
Al.

i]Originally posted by Avoneer
Hi,
Where abouts in Leeds are you and do you have anyone going to SVA with you?
Cheers,
Pat (Dewsbury - www.mytigeravon.co.uk)

Wouldn't mind tagging along if that's ok?
Dont mind early starts either......
Pat...

You have mail.


i]Originally posted by Avoneer
Wouldn't mind tagging along if that's ok?
Dont mind early starts either......
Pat...

So do you...

Hi Al,

How did it go? We're all waiting!!


Is it or

Hi Mark.
Sadly i failed, with a longish list to put right, some of the stuff quite legitimate, other things a bit annoying, as essentially they are design faults. So for peeps thinking of using Bevereley and in particular owners of Stuart Taylor cars, heres the list.

Fail List
1- tunnel edges of insufficient radius
2-Exhaust bracket and clamp insufficient radius (i neatly covered this with aluminium foil held on with twisted ally wire ,this was deemed too temporary)
3-No degree of self centering on steering.
4-Fuel tank cap has no effective seal (alloy tank supplied by ST)
5-Fuel filler neck more than 23.8mm diameter ](only applies to cars fitted with a CAT)
6-Front flexy hoses fouling (too long, supplied by ST)
7-Fuel tank mounting of insufficient strength (alloy tank from ST, needs top bracing to chassis)]
8- headlight brackets of isufficient strength (integral part of ST chassis)
9-Brake balance bar not locked (i nylocked this, but it has to be pinned)
10-Brake distribution criteria not met, rear wheels locked before front.
11- speedo outside tolerance

Nearly fail list
I managed to argue/plead/beg my way out of the following.
1- lower seat belt anchorage points not triangulated/strong enough.
2- mirrors too low to obtain correct angles of view.
3- Harness eye bolts not marked as high tensile/lack of supporting paperwork from Willans to say bolts are high tensile.

All said and done i'm not too unhappy with the list ,as its all easily fixed, and on a positive note, the car passed the dreaded emmisions test (he even helped me tweak it during the test so it would pass) also of note is the fact he gave me 5 minutes of time on the rollers to set up the speedo, unfortunately i couldn't get the frigging Yellowbox to work?
I had to laugh at him failing me on my “temporary” exhaust bracket covering seeing how the front suspension was covered in sodding pipe lagging!, maybe he thought this was permenant?
One snippet of info which made me feel better, only 3% of kitcars pass first time at Beverley! and most of those are cars presented by peeps who have experienced the test before.
Happily the car drives ace, and the drive over to Beverley was a blast, BEC's are quiiiiiick!
can't wait to get on the road for real now.
Apparently a re-test date only takes a few days. watch this space!!

i]Originally posted by Mark H
Hi Al,

How did it go? We're all waiting!!


Is it or

Good luck with the retest, glad you enjoyed the blast!

BTW - how you gonna sort the self centering steering??

Cheers Jasper
she's booked in for a full suspension set-up corner weighting and wheel alignment, i'm hoping this will sort the steering.

i]Originally posted by Jasper
Good luck with the retest, glad you enjoyed the blast!

BTW - how you gonna sort the self centering steering??

I've set up my wheel alignment to toe in 1 deg, camper at 1 deg in a top, and the castor is between 3 and 5 deg as it should be, still absolutely no self centering!

Let me know how you get on. I've heard that a way to get this is to put a lot of camber in at the top, but not tried it yet.

[Edited on 27/7/03 by Jasper]

Oh bugger thats a bit worrying, i dont want to spend money on getting her set up to drive well, if i need to mess about with the settings to achieve self centering.



]Originally posted by Jasper
I've set up my wheel alignment to toe in 1 deg, camper at 1 deg in a top, and the castor is between 3 and 5 deg as it should be, still absolutely no self centering!

Let me know how you get on. I've heard that a way to get this is to put a lot of camber in at the top, but tried it yet.

Exactly, I'm sure it was Mark at Mach#1 who told me about it, maybe worth calling him, then set it up properly afterwards.

I asked martin from mk about self centering on the indy for sva,he said toe out and plenty of it worth a try

I've heard of people putting springs behind the gaitors!

quote:

---

Originally posted by Northy
I've heard of people putting springs behind the gaitors!

---

Mine are ET35.


]Originally posted by craig1410


What wheel offset are you running (Jasper and Wadders)?
Cheers,
Craig.

Ah!
I wonder if you were to fit ET19 if your self centering would make the grade?
It might be worth checking, even if it meant fitting a set of old steel wheels just for the test it would be worth it to get a pass.

I don't know if you are aware but there has been a lot of discussion on another thread about what the scrub radius should be for optimum handling and generally most people agree that it should be minimised in most cases.

However, it may be that the Locost "needs" some extra scrub to give self-centering and can perhaps tolerate more scrub due to light weight, especially with BEC cars.

Are you in a position to try some different front wheels and see if it makes the car self centre better? It would be very interesting and may solve your problem into the bargain.

Let us know what you find and good luck with the retest!
Cheers,
Craig.

Well I must be in the 3% coz I passed first time at Beverley!! On a more helpful note, I had to sort my self centring on the day, as someone else suggested toe the wheels OUT a lot and hey presto self centring. Just don't try driving far outside the test centre before moving them back!!


Ben

I used pipe lagging on the exhaust mount at beverly and the examiner accepted it.
For the brake pipes fouling problem, I used a piece of rubber fuel pipe which i cut down the middle and slid it over the brake pipe.

Wadders, where is your manifold and exhaust from?

Hi Alistair
The manifold is a homemade cut and shut jobby, made from stainless mandrel bends, the silencer is a standard GSXR 750 can.


Wadders, where is your manifold and exhaust from?

For anyone who's been following this thread, in regard to lack of self centering on the steering.
Had the car into Paul at Playskool motorsport today for the suspension setting up, first thing he noticed was that i'd managed to put the front top wishbones on upside down, Doh!, once these were swapped round and all camber, castor,toe in settings etc adjusted, the handling was transformed, but as jasper predicted the steering still don't self centre properly. Paul reckons if i let the front tyre pressures right down, and raise the front ride height as much as possible, this will help. as a last resort i'll have to pop the trackrod ends and dial in lots of toe out. Hoping to get a re-test next week will keep ya all informed.

P.S when my SVA examiner was driving the car to test the steering e.t.c, silly old tw#t manged to hit and mount the kerb. At the time my concern was with the wheel, which fortunately was undamaged,apart from a scuffed tyre sidewall, found out today though, that the track control arm on my steering rack is bent! Dunno wether to complain in writing or keep quiet until i pass?

Al.

Complain and say that's what stopped it from self centering!

Get at least a free re-test!

The examiner would probably argue that the lack of self centering was what caused it to hit the kerb!

Right or wrong they have you over a barrel!
Still they are the experts testing it and should anticipate problems like this.

Terry


[Edited on 6/8/03 by Spyderman]