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After the requests from Peter of Uxbridge, Jeremy Belfast and Patrick Hampshire for information on my experiences during the SVA test process here are a few brief notes from that cold day.
The Sportsters donor car was a late 1998 M3 Evo Coupe 3.2 purchase from FAB Recycling.
On the day of the test the outside temperature was -2 deg C and without a wind screen it was a bit cool on the drive to the test centre which is about 45mins away. I am glad the heater was working as it kept my lower half just above freezing point.
The first part of the test was the Speedometer test, which if you have not driven the car over 45 MPH due to the wind chill factor can be a bit of an adrenalin rush when the car is on a rolling road doing an indicated 70+ mph. After being given the print out from the machine that showed a pass we when on to the next section which was the emissions test. The engine was late 1998 so it had to pass the catalytic test, and it did so, on the second run after running the engine at 3000 rpm for 2 minutes to get the Cats hot.
All the other checks over, in and under including engine bay went without comment. They did let me put some rubber 5mm rubber section on the rear suspension mounts after the vehicle plan sharp edge check showed and edge that I had missed.
There were four points on my refusal certificate that I will share with you. They are numbers in order of the certificate.
9.1 Front indicators less than 350mm above floor level.
Correction - The front indicator storks were short and needed lifting up from the front bumpers by 50mm. I should have spotted that one, a silly mistake to make.
13 Both front wheels above the horizontal plane project past vehicle body plan.
In other word the rims of the front wheels were 50mm in front of the front of the cycle wing front edge.
Correction on the retest day was to extend the front edge of wing with a rubber edge section.
15.1 No self centring steering action.
The correction was to increase caster angle to maximum and increase front tyre pressures.
The results on the retest day were very effective have since dropped the tyre pressure.
21 Front axel, rear axle and design axel weights less than calculated weights.
Correction: Changed the weights that I had on an email from Marlin and gave it to the test engineer- VOSA had given me the weight they wanted to see from their calculations so the correction was straightforward. I must admit the logic behind this foxed me on the day. This one has never made any sense, but I think the best reaction is to do what they ask without question, you can climb down off the wall later as you drive home.
This is what they did. The engineer carried out the breaking tests on the rolling road and the brakes passed with room to spare, but they then compare the weights I put on the SVA1 application with the weight they calculate from measuring the vehicle body plan, height and engine size then putting the figures in to a spread sheet calculation in the office (which I did not see) and then came out and told me ?your weights are too light, from our calculations?, and ask for a letter from the manufacturer confirming the design weights. Easy to resolve, but extremely frustrating when you know you can?t resolve it there and then..
The weight I put on the SVA 1 were:
Front: 500kg
Rear: 600kg
Gross 1100kg
The weight VOSA wanted from their calculations were
Front: 550kg
Rear: 700kg
Design gross weight 1250kg
The rechecks on the four points at the following week appointment was straight forward and I went home with my SVA 20, the drive to the DVLA office at Worcester was great fun as I fitted the windscreen by then.
Here?s hoping you have a clear run.
The Sportsters donor car was a late 1998 M3 Evo Coupe 3.2 purchase from FAB Recycling.
On the day of the test the outside temperature was -2 deg C and without a wind screen it was a bit cool on the drive to the test centre which is about 45mins away. I am glad the heater was working as it kept my lower half just above freezing point.
The first part of the test was the Speedometer test, which if you have not driven the car over 45 MPH due to the wind chill factor can be a bit of an adrenalin rush when the car is on a rolling road doing an indicated 70+ mph. After being given the print out from the machine that showed a pass we when on to the next section which was the emissions test. The engine was late 1998 so it had to pass the catalytic test, and it did so, on the second run after running the engine at 3000 rpm for 2 minutes to get the Cats hot.
All the other checks over, in and under including engine bay went without comment. They did let me put some rubber 5mm rubber section on the rear suspension mounts after the vehicle plan sharp edge check showed and edge that I had missed.
There were four points on my refusal certificate that I will share with you. They are numbers in order of the certificate.
9.1 Front indicators less than 350mm above floor level.
Correction - The front indicator storks were short and needed lifting up from the front bumpers by 50mm. I should have spotted that one, a silly mistake to make.
13 Both front wheels above the horizontal plane project past vehicle body plan.
In other word the rims of the front wheels were 50mm in front of the front of the cycle wing front edge.
Correction on the retest day was to extend the front edge of wing with a rubber edge section.
15.1 No self centring steering action.
The correction was to increase caster angle to maximum and increase front tyre pressures.
The results on the retest day were very effective have since dropped the tyre pressure.
21 Front axel, rear axle and design axel weights less than calculated weights.
Correction: Changed the weights that I had on an email from Marlin and gave it to the test engineer- VOSA had given me the weight they wanted to see from their calculations so the correction was straightforward. I must admit the logic behind this foxed me on the day. This one has never made any sense, but I think the best reaction is to do what they ask without question, you can climb down off the wall later as you drive home.
This is what they did. The engineer carried out the breaking tests on the rolling road and the brakes passed with room to spare, but they then compare the weights I put on the SVA1 application with the weight they calculate from measuring the vehicle body plan, height and engine size then putting the figures in to a spread sheet calculation in the office (which I did not see) and then came out and told me ?your weights are too light, from our calculations?, and ask for a letter from the manufacturer confirming the design weights. Easy to resolve, but extremely frustrating when you know you can?t resolve it there and then..
The weight I put on the SVA 1 were:
Front: 500kg
Rear: 600kg
Gross 1100kg
The weight VOSA wanted from their calculations were
Front: 550kg
Rear: 700kg
Design gross weight 1250kg
The rechecks on the four points at the following week appointment was straight forward and I went home with my SVA 20, the drive to the DVLA office at Worcester was great fun as I fitted the windscreen by then.
Here?s hoping you have a clear run.
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