This is a read-only archive of the old Madabout Kitcars forum. New posts and replies are no longer possible, but every thread is still here to browse and read.
Thanks for the link to the French Kit Car site, I have passed it on to Dominique. I think a problem for him will be that the site seems to be about sevens and both Caterham and Westfield have homologated their cars so they can be registered in the EU. But surely there must be other kits in France?
A couple who emigrated to France in 1991 with their Spartan have been in touch. They only managed to register their Spartan recently after it became 30 years old! They just couldn't do it before. They did it with their French insurance broker and this historic vehicle organisation.
The site is in French only but if you live in France your insurance broker will help you. Actually they had registered their Spartan before but as a Triumph Herald, which is what it says on the log book. But if they had had an accident who knows if they would have been insured?!
Have supplied Dominique with the necessary original paperwork to allow it to be registered in France. Hurrah I here you all say!!
However he has to have the French equivalent of the MOT before he can drive it but he says "i haven't got the Girdle of meter and i don't now how to connect it" Anybody got any ideas what he means by this?
Possibly, I did wonder if it was about the speedo. I have asked him to send it to me in French. We are twinned with a French town and they are visiting us this week. Joel works for Renault so he should know what it is if Dominique sends the sentance in French.
This is an email from our freinds son who is studing French at university.
"With my limited knowledge of French mechanic vocabulary, all I can guess at is that your friend has mistranslated "ceinture" to 'girdle', as it also means 'belt' in English. Would a 'meter belt' work?!? Perhaps they mean the 'seat belt' - often just called a 'ceinture' in French.
I can't speak french for toffee but the online transaltors do seem to point to it being about the speedo. My guess is that it is using a Triumph dial which will be in MPH but he needs to connect up a new one in KM/PH to pass the French MOT.....at a guess
Well after much discussion with our French visitors and various phone calls back to France to speak to mechanics, it turns out he needs the flexible drive for the speedo and where to connect it to! I was able to direct him to Rimmer Bros in Lincoln who carry a huge range of Triumph spares for the drive and it connects to the gearbox! Simple when you know what he's talking about!! The Great Old One was right all along!!
Thanks for all your help and advice, I for one have really enjoyed helping Dominique to get on the road with his Spartan.
