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To no one's surprise my turbo fell foul to the inspectors in Chelmsford yesterday. I should have realised how 'petty' the regs can be after reading fellow builders failures, but when the examiner failed the car on a bulb that actually blew while he was playing with the controls I started to laugh.
So in general my failure was down to:-
1. The seat belt anchorage bar was found to be unacceptable.
2. Numerous 'sharp' edges to bodywork These are not where the body has been cut.
3. Headlights require adjustment.
4. Rear wheels exceed arches.
5. Poor braking performance.
At a guess a couple of weeks work at most, but guys I must say the drive up the A12 at 7:00, what a pleasure, leaving home in the dark and heavy frost. every driver looking at you, every passenger waving or thumbs up.
Then on the way back I took the scenic route across to Ongar and then down through Stapleford Abbotts, by now it was lunchtime and there were a few people around, I have never seen so many admiring looks.
Best one of all was a farm tractor coming the other way with at least 30 cars behind (we have all been there), as I passed each car the driver stared and had to check out the back in their mirrors.
So am I down? no! Just have been given even more incentive.
Sorry to hear about your SVA failure Trev. You said that one thing was the seat belt anchorage bar. Is this the bar that goes between the two side posts of the roll cage when using harnesses? If so have you used the marlin spec item and what are you going to do to resolve this, I was going to use harnesses on my car.
Good Luck
Benny H
Hi Trev,
I think it's pretty hard to pass first time if you haven't had experience with the sva test. I know when mine failed on similar things to yours I didn't even consider some of the items as potential problems, even the fog and reverse lamp failed because it had a sharp edge where the lens didn't quite cover the housing.
If I had to go through the same process again with the experience gained I would stand a better chance but there ain't no guarantees.
I had to fit standard inertia belts for my sva test because my harness belts weren't delivered in time and they passed ok. I asked the sva inspector if he would pass the harness bar and he said probably not. I have since fitted the harness bar and belts and it seems pretty strong to me but only a crash would test it properly. I suppose a centre mount for the bar would improve it's strength substantially.