Hold on tight.... its time for IVA

So after my last update which was mostly finishing of the cosmetics of the interior, it was time to start prepping the car fully for IVA. I had a confirmed test date of 11th November (a day to remember surly?) so it was time to start getting serious with all the possible issues i could have. AK provide a "IVA kit" which consists of a lot of bits i didn't actually need in my case, simply because of the way i had built the car. for example part of the IVA test is to hold a numberplate sized template to the mounting area to which their must be 10mm distance around the plate. With a standard AK setup (using a traditional boot lock) you need to space the numberplate light housing up slightly to give you the clearance for the plate between the light and the boot handle. However with my cunning secret hidden boot lock i had no need to have a handle and thus no need to have to space the plate light up to fit in a number plate...... i got frigging loads of space!!

The bits i did need were in my opinion "fuck ugly" such as the delight full looking head rests...These are now an IVA requirement and this is the best way to fit them as they fit to the back of seats onto some protruding studs and just held in place with a penny washer and a few nuts..... so they "could" be removed at a later date and have no visible fixings in the top of the seat. You might also notice in the image a lovely leather spoked steering wheel.... this is to meet the requirement of the radius edge of the spokes and to ensure no jewellery or fingers can get caught in the wheel..... tick in that box please!! Also i had to botch up a gear stick without the lockout bar, as this again would have failed the test. So i nice length of thick gauge tube with a nice bend held onto the gear selector with a couple of threaded bolts.....this because a real IVA issue on the day, as the begger kept coming loose and changing gears because interesting. Also you will notice i had to do a last minute harness change... my nice custom made harnesses would have failed IVA due to the latch and the tension buckle, so an appeal for help on the cobra forum saw Pete posting me a spare set he had in his garage which he used for his IVA test..... phew!!! another tick in the box, i hope.

I spent the evening prior to the test checking everything, and I'm so glad i did. I was adjusting the rear height as i needed to brim the tank for IVA and when i stood up from the nearside with my hand on the door, it released and unlatched..... hmmm this isn't good, as part of the test is the doors to have a double latch and not to release with anything up to roughly 30kg of pressure. I only had to breath on mine for it to unlatch, so hours spent pissing around in the dark adjusting the striker and lock spacing was needed to get it set correctly. This had been fine previously but a road trip to the MOT test station on the 8th must have allowed a little movement.

So at stupid o'clock on the morning of the 11th (in the rain, dark and cold) saw myself and my mate Ian about to have the first proper journey to the test centre. My test centre was a good journey away, which had a short motorway section also so i was very grateful of Ian helping and just following me in his daily drive, just in case anything did happen. My dad was going to be the second car but him located in the midlands amongst other personal reasons he was unable to attend on the day. So with the bull firmly gripped by the horns i jumped in strapped up and hit the "GO BABY GO" button..... wow!!! what fun. I was so nervous about driving for the first time and having to be at the test centre for 8:00 meant some serious rush hour traffic was hit.

Id only gone about 5 miles down the road and i had to stop for petrol already. This is because the car must be presented with as much weight as possible so it needs to be up to overflow on the tank. However i didn't leave the petrol station before a passer buy wanted to shake my hand and say such things as "nice car mate"... so it looks like I'm going to get noticed driving this about.


Another short blat up the A1 and off just after Gosforth saw me sat in more stationary traffic, which allowed the engine temp get fairly high. However when i was moving with a good flow rate of air going in the nose it sat at a very good temperature and was perfectly acceptable. So dead on 8:00 i arrived and was swiftly parked up in the area to start the test. I met my IVA examiner (Alistair Thompson) who was a great bloke to chat with and he genuinely looked happy to be testing something different to the normal daily grind of such a job. One issue i did have was the constant stop start of the traffic and 1st to neutral had seen the bodged gear leaver work its way loose, however i was allowed to quickly unscrew the cover boot and tighten the two nuts. I was at this point a little worked up and fretting over things, however a cup of coffee calmed me down and the test began.

My IVA tester was himself also getting tested by VOSA at the time of the test for time productivity. Some suite in an office that has no idea what the job entails obviously thinks to much natter is happening and its affecting productivity... but this is not my battle so I'll just concentrate on the IVA test.
 I wont go through everything with you regarding the test but it was really an enjoyable experience, the general banter between myself and the tester was good and i believe the answers that i provided were showing that i had a good understanding of what the rule was for and how to comply.

This image shows the car on the rollers to test the speedo accuracy. Whilst my speedo was within tolerance, so it could not be failed technically, it was however wrong by an unacceptable amount for me. So i will need to dig out the GPS unit again and reprogramme the speedo to give a truer reading of 70mph. This was great fun to watch and even though it wasn't a power run, like on a rolling road it was funny to see the car rolling up to 70mp but stood still. You can watch the video below.

 

This picture makes me giggle, because i clearly disagree with something i have just been told, or I'm telling him something that is not to my liking. haha

But you can see the car going through the brake tests in the background. Front and rear brakes all tested once with the engine running (servo assist) and again with the engine off (no servo assist) along with the park brake. The figures generated from this are then calculated to the weight of the loaded vehicle and braking efficiency is either passed or failed accordingly.

Next was onto the emissions and checking the engine was within tolerance of the CO2 and hydrocarbons. This is where the age relation of the engine is taken into account, and the evidence (official letter) was produced to verify the block. The offside was fine with no issues but the nearside needed a little fettle and tweak. My tester was more than happy to allow me to do this and after a couple of minutes i had a tick in that box also... next onto the sound test!!

The sound test is carried out by reversing out into the car park (no sound reflection of any buildings) and the engine is reved to 3/4 of its peek power in my case that was 3500rpm (on paper) and with the sound meter set at the correct distance a reading was given. Because i was sat in the car and i couldn't see the gauge i was completely in the dark as to what the reading was. My previous tests at home with Ian's sound meter saw me higher than legally allowed, so i was nervous on the outcome for this one.

Onto the final stage of the test. This was a weight check and a centralisation test of the steering, along with rear visibility out the mirrors. I had to ride shotgun for this one as i wasn't allowed to drive it myself.. just lucky he could reach the clutch as I'm fairly tall and the seat was fixed for my driving position. But again massive tick in the box for the centralisation of the steering. The tester drove in a big figure 8 shape and on a full left lock released the wheel and the car started to pull itself straight instantly along with the full right lock also!!!! another tick in the box. It was rumored on the day that we did this test twice as (even though the IVA rules state a handbrake warning light must WORK!!) the first test was done with the handbrake on....... but i couldn't comment on that. haha

 So with the final stages of the test complete it was pass or fail time. I genuinely didn't have a clue as to the result... but after the tester had returned from making some calculations, he shook my hand and congratulated me!!! PASS!!!! 1st time!!!

This was superb news for me and I'm so proud that i have achieved it. The end of the road for the "building" stage and onto the "driving and making improvements" stage.... after registration.

The drive home also saw some afternoon sunshine, nice!!

This is not the end of this blog, mearly a start of the rest of cobra life. No doubt i will encounter problems along with making changes to the setup and power of the car. So keep checking back for updates every so often. 

Tommy