IVA Day

Monday 13th January

This is probably the biggest event in the build process - its IVA day. The day my car is either deemed road legal or not.

I was fairly confident that the car would pass as Ali and I had done a good job of checking everything we could think of and giving Andy a list of the jobs we needed him to finish off along with his usual pre-IVA checks.

The test was booked for 1:30pm and I had arranged to meet Andy at the test centre. That way the car could be transported there using Andy's covered trailer and therefore arriving without getting wet and dirty as it had done when I took it up to GD the previous week.

Andy from GD unloading my car for IVA

The IVA test has a number of requirements which, quite frankly, seem ridiculous as the 'fixes' made to the car will be taken off as soon as the car passes.

These things include...

Additional silencing to the exhausts
Rear reflectors
Rear fog lamp
Reverse lamp
Steering wheel can't have wooden rim
Additional head restraints
Removal of seat adjuster bar
Rubber edging strip to various components - door handles, seat harness brackets, etc
Changing the boot lid handle
Side vents need to be blanked off

Andy has an IVA kit which he puts on the car which would really spoil the look and feel of the car if the final road going version needed to retain these items. Ive added some images to give an idea of what I mean.

Exhaust silencers

Temporary steering wheel

Side vent blanked off

Additional head restraint

The Actual Test

The test takes place at an approved VOSA centre and the car has to pass a series of individual tests that take place along a long 'production line' type setup.

The first stage was looking at the interior and checking to make sure there were no sharp edges, making sure all nuts and bolts were covered and doing a visual inspection of the whole car. I first started to worry at this point when the examiner asked why there weren't Nylocs on the steering rack nuts and bolts. Fortunately they have been fitted using threadlock so it was ok but will make a note to swap these over at a later date. Pass!!!

Checking interior of car far sharp edges etc

The speedometer has to be tested. I had made a bit of a mess of setting this up originally and as a result the car was showing 100mph when the reality was about 10mph when I dropped it up to Andy. Andy quickly reset this prior to IVA but it needed to be checked still. The result was a speedo showing 67mph at true speed of 70mph - perfect and another pass!!! The only problem now is that my odometer is reading c1800 miles and will need sending back to Speedy for resetting.

Speedometer Test

The car then has to pass an emissions test. The Co2 has to be below 4.5% and the Hydrocarbons below 1200. The car was a mile out initially so Andy had to work his magic on the carb and a few minutes later we had car running nice and lean and ticking all the boxes - pass!!!

Emissions Test

Emissions Result

Emissions Result

Next up the car had to be put up on ramps to checking steering, exhaust and the general underside of the vehicle. 

At this point headlamp alignment was also checked which caused another scare. The one headlamp was on main beam and the other on dipped beam and when the main beam stalk was pulled they would swap over. Fortunately we were allowed to swap the wiring over (a simple case of the bullets being on the wrong way) and another pass!!!

Steering, exhasut and lighting checks

The final indoor test was the brake test. Front and rear wheels are tested independently and in axle pairs. TYhe tester is looking to see the brake force and the balance between both wheels on the same axle. Fronts pass ok but there was a bit of a problem with the near side rear brake. Initially it wouldn't apply enough force then the balance was out of sync with the offside. Andy sat on the back wing of the car for a few minutes and as  the brake started to warm up the performance and balance came back within tolerance - another pass!!

Brake Test

The final test is completed outside. This is a noise test followed by a weigh in. The noise test was over in seconds and I didn't have time to even take a photograph before the tester whipped the car away to the weigh bridge. Delighted to report my Cobra is a lean, mean driving machine topping the scales at just 1115kgs.

And after all of this....

MY CAR HAS PASSED IT'S IVA AND IS READY TO BE REGISTERED!!!!

801 days after attending a car show in Florida and starting to dream of building my very own Cobra the dream is now real :)