IVA day

Turns out the story isn't quite finished yet! I guess I'll start from the beginning...

The morning started at 'way too early o'clock', with a plan to get to Bristol for around 7. In the end I arrived at 7:30, thanks in no small part to the M6 being partly closed and some very unusual local traffic near the test station. 

Still, I got there. It was very cold, very wet and very early. The sun hadn't really come up by the time I was getting it unloaded. 

The tester came up to me as I was getting things sorted, offered a coffee and use of the facilities, and was happy for me to get things warmed up and ready for testing. It was emissions first so everything had to be hot.

And of course, that's where the rollercoaster started, with the biggest challenge! I've not been able to test emissions for obvious reasons, and the testing didn't disappoint. The initial test failed with CO too high, then a retest also failed. But as far as I could tell it was being done as a CAT test on the more modern limits, and this car would never meet them. Once he'd checked all the details and convinced the computer that it needed to be tested as an early CAT test, then it went fine. Of course, the exhaust was absolutely screaming, so I just expected the noise test to fail, more on that later.

The main thing from the emissions test was not the test itself, but more the mindset of the tester. Given he tested it multiple time and didn't just stop at 'fail' it was clear that he was here to pass it, not fail it. MOT guys seem to want to fail cars at the slightest issue, thankfully IVA are a lot more positive. 

Then it was on to weights, and it turns out the scales weren't overly accurate (yeah I know, no real surprise!). The kerb weights were 300 front, 312 rear for a combined weight of 612Kg. I measured it as 588.6Kg. This unfortunately would come back to bite me, as it meant my design weights were too low, more on that later.

So it was on to the proper mechanical testing, up on the ramp. He acknowledged that it was well built and that I'd taken my time over it. He didn't comment on some of my 'creative' solutions, like the handbrake to brake pipe clamp. He did point out that when the handbrake was applied the cable does get a bit close to something, I need to check that as I can't remember what he said. It wasn't a failure point so I hadn't taken a note.

And talking of failure points, there were a few found here. The first was some missing bolts and a clamp on the exhaust. That one was annoying, entirely self inflicted and something I should have checked for. Easy fix though.

Next one was the fuel line as it passes the gearbox mount, it's too close. It's not touching, but as he said when the rubber bobbin moves it could touch the fuel pipe, so that's a fail. Completely fair, and actually not that difficult to fix. I just need to reroute the line over the top. I might need to move some of the chassis clips to accommodate it. 

Then the last failure from underneath the car. When the clutch pedal is pressed, the clutch lever contacts the brake pipe. A very clear fail, unfortunately without a second person in the garage I couldn't have found it. Again, a reroute of the line should suffice, and again another chassis clip move might be required. 

That was it for the mechanical side of things, so in the end I was actually happy. It wasn't the end of the faults though.

Coming on to the engine bay, again he was happy with how things had been put together, no questions on anything. He was training another guy so was pointing out a few things, all of them positive. Nothing to fix under the bonnet.

Interior projections flew through, he didn't even get his test ball out. He could see I'd spent time dealing with all the edges, and it turns out the exposed chassis member would have been a fail so I'm glad I added padding. He did bring out his seat height test tool, given I'd spent time getting the heights right it was clear that the seat height and the seat belt height were very above the requirements.

On to exterior projects. He picked up the side mirror front point, but his testing showed the same as mine in that it was actually a good radius. Again for the rest of the car it was more of a check, although he did put the ball inside the front grill to make sure he couldn't impact the rivets. I'd already checked that so nothing to deal with there. 

So on to the first fail on the outside, the number plate surround. I'd completely misunderstood the rules, I thought it would be tested with a number plate in place. Therefore I had left the edges as is. Turns out that's not the case, and even if the plate was in place it would have still failed. So I need to reprint that one. While it shouldn't be too difficult, the original number plate was done on a slightly bigger printer so I'm going to have to design it's replacement in multiple parts. 

He also visually checked most of the lights, but picked out the side repeaters as something that warranted more testing. I know why, it's because of the angle of the bodywork and the rear arches means it could have failed. A couple of chalk marks to highlight the required 5mm angle showed that it was perfectly fine. Again, I'd checked that myself but it's always worrying when it gets 'officially' checked!

Unfortunately the front indicators were too low, so that was failure number five. It needs to be 350mm off the floor, and he measured it as 325mm. It is measured to the illuminated surface, and he said that it's a common failure with Cobras. His suggested fix was to take off the lens, black out the lower half and have the indicator only work halfway up. That would be enough to meet the requirement. While that's good to know, I think what I'm going to do is move the whole lens up. Again probably a 3D printed bracket of some kind, that screws into the original hole and hides it. I might combine it with the side light to make it a bit more sturdy, I'm not sure yet.

Next test was the brake test, and that sailed through for both service and parking brakes. He was calculating brake forces using a pressure meter attached to his foot, working out maximum force first then working back from there. The numbers came out really nice and balanced, both from side to side on an axle and from front to back. The rears showed about half the force of the front which is good. This was also tested outside where he slammed on the brakes, the fronts locked but the rears didn't so again a big thumbs up there.

While he was outside he also checked the self centering (no comment there so I assume it was good enough for him), then the mirrors check. As with the rest of the car he acknowledged that I wasn't trying to take the mick, and that the three mirrors were more than adequate. A quick check and it was all good.

Then it was on to the noise test... and no problem there! I am not entirely sure how, but apparently it's within spec so I don't have to do anything. 

I think that summed up the day really, things that I thought would be fine actually failed, and the bits that I was struggling with weren't even highlighted. And I considered myself pretty knowledgeable on the manual by the end, I still got it wrong. 

There was one more failure waiting for me, the weight. As above my measurements were too low, and therefore so were my calculations. When it came to design weights, I'd put 361Kg front and 409Kg rear, and it turned out that they are actually 331Kg front (which is a pass) and 430Kg on the rear (which is a fail). I was in range of the combined weight, but messed up the front and rear balance. This needs a design change rather than a mechanical fix.

Overall a very good outcome, while I have six issues to resolve none of them are particularly challenging. One is five minutes with some nuts and a spanner. Two need a bit of 3D printing time. Two more need a pipe bender, and the last is paperwork. I should have them all resolved over the next couple of weekends.