The Story of a Kit Car Build

SVA Pass

The first attempt at passing the SVA test was not quite a disaster, but could easily have been if I hadn’t taken it with Dave on his trailer. When we were going through the test, the examiner found that the front brake pads hadn’t got any securing pins in! I’d just put the old ones back as a temporary measure and forgot all about it.

Other things were minor things that wouldn’t take much sorting out, apart from the manufacturer’s design weights. The manufacturer had ceased trading a number of years back, so I couldn’t ask them. That’s where car clubs come in handy. They’re usually a friendly bunch of folk who are only too willing to help out and, so it was in my case, one of the members had already gone through the test a few years back and had all the necessary documents to hand, so I’ve a lot to thank Nigel Barnicle for his help there.

Another major sticking point was the carburettor which had a CO reading that was off the scale and couldn’t be adjusted to run any leaner, so further expense was needed there. I rang a couple of places, one local to me and one that advertised in a car mag. Both told me to dump the carb I had and fit a new one – which I’d been told do earlier but chose to ignore! Strangely enough they both recommended different ones! Anyway I got onto the net and put a wanted ad in the locost owners site. I got a good response with a few being offered at good prices, along with advice from people who had ‘been there and done that’ if you know what I mean. This is when Shirley came up with a sound piece of logic. She asked me how long do these things last? I said, “Well years I suppose, I doubt I’ll ever need to replace it.” “So why don’t you buy a new one? How much are they?” So that was it then, when you consider how much I’d already spent it seemed silly to split hairs on the cost of a new one which would be guaranteed and would fit right without the need to alter anything. So back onto the web, I came across a shop called FAST ROAD CARS, and after talking to the owner he advised me to fit yet a different carb altogether! Anyway, what he said made more sense than others had and it was almost £100 cheaper! So I got one and followed the instructions; it was up and running within an hour and a half! It was straight off with the old and straight on with the new, it was that simple.

Back to the test station a few weeks later and everything was OK apart from the brake test which wasn’t done due to the pads not being in right. When they passed I was over the moon.

I sent of all my details to the DVLA and got back the paperwork along with my new registration number which is ‘age related’, so with my donor car being a B registered I got a B plate for mine.