MNR Vortx Kit car build site

SVA

I'd taken the Monday and Tuesday off work this week for preparation and the test.
Royal Mail had let me down again, the fuel filler restrictor Chris posted on the 13th hadn't arrived so I needed to work out a way around it. I also had a leak on the exhaust to seal, front geometry to check and set so the car would self centre and a lot of panicking.

Saturday didn't allow a lot of time but I managed to tidy up the engine bay and change the oil. I wanted to drive the car up and down the garage area but it was chucking it down, so that had to wait till Sunday.

Sunday morning came along with glorious sunshine, so I pushed the car outside and all the way up to the back of the garage area and prepared for the maiden drive. First attempt and I stalled it! Second try and all seemed well, it pulled cleanly and wheelspan lots! I got to the end of the garage area and tried to put it in neutral only for the gear lever to go all floppy. After panicking lots and taking the tunnel cover off I found the cable had worn through and snapped right next to the gear stick. I phoned MNR to leave a message on their answerphone and was amazed when Chris picked up. I explained the situation, he assured me I'd have one Tuesday morning, which was an issue! On realising this he asked the others in the workshop if there was a way of getting it to me tomorrow. Fortunately one of the guys in the workshop was from the Woking area and was driving home that evening!

This pretty much wrote off the Sunday, all I could do was the little pieces, tidying up the wiring etc. Once this was done I closed up the garage and went inside ready for my early start to pickup the change cable.

Monday morning dawned, a quick trip to Woking had me returning with a new change cable and renewed optimism. Unfortunately the post also arrived with no fuel neck restrictor so I had to find one. I managed to find a neck restrictor and got some nylocks for the gearstick. When I got back to the house my Dad had arrived and was waiting on me to get started. We worked solidly till 8pm getting the car back together, suspension etc aligned and the little bits finished off. We had the car set with 4 degrees of caster but on test drive this didn't self centre, so we wound it up to six, by this time it was approaching 10pm, pizza had arrived and I needed to do one last test run. The car drove beautifully, self centred nicely and was nice and brisk! I drove the car up to the garage and left it idling and then it died. It wouldn't restart and I had no idea why.

We took a break and went inside for some pizza and came out to check on the car. A quick inspection revealed I'd run out of fuel! Once that was sorted it fired up and we could put the car back together , call it a night and go to bed. We felt it was better to get to the SVA than keep doing stuff and not get there at all.

Tuesday morning bought a clear but damned cold morning. Wrapped up warm we pushed the car out of the garage and headed off to Southampton. This was my first chance to drive the car on the road and I was quite nervous! It was cold and very damp so I wasn't pushing it, but cruising at 65-70 on the A303/A34/M3 was not an issue. The car was holding 6,500 rpm and pulled very well. The clutch is going to take some getting used to as well as remembering what gear I'm in! A gear indicator is definitely a necessity. After getting lost and stalling a few times we arrived at Northam SVA station.

My Dad reported to reception whilst I stuck the speedo healer up to the scuttle, -26.1% error seemed spot on during the drive so I decided to stick it up. My examiner was Brian and after all of the horror stories I'd heard from locostbuilders about Southampton I was immediately set at ease. He pointed out a few things that would need sorting and let us get on with bits as he pointed them out. We hit our first stumbling point with the mirrors. These were loaners from MNR and I have to say that the quality of the glass is awful, it was very difficult to see anything behind me. The driver's side passed the field of view test after we drilled new holes and moved the mirror up and inboard. The passenger side was impossible to sort, I could either to see the top mark or the bottom mark, but not both at the same time.

We knew at that point the car would fail so it was a matter of how badly. My major worries were emissions, noise and brakes. Emissions were a fail, brakes were spot on but not locked, noise was an impressive 94db. Speedo settings were also spot on. So -26.1% for an R1 with 13" wheels and a 3.38 diff will get you through SVA

Working through the fail sheet here is what it failed on. Brian's explanation is underneath the failure point

5.2 - A seat belt anchorage or the surrounding vehicle structure is of inadequate strength and likely to fail.
N/S + O/S top seatbelt anchorage points have no triangulation and bracing to spread the load effectively into the chassis.

6.1 An interior or design feature or fitting a) has a rough or sharp edge or projection of 3.2mm or more likely to cause injury ie, having a radius of curvature of less than 2.5mm
N/S + O/S cockpit edge - (basically the lip of the part that curves over the top rail)

6.6 An instrument panel lower edge has a radius of curvature of less than 19mm (less than 5mm if covered with a non rigid material)
The lower lip curve of the dashboard is only a 14mm radius.

10.5 An obligatory mirror does not provide the required field of view
(N/S exterior mirror)

13.2a A hard part which is contactable with a 100mm dia sphere has a radius of curvature of less than 2.5mm
(Edges to front and rear edge of silencer + exhaust clamps. Inner edge to N/S+O/S front mudguard, fixing brackets on the O/S + N/S headlamps, tube ends on N/S+OS front top and lower wishbones

15.3 A transmission/braking component which rotates during vehicle operation. Steering component wheel or tyre a) fouling on another component
Steering U/J at rack fouling on chassis + clutch cable - I could have sworn I'd resolved this, we'd moved the rack to stop this happening, so I don't know if the rack had moved during the journey down as bolts vibrated but it should be easy to resolve with the patented adjuster.

15.3 A transmission/braking component which rotates during vehicle operation. Steering component wheel or tyre b) likely to foul under normal operating conditions
Water pipe from pump to throttle bodies may foul on propshaft - This was tied to the gearchange cable but in the panicked rush it looks like I forgot to reattach it.

15.1c A suspension unit likely to foul other parts of the vehicle
N/S + O/S Rear front lower swivel joints washers fouling on swivel joint on steering lock to lock.
N/S + O/S Top rose joint twisted and fouling (on what I'm not sure)

15.1c A suspension unit iv) shackle, anchor or linkage pin missing/insecure
(O/S Rear spring suspension mounting point bolt insecure) - TIghtened fully there and then.

15.2.1a A fuel system component v) leaking.
Plastic pipes from tank to engine leaking at joins. Brian didn't like the Tricofuel hose, he agreed it was fuel safe but suggested I changed it for gates rubber hose as it wouldn't be as susceptible to temperature variations.

16.2b A Brake control actuating linkage or associated component viii) pivot linkage pin insecure. No locking device fitted to pedal pivot pin. (There is a locking split pin but not on the outside edge of the pivot. It can't move anywhere as it's butted up against the tubes in the footwell, but it will have a pin fitted.

16.5.1 A vehicle that incorporates an adjustment device (e.g. pedal linkage balance bar) that adjusts front/rear braking ratio (longditudinal brake distribution) must be tested in the worst case condition. ie maximum rear axle braking.
Note Devices that allow further adjustment - eg locknuts/adjustable stops/split pins will not in isolation be considered as capable of preventing further adjustment to a worse condition. ( A roll pin will be considered acceptable providing it penetrates the full diameter of the component)

18.2b In the 2nd fast idle test one or more of the following exceeds the vehicle specific or default limits (as appropriate) continuously for the last 5 seconds of the 30 second countdown.

All in all there's nothing really difficult to resolve in that list of failure points. I did have an issue with the points in 5.2 and 13.2, especially 13.2 as the bumper bars should have raised the floor level which removed all of these problems. Brian felt that the points behind the bumper should still be covered as they would collapse in an accident. I've worked through most of the points already, The major ones to resolve at the moment are 5.2, 15.1c (lower washer) and rod ends 15.3 rack U/J and 18.2

By the end of next week everything should be sorted ready to request the retest date. I didn't take any pictures at the test centre but here are the pictures from the weekend to when we got home on the tuesday.