FIA vs SVA

[MJS]

I have recently received my build manual throught the post and noticed that there "may" be a problem with the FIA rollbar when I come to have the car SVA'd. The forewarning sounds a bit vague saying the car will probably pass if you take it to Leicester or Kent. Seeing as my local inspectorates will be either Norwich or Beds, I'm a bit concerned about what to do. Has anyone experienced problems getting a pass with an FIA bar fitted?

 

Hit the first snag, and my kit is still 1 month away sad.gif

 

Superlight on order, been waiting 16 years biggrin.gif

[mav]

I'm having an FIA bar fitted to mine, during the build at the factory. Caterham have not advised taht there are likely to be any problems....

[robmar]

If you can, take it to Gillingham, this is where Caterham take their factory built cars for SVA, so they have seen a lot of them and will pass the FIA bar, well I have not heard of one failing there

 

Also if you can organise it so your PBC is in the morning and the SVA in the afternoon on the same day Caterham will be able to poitnout any SVA problems that you can fix

 

Interestingly when they came and picked up my car today they said someone had failed the SVA due to one of the rear lights (face) not being vertical!

 

Rob

[MJS]

Right, that's basically what it says in the manual. However, with me (and the car) being in Cambridge, I didn't really fancy a trip to Kent as the first journey. Leicester isn't much of an improvement either. Guess I'd better make sure my RAC membership is up to date. wink.gif

 

Cheers for the comments chaps.

 

 

 

Superlight on order, been waiting 16 years biggrin.gif

[Nick Green]

From what I recall of other's recent experience, even at Gillingham, if you have an FIA bar fitted, because of the diagonal, the central rear view mirror will be ignored and only the side mirrors (of which there must then be two) will be used. You should still pass. However if you want to be *really* sure, then fit the FIA bar after the SVA test. By the time you've built the car, fitting the FIA bar will be easy.

[simonwelton]

As long as the 2 side mirrors are a permanent fixture, ie bolted to the door and not removeable then the central mirror can be ignored and you would pass with the FIA bar.

Leaving the bar off and fitting it after the test is of course a solution, if you don't mind driving around with out it for a short while, and unfortunately you will need to drop the rear shocks out of the turrets to attach the lower mounting bolts for the FIA bar, it's not a 5 minute job.

 

Si

[MattCullum]

 

Is not leighton buzzard reasonably close to

you? Even though I'm in Ipswich I went there

and they were happy with my RAC spec (ok so

its not a caterham) rollbar. There very resonable there and I would recommend them

 

Matt

[MJS]

Matt,

 

Like I said in my original post I would like to go somewhere local but was a bit worried about the possiblity of failure (having read the build manual). It strikes me as very odd that a Caterham can pass with no roll bar fitted at all, but may fail with an FIA type in situ. I would have thought it was a guaranteed failure without.

 

Cheers,

 

Matt.

 

Superlight on order, been waiting 16 years biggrin.gif

[ROC]

In regard to the side mirrors - I was informed by the factory today that the mirrors have to be attached to the side pannels to pass the SVA and not the screen. The reason given was that the screen mounted ones do not bend back enough.

 

The second point is that I certainly got the impression that the factory would lend me the appropriate bits to pass the SVA.

 

Lastly is it the case that the factory built cars have to pass an SVA?

 

Regards Rupe - also building a Superlight next month.