Modified cars banned?

[Dave2000]

Going back to the thread topic of banning modified vehicles, I have no issues whatsoever, of paying to check that a modification is indeed safe for example, any lift over 'X' amount, larger wheels and tyres but, when you are forced to remove a snorkel that has passed inspection for 10 years, and then one particular tester decides it is not on the papers so it has to come off, it is then that I get angry. The car in question was a customers TD5 Discovery, the tester a 'new kid on the block' just finished reading the testers manual, not a time served mechanic! It was this and the argument over whether the TD5 has 5 seats or seven (rear 'dicky' seats), that I went to the station manager and complained about the judgement. The seat issue was easy, when the car was ordered from the UK to SPANISH specification including LHD, someone forgot to note the two additional seats on the paperwork, an email to LR got a reply confirming the seats WERE fitted during production, I still have the email.


The angry customer decided not to wait for the reply from LR and removed them himself, this made the station manager very happy, he even allowed the snorkel to stay for another year....yeh go figure. I removed it before the next inspection, the wing had a patch welded in and repainted.

Re the new young tester, I am sorry but the ability to read does not IMO make you an MOT inspector. Interesting when I witnessed a pair of Moroccans giving him a serious amount of grief one day, they were waving the fail paper in his face and hollering at him, whilst it did not come to blows he did get some stick. Not one of his colleagues in the station came to assist him, they knew he was 'overdoing it', I guess the angry customers helped him draw and learn the 'judgement line'?

regards

Dave

 

[Shayne]

I suppose abuse of authority is the thing i oppose most about the changes that i am sure will come . I devoted too many of my younger years crusading against little dick syndromes who thought a job title , clip board or a uniform made them untouchable . I have no problem with safety checks but like as not the appeal process will begin with something along the lines of - please submit your objections in writing to the king of narnia care of po box number haha third rock from the sun , effectively making little dick a law unto himself .

 

[Dave2000]

I hear you Shayne, the mini you mentioned was probably a 'Clubman', 1275cc and fast in those days. Years back a well known 'A series' tuner called Dave Vizard built up one of those engines and IIRC, it was bored to 1,400cc he put the engine in his daughters mini, she blew the doors off a Lotus Elan Twin cam at Santa Pod one weekend, he was also the first person to get 500 BHP out of the OHC Cortina engine, I gather it did not last long?

And the info TP ha is spot on, one of the race team sold the magnesium Jag V12 to Getrag bell housing adaptor and alloy flywheel, to a guy in Surrey. He used to sell parts at the Jaguar parts shows, it was 'oop norf' somewhere? Anyway, I chatted him up and got the parts and returned home, weeks prior to this I had also asked a guy in the states that if he saw an alloy flywheel up for sale just buy it, you know what happens next right? Yep, I arrived home to an email to say he had just bought one and it was going in the post. Of course I had to cough up for it as it was the 'right' thing to do, so now had two alloy flywheels.

regards

Dave

 

[Shayne]

Looking at pics i think your right about it being a Clubman Dave , we got a couple of years out of it challenging Nigel Mansell in his suped up Granada jam butty which was way to big for Manx back roads but it snapped it in half eventually right behind the front seats .

 

[Rob Cowell]

I'll just leave this here. http://gu.com/p/4tev7/stw

 

[clivehorridge]

How can they talk about "phasing out polluting transport".

Are they under the delusion that electric cars don't contribute to pollution?

 

[StarCruiser]

How can they talk about "phasing out polluting transport".

Are they under the delusion that electric cars don't contribute to pollution?

Of course Clive… they run on air don't they? No pollution whatsoever. [emoji35]

So where will we sell our fuel burning cars when we have to…India perhaps? They don't mind too much about pollution. China perhaps? Then there's the pollution (from efficient engines of course) in the shipping, poor maintenance and burning of the plastics when it finally dies and is scrapped.

That'll be a really helpful and well thought out regulation IF it ever happens.

I wonder how we are going to power them…when the electricity network is at 98% at times as it is?

 

[Towpack]

Like it or not the future is electric. Battery and motor tech is moving on apace and that's before we even think about hydrogen cell. Of course the hidden carbon footprint of these vehicles is hidden in the power generation required to charge them and in the distillation of Hydrogen. We just need an alternative to carbon based power generation. Nuclear power anyone? Electric motors are eminently suitable for vehicular use, they just don'e sound as good as a well tuned IC engine!

 

[Chas]

Electric motors are eminently suitable for vehicular use, they just don'e sound as good as a well tuned IC engine!

Would there be a market for a V8 soundtrack on CD and external speakers I wonder?

 

[Shayne]

I think they would ban that as well Chas saying it annoyed pigeons or some other crap

 

[StarCruiser]

How about Compressed air?

http://youtu.be/uRpxhlX4Ga0

 

[Shayne]

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/emissions-scandal-every-car-fails-uk-tests-161428904.html?nhp=1

Not relevant to modified cars but i remember someone saying somewhere the Oz LC105 could not be sold in the UK because of emissions , i couldn't find that so i posted here .

 

[Towpack]

All this emissions hoohaa and the fact that major manufacturers are being found to have falsified figures suggests to me that the emission regs are just too tight to be met with current technology. JMO

 

[MarkW]

Its no different to the mpg figures or the 0-60 claims manufacturers publish, all bullshit but they've been allowed to get away with it within the rules or the system. Its a bit like believing a politician.

Any manufactured who hadn't 'cheated' had a free market lead and huge advertising gimmick, yet given no one has come forward a shown they didn't cheat suggests that they are all at it.

 

[StarCruiser]

I've said just this since VW got hung out to dry as the scapegoat for the industry. The targets are all b0770ck5 and unattainable except in laboratory conditions so the manufacturers are forced to lie and it seems it's only VW group who have done it in a most efficient and clever way. It wouldn't put me off buying any vehicle because of the emissions figures.

 

[clivehorridge]

On this theme and without intending to jack the OP's thread, recent EU law changes here on smoking in public places has caused a stir, as always. But the lunacy of some parts of it are evident.

No smoking within 300m of a children's play area. It sounds admirable, but as a law abiding member of the public, how do you know where you are relative to a children's play area? Most of the housing blocks here have a play area at the back for kids. But you will inevitably be walking down the street at the front of the blocks, having a cigarette in the open, whilst within the illusive 300m zone.

Further, some of the kids play areas are in the public city parks and gardens. These are often flanked by the busy commuter routes and thoroughfares of the city. No smoking, OK that's one thing, but 50m away from the kids will be a boulevard carrying 25,000 cars, trucks and busses every minute, all belching out unknown quantities of lead, cyanide, sulphur, carbon monoxide and the usual cocktail of poisons. Nobody blinks an eye, especially the EU.

Just sayin'.