Remember your school days? I do. The only highlight was getting a star for my homework. Sometimes it was a red star, occasionally a silver star and rarely, a gold star. Although most teachers made do with a '✔ V. Good'. But sometimes the homework came back with SEE ME scrawled in angry red letters across the bottom of the page, and it was never because teach wanted to congratulate me on my work.
So, it is now again time to hand in your homework for marking.
The AK members area on their website has very useful examples to help you fill in the forms to request the IVA test. Also a list of all the documents, photos, invoices etc etc you will need. All these forms are available on .gov.uk websites.
You should have already acquainted yourself with the IVA manual. Read it. Every word of it. I didn't and was surprised when the examiner said he cannot test the car as I didn't have a full tank of fuel. Fortunately he allowed me to whizz down the road ("it is insured and on it's way to the IVA station, Officer") and fill up at a petrol station.
Before the IVA I arranged to have the car picked up by a local garage and have it put through an MOT test. My thanks here go to Simon Graham Auto Service Centre of Hampsthwaite. Simon knows a thing or two about kit cars and IVA tests and was happy to check the car over. The main things are the ones you cannot test yourself, emissions, brake efficiency including the handbrake, and headlight aim. As well as that it is useful to have the car up on a ramp so you can take a good look underneath without having to lay on your back with the chassis two inches from your nose. Simon checked all over, steering, suspension, checked nothing was rubbing or loose etc. The garage is located half way along a mostly deserted country road so I was able to run the car up the road with an old sat nav to check the speedo. At 30mph the speedo indicated 27mph.
When you have a date for the IVA, call AK and request the IVA loan kit. It comprises a few things you will need to bolt on to enable a pass.
There are so many things that can catch you out. Make sure you have an orange label and words about using DOT4 fluid from a sealed container on the brake reservoir. Cover up the wiper motor with foam so it doesn't have hard or sharp edges showing. A full fuel tank helps. Have some sort of cover over the bonnet lock edges. My tester mentioned he thought the fog light button should have a different colour light to that of the other light switches in order to differentiate it. If you have Savage switches they may be all blue. It wasn't a failure in my case but do be aware that some of these IVA items are open to interpretation.
Speaking of which, take the strange case of the fog light operation. The majority of people I spoke to had this view: It is a requirement that having switched on the fog light it must not come on again when the lights or the ignition are switched off and back on again unless the fog light switch/button is re-engaged. That is to say even if the fog light switch/button is engaged, the fog light must not come on when the ignition or main lights are switched on. It saves you from permanently driving around in clear weather with the rear fog light on. Now, AK and everyone who has put their AK Cobra through a test find otherwise. Car Builder website and a few others will tell you it is required and sell you a device to make it happen. It is probably a one shot electrical system that needs a reset after the power is cut, the reset being the fog light switch being set off/on.
The IVA manual does indeed have something to say about this and what it says is that it is 'acceptable' for this arrangement to be in place, not that it is actually required. Anyway, I got a pass without it so it does indeed seem to be an acceptable operation, not an actually required one. I wish they would just take reference to it out altogether but I guess they like to give their technical writers something to do.
On the day I suggest you take along a few tools, a spare set of bulbs, some spare fuses, gaffer tape, tie wraps and anything else you think may be useful. The thing is that the IVA test chaps are usually quite reasonable and if they find something that could quite easily be fixed or tightened up chances are they will allow you to do that. My tester asked me to remove two wheel nuts from a front and rear wheel. Don't know what he was looking for but luckily I had my socket set. I would have taken the torque wrench as well if I'd known. I also took some photos of the seat belt mounts showing them to be 8.8 or high tensile material. The tester needs to know this and you don't want to have to be pulling the thing apart just to prove the case.
So, I had a pass. Tick, Gold Star. Big relief. I really didn't want to have to fork out more money for a retest, hire the trailer again and get up at a sparrow's fart to get the whole rig over to the test station, two hours drive away, for an 08:00 start.
Next up is to get the car registered. More form filling. Again AK have a very good section in their members area with a list of forms you need and examples of how to fill them in and where to send them. Check the latest fees for your vehicle licence. You also need a certificate of 'newness' from AK. If all goes well, a few weeks later you get your V5c log book and a registration number.
And with that, I'll leave you to imagine what to do next.
