Brad wrote:I think you will find that Low Volume Individually Constructed Vehicle are excempt from most of those tests. The need to get a torsion and beaming test and an emissions certificate and a few others. Then you need to have a disclaimer on the dash or somewhere visible stateing that the vehicle has not had impact testing conducted on it.
Yeah except the costs of having it done are even higher, but in theory ANYTHING can get approved on such a vehicle if it's done in such a way that it doesn't breach the relevant ADR.
For instance working off a Suzuki Vitara Chassis it would be possible to have an individually constructed 2003 Model "Viagra MKI" with 36" tyres as stock.....
Speaking to a few engineers, the honest ones say there are some mods that they can put on your certificate, but it doesn't do anyone any favours. Sure if the cop pulls you over sees the cert he's gonna let you carry on, but if you have a prang and someone's badly hurt or killed and they're suss about your vehicle then the traffic incident squad can pull your car off the road to properly inspect it. If they find something that either is not on the cert, or is on the cert that shouldn't be it's their word that is final.
This gets real nasty when they decide that the vehicle is illegal and you knew it...... potential for instant culpability (much like drink driving even if the other person caused the accident) with the bonus of premediation to any death or injuries (you knew it was dangerous but didn't fix it).
Your insurance company will be able to find enough loopholes in such an event to hang you out to dry....
It's not enough to stop me going back to 29" rubber but it's potentially a very scary legal minefield. More research or reinterpretation of the rules may get me over the line for the tyres I wanna run, but maybe not.
I think a few people here have said it enough times.... Having an engineers cert and/or registration and/or insurance does not make a vehicle safe and legal.
If you go far enough from spec the only way to get the car truly "legal" is as a one-off vehicle or kit vehicle.