First romanian Lotus 7...
 

Hello


i'm about to finish my project( Lotus 7) and because in Romania is allmoust impossible to register the car i was thinking to take the car on o trailer and go to UK.
Can any of you tell me what is the procedure,what do i have to do first? I don t have a VIN plate yet,how can i get it? I m an european citizen,can i do that there? Can any of you help me ?
Thank you very much !

You need someone in the uk to use to register it for you.

I'm happy to "host" it for you if you can get it over here. my local test station is in Manchester.
Where are you in Romania anyway?Ive been there quite a lot.:cool:

Hy

i leave in Bucharest (the capital of Romania). Glad to hear that you have been here so many times....when do you plan your next trip?...maybe we can meet eachother...Thanks for your offer...Taking the car to UK is not a big problem since my father has a Jeep and a platform but i have to know first how long will i have to stay there in order to plan the trip( i was thinking for april next year---i still have to make the bonnet,dashboard ,windscreen and at the end painting). Can someone tell me how to post pictures here? My email adress (and Yahoo messenger to ) is : str_constantin_ivan@yahoo.com maybe we can talk more about this.
Thanks again a lot.:)

Ayjay are you sure about the test centre in Manchester, dont' they test them in LLay at the vosa station

Arfon

As i promissed here are some pics ;waiting for comments and sugestions
Best regards

http://s1288.photobucket.com/albums/b497/tazzy5918/

Some more pics during construction:





http://s1288.photobucket.com/albums/...20back%20baby/

Hey that will stand out among the Dacias:cool:

I hope I'm wrong . I thought Chadderton was our nearest after the reorganisation . Is there a list of centres to check?

People have seen enough Porsche on romanian roads...but when they see this project they go crazy....

I've been to Romania to Bucharest and Craiova !

Anyway, the biggest problem your going to have is the IVA test, it needs to be booked in advance (2 weeks to a month wait), plus all the paperwork, receipts, donor vehicle registration if needed, proof of engine age if its an older engine. This is £400+ and retests are £90. If you fail first test (most do) you then have to rebook test. This is a pain for most people but likely to be very costly for you if you have to drive back to Romania and then come back to uk 2 weeks later.

Then once you've passed IVA, you need an English address for registration examination. The likelyhood is you won't get in down to DVLA office the same day as IVA test. So that'll need another visit to the uk. That's a lot of driving or long time in a hotel!!

It might be better to find a company who will do all that for you including fixing fail points, registration etc. then just drop it off and pick it up a month later.

MMMMMM...not good

let s take it one at the time

Can i aply for a VIN from Romania?
What about the other plate...with the details of the car:age,engine ,weight etc ???
What if i don t fail the test by using the romanian way:paying some extra 500 euro (unofficial offcourse) to someone who works there :) ? is that possible?
Where can i find a person or a company to do all this paperwork for me..including some modifications if necessary.?
Is anybody on this forum interested to help me ? Not for free offcourse:)
At this stage of construction the only things i m not sure are the Gas tank( made by myself from a special GRP petrol resistant and the rear lights --i have used some LED lights with no E mark on it---only the fog light was taken from a car and has it.
I will add some more detailed pics during the fabrication of the car...if anyone sees a reason for failure let me know please...
The gas for this trip cost me more than 1000 euro plus road taxes ,feryboat etc so i cannot afoard to come to the UK but once.

Still waiting for a solution...best regards

MMMMMM...not good

let s take it one at the time

Can i aply for a VIN from Romania?

You can make your own.

What about the other plate...with the details of the car:age,engine ,weight etc ???

Don't need I think

What if i don t fail the test by using the romanian way:paying some extra 500 euro (unofficial offcourse) to someone who works there :) ? is that possible?

No you'll just end up in court.

Where can i find a person or a company to do all this paperwork for me..including some modifications if necessary.?

Yes there's a few company's but you'll have to search and see which ones still in business.

Is anybody on this forum interested to help me ? Not for free offcourse:)
At this stage of construction the only things i m not sure are the Gas tank( made by myself from a special GRP petrol resistant and the rear lights --i have used some LED lights with no E mark on it---only the fog light was taken from a car and has it.

The GRP tank might need a letter from manufacturer saying its suitable. Rear lights is a bit of grey area, some will pass some dont.

I will add some more detailed pics during the fabrication of the car...if anyone sees a reason for failure let me know please...
The gas for this trip cost me more than 1000 euro plus road taxes ,feryboat etc so i cannot afoard to come to the UK but once.

At that price it would be better to get someone to do it all including shipping the car.

Still waiting for a solution...best regards

YOU can't. You also can't present a car to the IVA test or register it on the road. You'd need a British resident to pretend to have built the car. They can apply for a VIN number while your car is in Romania, though. AshG posted a template of his letter (http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/showt...ght=vin+letter)

I've seen on this forum one or two people who got their number plates on next day after their IVA pass, but there are others who complained of pain and weeks' delays from DVLA...

So, I agree with Ben, your best bet is to find a business which specialises in building and finishing kit cars.

Hmmm..this is not good.

Seems like i have a new mission: to find a person or a company interested to help me with that. Anyway i don t feel to confortable to send the car to someone i don t know...i ve spent to much in every way....so ...is has to be a solution...
PS: what is all about this VIN...where to aply,what to ask,to whom? What do i receive ?...a plate or do i have to make it by myself with that special tool( don t know the english for that)...after i receive a paper vith the number....Seems like i can t dowload the IVA manual to...don t know why.
Pffff...this is why sometime i hate Romania...we have imported everything but the good things...and i have to be a pioneer in everything...

Still waiting for ideas...
Soon...:)

I've seen documents and a VIN plate of a crashed German Caterham on ebay.de... It went for €600 or so... I've read people do the same in the UK -- buy the identity of some old Dutton and stick it on their newly built kit car. Most likely illegal, but could work.

What some people do here in Lithuania is register self-builds as self-built tractors. They are regulated, certified and registered by a different agency (~county's department of agriculture), so it's a lot easier (but then you have tractor number plate on the back with green lettering, no plate in the front, and formally you're not allowed on motorways and can't exceed 40 km/h, he he). Ask around, that may be possible in Romania, too.


For applying a VIN to your car, yes, you need to buy a set of number/letter punches, and punch it on a 3 mm plate which you then weld onto a chassis member (there are some guidelines for positioning it in the IVA manual).

I'll repeat for the n-th time: consider registering in Poland! They have lots of kit cars and self-builds (have a look at the galleries in http://www.lotus7.pl/galeria/), a much laxer approval procedure than in UK, several companies specialising in kit cars (though I didn't have much luck trying to contact them by email). http://walenda-motorsport.pl/ , http://www.t-c.pl/kit-car-en/#/HOME

not sure if its still possible but an old trick i have herd of is to get your car tested and registerd in the isle of man as far as i know its just some form of mot ?

Everyone seems to be suggesting things that,if not directly illegal,seem pretty shady.
Remember the test is for a reason,to keep unsafe vehicles off the road so we dont kill people. Some of the systems may be inconvenient but we dont want these rogue vehicles to kill our children.

We should also remember the reputation of our forum hosts.

Good point ajay I will delete my post. Even though I thought it was a nifty way out.:) :)

Bob

ayjay, I'd love to live in UK, save up £450 and fairly spend it for an honest expert approval. But registering a self-build in Lithuania would require:
- structural calculations of the chassis and suspension
- description of welding procedures approved prior to building
- brake test meeting type approval requirements
- steering test meeting type approval requirements
- certificates of tests of seatbelt mount points
- in addition to most of the requrements you are facing during the IVA procedure

Not going into too much detail, not all of these things can be done in our country, and the approximate cost of all of this is comparable to the cost of the build itself. I imagine the tazzy's situation is similar. Thus we are forced looking into shady things, the least shady one being having someone in a country where there is a working process for registering self-builds present it as their own and get it road legal. Then EU laws kick in, a car that was road legal in an EU country cannot be denied registration in another.

Albert I feel your pain. I've been around in Eastern Europe and Africa and understand how things work and the huge wall of bureaucracy and often corruption to wade through.I am a realist too and would have no concerns about presenting someones car for testing .My concern was the "ringers"-using the details of say a scrap car to run an untested self build and other potentially dangerous practices.

I'm happy to "buy" your car and "sell" it to you after testing.;)

ayjay, thanks for your kind offer, I'll keep it in mind if closer places don't work out.

Hy guys

as far as i can see this has become quite a debate betwen two poits of view.
No one wants to drive an unsafe car on a public road...my life is the most important thing. In this case ,if we are talking about safety..a Lotus 7 is not a safe car at all..let s face it....not even an original Caterham...let s think about a side impact,or back or even front impact...is unsafe in every ways...have you ever see a crash test with a Lotus 7? I didn t ..but i can imagine.
On the other hand...if you want a race car but still a safe one not even a Donkervorth is good enough....A Lotus 7 is about something else...is about the pleasure of driving a car made by yourself..the satisfaction comes from inside of yourself.
It s our baby...we have spent houndred of hours ,a lot of money etc...for what?
No one wants to hurt his baby,his pride.
I have seen an original Lotus 7 and i can say it s not a lot better than mine. The front wings shaking like hell,a huge gap between the nosecone and the bonnet,brake lights working every now and then etc...even if i have the money i wouldn t pay 30 000 euro at least for it.
In my case ( and i m not the only one for shure) the pleasure was huge during the construction but i will not pay for registration here as much as the car cost me so far( around 4000 euro) ..this is the reason i was thinking for some other ways of getting the car on the road.

Buying the papers of a crashed Lotus sounds tempting..if anyone knows where to find.

Have you seen my car ? Any sugestions so far? Keep in touch.