First romanian Lotus 7...

[tazzy5918]

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...

[alga]

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

[baz-r]

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 ?

[ayjay]

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.

[robo]

Originally Posted by ayjay

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

[alga]

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.

[ayjay]

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.