[NigelB]

Well, the day has arrived and at 6.00am this morning (to beat the traffic) I was hacking up the M4 to the West London IVA test station. 6 hours later the car had almost sailed through the IVA test.

It failed on metered emissions, CO and Lambda at fast idle, which was the thing I was concerned about after a dummy MOT test. I hoped that a good run along the motorway to get the cat well up to temperature would sort the emissions out, but sadly not. Given that all the normal service items are new I need to look a bit closer at some of the original bits - coolant temp sensor, MAF, 02 sensor. I seem to remember the guy I bought the donor from saying he thought the engine was running rich and when I replaced the plugs they were all well sooted. So it seems like there is an engine management problem there somewhere that needs investigating.

But otherwise, the build itself seem to meet all the requirements with flying colours. The guy put his orbs of doom away very quickly after seeing that any sharp edges and projections were covered. The only panel he asked me to remove was the access panel to the "boot" so he could see the seat belt anchorages and the earthing strap for the tank, and that was it. Everything else he inspected and measured, he didn't ask me for any documentary evidence (fuel lines, brakelines, etc) and just kept making complimentary comments about the car.

So I'm chuffed to bits (apart from having to pay a re-test fee for another emissions test). It's a big hurdle, very nearly crossed and its a stage nearer being on the road for the summer. And just to remind me it's not quite summer yet, it chucked it down on the way home and I ended up absolutely soaked............................