Inspection B passed

(NOTE: Post written on the 5th January 2018, in retrospect)

I don't want to talk much about the import process as it still is ongoing (as of January 2018). Suffice to say one of the steps if for the car to perform a B-level inspection. This is a more thorough inspection than the standard road-worthy periodic inspection (A-level inspection). It confirms the car adheres to EU regulations and it measures the CO2 emissions for tax purposes.

The car passed the exam without problems. Some pictures below taken during the rolling road test to measure CO2 levels.

I was very uncomfortable doing 70km/h facing a fan and having a wall not much further away. Thus my "braced for impact" position.

Aries New Owner, Order From The UK, Documents

Objective: 

Probably I should have talked about this earlier but I wanted to have proper contact with Phil first... Who is Phil? Back in 2015, as I was dealing with Steve about my IVA, he told me he was selling Aries to another person. He would still be lightly involved, doing electrical looms and some odd job, but he was passing the business. He also said the new owner was a very nice and committed bloke. I didn't have the need to talk with the new owner, Phil, so I just followed the company on Facebook.

Phil and his wife race cars on the UK. Phil keeps a more active presence online. He has also shown interest in technologically evolving the car. Early 2016 he also bought from Andy Bates, from AB Performance, the production rights for Sabre G2. So now Aries offers the Locoblade seven-style and the Sabre radical-style cars. Aries and AB Performance, that now has only the Arion S2, have been working closely benefiting customers from both with evolution of their products. All in all, it seems things will be good with Phil.

What made me write about this now was that I needed the fuel filter. I also had one of the rear corners lower than the other, seems like a failed suspension. Talked with Phil and he was real nice helping me out. In the end I made an order for a difusor, rear shocks and the fuel filter. Phil also printed and mailed in the box a technical document I need on my third attempt to import the car to have portuguese plates. Now that I have an opinion on Phil, I feel I can write about the change. Photo of the box below, that neatly packed all my goodies.

The difusor is just for the looks. It's one of the new additions Phil made and placed on the catalogue. It will look really nice!

With the document Phil sent I now have, as far as I understood, all the papers that I need to import the car. Sent a scan to the person at the Portuguese Auto Club and he said it was excellent. I just need now to fill loads of forms (manually), prepare a binder with all the documents and take it to the Club to start the process... Will it be "third time's a charm"?

Changes Done For IVA

I should have written this post earlier as now my memory became a bit fuzzy. But as a bullet list, here is what I can recall was done on the car to ensure it would pass IVA.

My mistakes:

• Tighten correctly the front hub bolts: the lower ones were not fully tight. Seems I may have been luck on the track;
• Fix a bad electrical connection that could explain why my battery was not charging properly;
• Fix the issue with the Digidash being unable to properly state the gear the engine was in: it was a bad earth;
• Tighten and tidy wiring inside the engine bay and on the rear;
• Make a proper aluminium cover for the hole I opened on the tunnel wall near the peddles.

Other Things:

• Fix the rear light that would not turn on (turns out it was a wire disconnected on the loom);
• Add an immobiliser (legal requirement);
• Add a rear light and a connection to the reverse-box to light it up when reverse is engaged (new legal requirement);
• Add the brake fluid reservoir lids with warning switches and wire them to the loom;
• Move horn from steering wheel to dash to not have wires on the driving column;
• Add labels to all indicators and knobs on the panel and put Digidash in "Road Mode";
• The vacuum pipes on the engine block and making the mixture poor when idle;
• Remove the driver seat's slider (to avoid issues with seat height against seat belts' hooking height):
• Tank tape on tunnel top and on the side near the exhaust, to hide the edges of the aluminium panels (on the tunnel is part of my "mods list" to make a "fake leather interior" that will cover this);
• Add gaiters to the reverse box and gear knobs;
• Remove the extinguisher and bracket from the top of the tunnel to avoid "projections";
• Scuff the airbox to make it rounder because of projections;
• Add covers to exposed bolts (specially on the front hubs and lights) because of projections;
• Add some height between chassis and lights to avoid the wheel arches bumping the lights;

All in all, I didn't make many mistakes. But I also did not have the car ready for IVA without going through Steve first...

Back from the UK

(Although the post is dated Nov 2015, it was written in May 2016. I thought long if I should or not post about the car until it is road legal in Portugal. I've given up waiting... It should make no difference anyway)

The car arrived today from the UK! Late August it got finally registered. With vacations in the middle it ended up taking longer than we anticipated.

I started looking for insurance to bring the car back. Turns out that I was not able to get any, at least looking on the net and with the few phone calls I made. They would either not cover me for not being UK resident, not cover me because the car was a kitcar, not cover me because I wanted to do a trip to the Continent... I believe there would have been a chance but I would have to pay a non-refundable yearly premium and I said "don't bother to quote" after the guy commented "but it will not be cheap".

So, I had to look for a transport back. Who took it to the UK was not available to bring it back and I had already spoke with a colleague at work whose brother lives in the UK and transports cars around (and also moves crates). While I was waiting for that contact to answer I looked online for others and found a guy, also portuguese and also living in the UK. He was coming to Portugal with a car the following week, he could put mine on the trailer and bring it along, price was good... But (stupid me!!!) I said no, too much of a rush. And thought better I should wait for my colleague's brother because she said his prices were killer, and it was someone I could trust more.
Turns out her brother made me waste a month. There was even a scheduled pickup date that he unscheduled last minute! Then price went up ("it's the refugees' crisis blocking the ferry in Calais and all others went up in price", he said) and it was expensive and almost sounding like a favour.
Went back to the guy I found online. He could bring it straight away and would cost just a bit over what the "brother" asked because he would have nothing planed for the trip back. If I could wait about a month and a half, he could make almost the same price promised in August (well below "brother"'s offer) because he would have time to get something for the return. Only reason the price would not be exactly the one told before was the ferries.

And so, Steve was really nice to keep the car stored until late October. By then, Virgil from Transport Virgil showed up at Steve's place, picked up the car and stored it away for a few days. In between he took the car, at my request, to a test station to get a CO2 measure. I was told that could help with the import process. Turned out I forgot to warn him he had to turn on the fan on the car (it is not automatic) and so the car started to overheat and he turned it off. Since this was a Saturday morning, time was up and no reading.

Virgil was actually a great bloke. We kept in touch by Whatsapp and during his trip from the UK to Lisbon he sent a few photos of the car!

Arriving in Portugal he gave me the chance to show up at my doorstep around midnight or just in the next morning. I wanted the car as soon as possible so he came and by 1 a.m. the car was on my garage! I drove it from the street where he unloaded it until the parking space, dried the interior from the rain and left it there.

More to come soon with what was changed while he was away, the import hurdles, etc.

IVA passed!

After all the work performed by Steve from Aries to make the car bullet-proof, it went to the test. IVA passed first time! The picture shows Mr VOSA Engineer displaying the IVA pass certificate next to the car.

Next step is to register to get the plates. It's basically bureaucracy that takes its time... I hope not too much!

Very big, huge, enormous thank you to Steve from Aries for getting the car up to the task and taking care of everything for me!

Car On The Road To The UK

After having the car with me for almost 5 years (although most of the time in pieces), it went away. After lunch it was tucked inside the van that will take it to the UK for the test. The car will arrive there on Sunday.

Steve from Aries will be going over the car to make sure my build has the security quality to pass the exam, fixing whatever he believes is not up to pair.

The IVA test is scheduled for the 29th June but there is a possibility of it happening earlier.

Legalisation Under Way

Small note to say that the first step to do the car's legalisation is now under way. I've submitted the paperwork to VOSA (in the UK) to get the car tested late May. Steve, from Aries, will be representing me and handling the bureaucracy.

The car is going to the UK early May and I hope to fetch it early June. I've already defined the trip back, doing 300Km in the UK, sleeping in Portsmouth, taking the ferry to Santander (26h on a boat) and then driving another 830Km to Lisbon. Let's see if I don't chicken out of this adventure all alone.

EDIT: I was a bit lazy when I wrote the post above and I think it would be good to add some additional information.

The IVA process is very well organised and easy to perform even from abroad. It can all be done through the web with just an additional phone call.

To apply, one needs to fill in two forms, IVA-1C and IVA-4. The forms are available online at the following addresses:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/iva-application-form-for-passenger-cars-iva-1c
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/amateur-built-vehicles-declaration-iva-4
The first requires Adobe PDF Reader to see and fill in. It has to be a recent version due to it using the Adobe Forms functionality. The second form requires Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.

I found the instructions on this forum thread helpful to fill in the form:
http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=13491

Then, I selected a few photos from the kit arrival and the build and scanned the detailed invoice for the kit. On the IVA-4 document I also mentioned this blog as a proof of an amateur build.

Then, through the address below, all documents were submitted (after I asked Steve from Aries to review them):
https://www.gov.uk/apply-vehicle-approval

Since I'm not in the UK, Steve will be my representative taking the car to the exam. From the moment I submitted the application the system started sending him emails. One of them was regarding the payment.

The IVA can be paid in several ways. For me, being abroad, the easiest is by VISA card. That required me to phone VOSA with an Application Reference and give my VISA details to a person there. After 5 minutes on the phone, the payment went on the card and all proceeded naturally.