SVA & Tüv

General General Lotus Talk
1

What is the name(website) of the company that performs SVA??? And phone number plss???

Would also been good if anyone knows which company that performs T�v approvel on cars …I assume there is none in UK so germany is fine … phone number??

thanks

2

For the UK :

http://www.vosa.gov.uk/vosa/carlgvowners/importingandbuildingvehicles/findingansvateststation.htm

It’s possible that you don’t need seperate approval from both VOSA and TuV, due to mutual recognition between authorities, but I don’t know for sure. You’d need to check it out.

Also, are you sure it’s a full Single Vehicle Approval that you need and not just a regular MoT style test?

3

thanks

I’m actually not sure what I need… I have just started the research…
Just want to see what kind of options I have when it comes to engine conversion … Its really complicated, I have been in touch with the Norwegian authority which will approve engine conversions or not… … If I’m going to do it I will be 100% sure they will approve it … so they need to see the paper first so they can tell me if its good enough or not…

What they would prefer is some kind of official paper from Lotus (or lotus dealer??) which it will be written down that the car will be 100% safe to drive with the new engine and power, which mean that my brakes, chassi,noise . emission and so on will be fine with the conversion… I have no clue where to ask for this paper, and I’m pretty sure they wont give me any paper as long as they don’t use the engine themselves… ??

Maybe it will be sufficient with a Tuv approval… But its hard to say without seeing the paper first… I have been in touch with the German firm (forgot the name) which do the Honda conversion, and I was told that they would supply the Tuv paper when I have done the conversion, but they wouldn’t send me an example for me to have a look at the paper ( …

Anyway I’m not planning to do anything this year (if my engine doesn’t say poooof) , but since its so complicated I better start now with the research…

4

There is no way Lotus will supply you with anything.

Their original EU Certificate of Conformity only relates to cars as they were Type Approved. That is with the VHPD engine. Honda conversions are not sanctioned by the factory unfortunately!

There’s no reason why emissions will be a problem, as the Honda K20A has pan European Approval.
The Norwegian authorities just want to be sure that the conversion has good engineering and is safe. Do they not operate a testing scheme locally?
If not, then mutual recognition of a UK or German Single Vehicle Approval might be the only way to get an “official” endorsement for your conversion.
There is a guy in Switzerland that is having to sell his Honda Elise because the red tape simply won’t let him keep it there.

Keep us informed on anything you find out.

5

If there is anyone here which has done the conversion from Axel von Blittersdorff… pls let me know…

6

If there is anyone here which has done the conversion from Axel von Blittersdorff… pls let me know…

Well I had to look that name up…His website HERE only shows 3 upgrades:

150 bhp
180 bhp
210 bhp

and the 210 bhp one is not suitable for Elise 1.11S and 190 Sport - so I assume that it could not be done to an Exige. What are you thinking to do?

He does have a picture of the best looking and I think original MS Elise though:

[image]http://lotus-hh.de/bilder/hauptfotoelise.jpg[/image]

Those have to be the best wheels I have ever seen!

7

Axel von Blittersdorff is doing the same conversion as MSC (simon S kit)… And since they supply the TUV paper with the conversion I’m interested, but I kind of need to see the Tuv paper before I do anything (to see if its good enough)… SO if anyone has done the conversion from Axel… maybe I could have a look at the Tuv paper ( Axel wont show them to me )

8

niceguy

makes me suspicious if he won’t show you copy of TUV certificate… be careful

9

I’d guess the reason he won’t show you the TUV paper is that it has probably cost them a fortune to get the car registered with TUV and don’t want anyone else fitting a Honda in their own car and using their approval.

10

No reason he can’t show an example certificate for a car already completed, e.g with “Sample” or “Specimin” splashed across it.

I think maybe he either hasn’t performed a Scuffham conversion yet, or there is something a little deeper to be careful of…

11

I’d guess the reason he won’t show you the TUV paper is that it has probably cost them a fortune to get the car registered with TUV and don’t want anyone else fitting a Honda in their own car and using their approval.

that’s possible Mark, but it would be a pretty lame reason… after all if you wanted to scam a certificate from them there would always be other ways of getting a copy, one of their kosher customers for example ??

I have same opinion to Alex… they could splatter it with ‘copy’ or ‘example’ or ‘uncontrolled’ or somesuch… no ?

of course there may be some other perfectly plausable reason, but I don’t want to see niceguy end up in an expensive mistake so just suggest caution.

12

That’s not the way TUV works though.

Just to illustrate the situation with a TUV certificate, below is the TUV document for the snap-off removeable steering wheel kit. Shown is a sheet with 4 pages on it, I only scanned one sheet, there are another 3 sheets, one with 4 pages and the other 2 being detailed drawings. On top of this there is a 64 page TUV booklet covering all the various uses of this component. To get TUV approval you need to supply drawings and tech details, most of which can appear on the documents to authorise the parts, as you can see, a TUV document in this case isn’t like an MOT.
This is where non-German citizen confusion can arise. TUV is actually a number of things. For one it’s like British Standards, you will see TUV markings on evrything fom car parts to childrens toys to furniture. Also TUV is the German equivilent to the MOT. However to make any modification to any car in Germany the parts must be TUV approved, to do this they must undergo stringent testing and all drawings etc given to TUV.
Only when a part is TUV approved can it be fitted to the car. A German V5 equivilent even lists all the tyre sizes you are allowed on the car, anything else and you car is illegal.

Perhaps there is another reason they won’t show the certificate, in reality no-one actually knows but TUV isn’t a simple process.

[image]http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/3230/tuvdoc9ub.jpg[/image]

13

cheers Mark

14

Axel von Blittersdorff is doing the same conversion as MSC (simon S kit)… And since they supply the TUV paper with the conversion I’m interested, but I kind of need to see the Tuv paper before I do anything (to see if its good enough)… SO if anyone has done the conversion from Axel… maybe I could have a look at the Tuv paper ( Axel wont show them to me )

post on SELOC for Simon Scuffham - its his kit being used by MSC - Im sure he will know if he’s sold the kit to Axel and whether its TUV approved.

15

Unless things have changed (from 1999, when I had an import Mitsi EVO V1), there are 2 categories of TUV - one being the “overall”, being the same as UK Type Aproval, the other being an “individual” ie the same as our SVA. Niceguy is obviously after the latter.

Background: my own EVO V1 was SVA’d. A local importer air freighted the first Tommi Makinen model, into the UK - I drove this car to another large importer in Hampshire, where a team of TUV testers (privately owned Co, but approved by the German Authorities) was over for 3 or 4 days from Hamburg, carrying out TUV tests on new cars imported from Japan to the UK. Each car was then given its own TUV Certificate, which was perfectly acceptable to DVLA to enable the car to be registered & taxed in the UK.

I would be surprised if the TUV system has fundamentally changed - there are still some very low volume car makers in Germany, & they must be getting their cars TUV’d on an individual basis.

No doubt, I’ll be proved wrong…

16

Rob,

That is based on an existing model though, even if it’s Japan market only.

Fitting a different engine in a car is different. Hartge who fit BMW M5 engines in BMW 3-series’s are actually classified as a manufacturer, so a Hartge converted car is no longer a BMW in the eyes of TUV.

Therefore unless Blittersdorff are classified as a manufacturer the parts used need to be TUV approved.

As a suggestion to niceguy, why not have a chat with Komo-Tec as they seem to do a lot of different conversion.