Kit Car regs.

[Bluebottle]

In the U.K, every newly built kit-car has to pass a very sringent test, the SVA (Single Vehicle Approval) test. The test was introduced not just for kit-cars but to ensure imported ordinary production cars comply with our standards.
The Dutton Owners Club are often asked for help with the export of already registered cars to other European countries- people are being asked for Type Approval certs and stuff like that- which,of course, don't exist for Duttons since they were all pre SVA!

What are the rules in your country for new kits and for importing old already registered kits which dont have an SVA cert?

[Ray Bell]

I'm not altogether sure, but I think an engineer's certificate is used to get a single-car approval. These restrictions don't apply to pre-1975 models... that being the year when Australian Design Rules started to become more stringent.

Of course, it varies from state to state here.

[Bluebottle]

Sounds like your system is similar to ours .
The most recent request for help on the Duton Owners site was from a chap wanting to import a British registered Dutton Melos into Italy. He has been asked to produce a 'Manufacturers Data Sheet' and no-one seems to know what that is!

[Ray Bell]

Have they been crash-tested in England?

[Bluebottle]

Not officially!

Only a handfull of kits have been crash tested due to the expense- that's what SVA was designed to avoid!
Westfield and, I think, Caterham have crash tested cars to gain Type Approval, while Midas put a car through the test a few years ago to prove a point!
I believe pre-SVA kits were given a Certificate Of Newness which may suffice if it can be found!

[KC]

In the US if a vehicle is sold sans engine it can be sold as a kit. If the kit is built with the frame or chassis of a donor car, it is still titled as that original car. Many kits built form Volkswagen Beetles are still licensed and titled as a Beetle. I do not believe that kit cars manufactured in small quantities are required to meet any crash standard. They are required to meet vehicle standards of head lamp placement, turn signal and brake lamp placement and size, and bumper locations.

[Bluebottle]

When SVA was introduced here, one of the new requirements is that the car is correctly described on its registration document i.e. a Cobra replica must not be registered as a Jaguar, even if all the parts came from one Jaguar. Many existing kits were incorrectly registered in that way and people have found themselves having to put pre SVA cars through the test, which most don't have a hope of passing! (Cobra headlights are, I believe, slightly too low for a start, and the windscreen surrounds don't have a radiused edge, and that nasty protruding fuel cap could hurt someone if you reversed into them at 70mph, and those toggle switches- you'll 'ave someones eye out with those.....)

[Alpina]

I am in the process of building a Locost and as you manufacture most of the chassis yourself does that make the SVA more difficult. For instance the chassis has been made from lengths of steel tube. Does this have to be checked or NDTd

[Bluebottle]

Not sure on that one, but probably not unless there are any bits protrusing from the body, which I don't think there are.

Keep us posted on the build process, and good luck!