One of our comrades has a rather exotic Kit car that has failed IVA VOSA test on emissions only.

He has got it remapped, but the guy has no calibrated emissions testing kit, so he would have to take it to a local MOT garage for that test, before resubmitting the car 160 miles away for retest.

Problem is he cannot find anyone locally at all with a wide enough trailer to get it 2 miles up the road to the local MOT station. The only suitable trailer services he can find is many, many miles away. My trailer is too small.

If he carefully drove this unregistered car to the testing station pre-booked (for MOT?) with fully comp insurance, and gets stopped, what is the likely realistic outcome?

I don't think he can legitimately, and his car is err... not easily unnoticed!

What would a PO likely do?

Would that work for an unregistered car?

Trade plates allow an untaxed car to be used on a public road, no more, no less. How would they help in this case?

Cat

i think this was discussed before, and people said it was technically legal, you can apparently MOT an unregistered car, they just put the VIN on the certificate.
realisticly though if stopped by the side of the road they are probably not going to believe a word of it.
might be worth having a word with someone from the local police in advance

If he reads the bottom of his appointment letter it should tell him what he can do.
If he's driving to somewhere and has a pre-booked appointment then there is no issue.
Take your documentation with you because most BiB will not know the rules about driving non registered cars. I've been stopped on runs back from the docks after picking up imports, on the way to SVA tests and on the way back.

Apart from one stop they read the documentation and were fine, the exception was the officer that was having a bad day and was trying to take it out on me!

So if he booked it over the phone at short notice, there would be no paperwork supporting apart from the garage confirming verbally.. is this sufficient?

They are entitled to believe it or not believe it! It makes little difference. Ive never been stopped by either beat or traffic police when I have driven past them in unregistered Japanese cars, but if Im insured and on the way to an SVA/IVA or an MOT then I am driving legally.

Whether the exemption applies to work after failing an IVA as it does after failing an MOT Im not certain, but an MOT (permissable on an unregistered car whether itll actually be new new at first reg or not) at a friendly garage, with the cars VIN in their appointment book, will provide all the defence that might be required.

In summary: get the MOT station to make an appointment and if he does get stopped (slim chance) then he will have an irrefutable defence.

This is such a dilemma!

Out of curiosity I rang West Mercia to see what they said and they said first, Oh yes! - then, I am not sure, then - please talk to DVLA -

I said, they seem to know even less...

They said...I will speak to the Sargent... a lot of whispering then No! you have to put it on a low loader...

I said that I knew that you could drive to IVA and back, so please could you help by explaining where the difference is, they said... you would have to get it registered first or put it on a low-loader...

No discussion, no explanation, nothing!

..in other words... The impression was, can't be ar@@ed, want to get rid of the call... They couldn't be bothered to check...

Strictly speaking Roo, you no longer actually need an MOT any more.. for an unregistered new car all you need is IVA!
At IVA (unlike SVA), it is all rolled up into one these days.

Youve failed to add clarity. No one says anything about MOTing <3yr old imported cars. Self built cars are completely different, with the status of the registration being less straighforward.