Furore has passed German TUV!

[Russ Bost]

Some years ago I posted on here enquiring about what was involved in getting a kitcar thro' the German TUV & after much discussion the basic consensus was "forget it". The reason why I was originally asking was that a German customer who'd bought several complete cars from us wanted to get them road legal over there, he never did & subsequently sold the cars. I've been in touch with one of the new owners ever since & he recently got a guy who's involved with Caterham in Germany to come & see me whilst he was over here visiting Caterham. We had some lengthy discussion about the German requirements & he went away saying he thought it would be possible - well just before Xmas he achieved it!








I just thought I would share as I'm sure there are potential German owners who'd love to get kits registered over there, so, don't despair, if you can get a bike engined Furore registered there must be hope for anything more mainstream! He did say that the fact that it was already UK registered made a difference.

I don't like the headlights or mirrors, but no doubt they were fitted to fulfil a requirement!

[Russ Bost]

LLantrisant said:

what was the UK reg-date of that car? what engine is fitted? what emission classifications did it have in UK?

It was registered 2010 or 11, it's fitted with ZZR1400 engine which passed UK emissions with a CAT on the test in IVA, none of the above does it any favours for getting the TUV & German registration other than the fact that it has previously been UK reg.

[Russ Bost]

Honestly couldn't comment on the above as I don't know exactly what is required under German law nor what the car has achieved at test. Obviously the engine can be made to run at low emissions, we have to meet the standard CAT emissions test for IVA over here in the first place & I've personally put about half a dozen ZZR1400 engined cars thro' IVA without any real problems with the emissions test . I find it hard to believe that a tester would simply turn a blind eye to something & allow a vehicle to pass whatever it's condition/emissions etc. as it would be fairly easy to prove/disprove afterwards whether the car was actually capable of meeting the requirements.
I am still very pleased the guy has managed to get a (legitimate to the best of my knowledge) registration on the car.

[Russ Bost]

"may i ask about the weight of such a car and is there a reverse box fitted?" Car weighed 565Kg at IVA test, yes, we have to have reverse for IVA, it is an electric reverse powered by the original Toyota starter motor from the MR2 Mk1 donor vehicle

[Russ Bost]

"doing it this way is a lame compromise" - so presumably you'd rather see no kitcars on the roads in Germany (or perhaps anywhere else?) at all!

I didn't post this for an argument!!! I thought it genuinely might be of interest to those trying to get kitcars registered in Germany!!

If we all allow governments to ride roughshod over us we will soon all be driving cars that look the same, perform the same & are all controlled with speed limiters set by a central computer - this may be your vision of the world ahead for us, & I have little doubt it would result in less accidents & deaths on the roads, but it certainly isn't mine. I'm a great believer in pushing the envelope whatever it may be concerning; & in free speech & free thinking.

However let's not digress from the point of trying to get cars registered in Germany, I can possibly put people in touch with the guy that organised it, but not if they just want to beat him about the head for (possibly) bending some (silly) rules!