New owner, need help

[ERIKM400]

Hello everyone,

After searching for several years I have finally managed to purchase the car I had been obsessing about for quite some time: a 2005 Noble M400.
Rather hard to find, especially if you want the steering wheel on the right (=left ;-) side.

The car has been imported into Belgium and is currently sitting in my garage while I'm busy with the registration procedure.
Now I've been told that it will be impossible to get the car approved for road use in Belgium without a document confirming that the car complies with Euro 4 emissions and pollution norms.
I've tried to get such a document from Noble UK and from the Benelux importer for Noble but both tell me they can not deliver this document.

I know there are at least 5 Noble M12/400 cars driving around in Belgium and I know at least one owner is a Pistonheads member.
Advice from other Belgian Noble owners (or any of you who thinks he can help) on how they got their car registered would be very much appreciated.

It starts to get frustrating not being able to drive the car now that the weather starts to improve, especially with a bunch of you guys heading down to Spa for the Easter weekend.

Thanks in advance,

Looking forward to join the club (once I can get driving)

Erik

[Dr K]

Not sure that you'll find it easy to get the car Euro 4 emmission compliant. In the case of Holland, the cars pre 2005 only had to be Euro 3 compliant. If it's the same in Belgium then it might be difficult for you. First step would be to contact Ford to see if the Duratec engine can be Euro 4 compliant.

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

Dr K said:

First step would be to contact Ford to see if the Duratec engine can be Euro 4 compliant.

Not sure that'll help as technically Ford aren't the source of the engine. Various companies have supplied those engines to Noble over the years, none of them being Ford. If you go down the testing route the lack of OBDII port will be the first of many issues.

Are there no SVA/IVA/ kit car rules you can use to help?

[Hubert K]

Contact Chris at www.rhd-speedmaster.com. I am sure he can help !

Please keep me informed

Very Best
Hubert

[Hubert K]

ThatPhilBrettGuy said:

Dr K said:

First step would be to contact Ford to see if the Duratec engine can be Euro 4 compliant.

Not sure that'll help as technically Ford aren't the source of the engine. Various companies have supplied those engines to Noble over the years, none of them being Ford. If you go down the testing route the lack of OBDII port will be the first of many issues.

Are there no SVA/IVA/ kit car rules you can use to help?

Forget about Ford support.
Tried to get some help from Ford or Mazda concerning approval of my Ginetta G60.
Although there are some cars using the same engine meeting EURO4 ( Mustang 3.7, Mazda CX9) and even EURO5 ( Ford Edge) Ford and Mazda is not willing to help anyway.

But as I wrote above there should be no problem with a registered car with some help from Chris. He did it with Noble already, as you can see at his homepage.

Good luck
Hubert

[Hubert K]

ThatPhilBrettGuy said:

Dr K said:

First step would be to contact Ford to see if the Duratec engine can be Euro 4 compliant.

Not sure that'll help as technically Ford aren't the source of the engine. Various companies have supplied those engines to Noble over the years, none of them being Ford. If you go down the testing route the lack of OBDII port will be the first of many issues.

Are there no SVA/IVA/ kit car rules you can use to help?

Forget about Ford support.
Tried to get some help from Ford or Mazda concerning approval of my Ginetta G60.
Although there are some cars using the same engine meeting EURO4 ( Mustang 3.7, Mazda CX9) and even EURO5 ( Ford Edge) Ford and Mazda is not willing to help anyway.

But as I wrote above there should be no problem with a registered car with some help from Chris. He did it with Noble already, as you can see at his homepage.

Good luck
Hubert

[Hubert K]

Contact Chris at www.rhd-speedmaster.com. I am sure he can help !

Please keep me informed

Very Best
Hubert

[ERIKM400]

Thanks for all the replies so far.
I knew I could count on the Pistonheads community for some help.

I have tried getting a document for the Ford engine but that didn't work. It may have started out as a Ford Duratec engine which complied with the EU4 norm but after Noble bolted on a couple of turbochargers and an intercooler (and some other minor changes) they can no longer make any declarations about emissions.

Sadly in Belgium there are no SVA rules or other exceptions I can use. Only oldtimers don't have to follow the regulations but I'm not going to wait for another 13 years.

Hubert K, thanks for the link to the German company. That looks like it might be a solution. I'm certainly going to contact them.
Somebody already told me there was a "German way" around my problem but from the way they explained it to me it seemed I would have to register the car in Germany and drive around in Belgium with German plates.

Will keep you guys updated.

[verba1]

You can try contacting bzguy on here . You can search him under members . He has or had a Noble in belgium

Edited by verba1 on Wednesday 3rd April 16:54

[Hubert K]

ERIKM400 said:

Hubert K, thanks for the link to the German company. That looks like it might be a solution. I'm certainly going to contact them.
Somebody already told me there was a "German way" around my problem but from the way they explained it to me it seemed I would have to register the car in Germany and drive around in Belgium with German plates.

Will keep you guys updated.

You do not need to drive around with German plates. Chris can do EURO3/4 or 5 (whatever you need. It depends on date of first registration) certificate valid in whole Europe. So you can register the car in Belgium.

Btw I quess it is much easier to drive around with british plates than doing German approval.

[ERIKM400]

Yes, it would be easier to keep it on English plates but the car wasn't imported from the UK.
It's a left hand drive version coming from a country far away where petrol is cheap and the sun always shines ;-)

[bzguy]

Hi Erik, welcome to this forum

I've received your email.

For all forum users, the short story how I registered my car in Belgium :

- declared car @ customs
- went through the whole 'homologation procedure", since the car has no CoC (Noblecars confirms there was no CoC due to very low production)
- had to be patient for about 8 months, invested about 200 - 250 EUR for MOT's, documents, etc

Noblecars confirmed me that all Nobles comply to the legal emissions standard.

Unless law has recently changed, this should be the way to go.

Key of the whole story : make sure you know every detail about the car (engine, engine number, chassis number locatuion, technical specifications, etc), make sure to have as much info as possible, since the whole file goes through some administration, and they're picky on it !

Godd luck, if you need any help, let me know, I'll be happy to help you out !

BTW : as far as I know, only 2 Nobles are officially registered in Belgium

[Hubert K]

bzguy said:

- had to be patient for about 8 months, invested about 200 - 250 EUR for MOT's, documents, etc

wow, that´s realy cheap !!! In Germany solely exhaust emmision test is 1200 Euro. Whole admission test for exotic cars like Noble or Ginetta is minimum 5000Euro open to the top.

[ERIKM400]

Hubert, I have contacted Chris at Speedmaster and he has a solution for my problem indeed.
But that's a very complicated and expensive way of getting some documents for my car .
Think I'm going to try bzguys suggestions first.
If that doesn't work I can still try "the German way".
Bzguy: I will contact you by mail for some more information.

Thanks again, will keep you all informed.

[Gadgeroonie]

Is it true modifications to cars is illegal in Belgium ?

[ERIKM400]

Basically: yes.
You can do some degree of tuning but that's mostly cosmetical changes.
There's no way we can put another engine (like a big American V8) in a car, supercharge an engine, change from a manual to a sequential gearbox, etc...
Even chiptuning can get you in trouble (which doesn't mean we don't do it )

[Rob_W]

and people wonder why we don't buy into the euro dream?