Fully road legal

Having passed IVA, the next step is to get through the DVLA process, which is, if anything, an even more daunting task. Theoretically it's just paperwork, so you'd think that you could just hand over the IVA certificate, get a tax disc and a numberplate, job done, but of course government agencies are not really geared up for that sort of efficiency.

I first drove up to the DVLA (60 miles away in Peterborough) straight after the IVA, but missed their opening hours by five minutes. I went up again on the Thursday, handed over the impenetrable forms (which are extremely hard to fill out as they cover importing vehicles, registering new vehicles, etc, as well as kit cars, and therefore have many irrelevant fields). They took the forms and told me to turn up in a week with the car on a trailer so that they could inspect it (i.e., check the VIN which was already checked at IVA).

On Tuesday I took it up to DVLA on a trailer (thanks Simon), which blew up various fuses on my car - I blame the trailer, Simon blamed my car. I suspect he's right. DVLA had a look round the car, and then sold me a tax disc to start from April 1st (Tuesday being March 29th - hence getting a tax disc from the start of March would be a bit of a waste). As they pointed out, they couldn't give me the tax disc there and then, obviously, despite the week's notice, so they'd have to post it anyway...

The numberplate details and tax disc arrived today, dated to start from the start of March, bit of a waste of money there. I drove to Halfords and got them to make me up some plates - they were a little thrown by the letter Q, which they didn't have, but they did their best to make one out of an O and a straight bit. It looks rubbish but it will do for now.

There was a little bit of light left, so I went for a quick drive. Filling up confirmed I was getting about 22 mpg, which is poor. Otherwise, the car performed well, and drove very nicely (and quickly). I need a stronger neck, or a windscreen though - 100 mph wind buffeting a heavy helmet is hard work.

When I got the car back home, I plugged in the laptop and found that it was reporting a lambda sensor error. Not a big surprise, I'd seen this intermittently before, and had already ordered a new sensor with the intention of replacing the one that I hadn't previously replaced. I popped the new one in; hopefully this will sort out the fuel consumption (apparently it's quite possible for bad lambda sensors to wreck fuel consumption on these engines, so this is quite plausible).

I also tried plugging in my old dash, and discovered that the reason that it was displaying low water temperature was because the new dash was mis-calibrated - the water temperature was in fact exactly where it should be - given that I'd replaced the thermostat I'd expect water temperature to be spot on, but it's good to have it confirmed.

Looking forward to the summer now.