Been a little nervous about this day coming round.. Pre MOT was booked for 11:30 at my local MOT test centre. We've used the garage a few times for MOT's and servicing. They are a friendly bunch and when I mentioned the MOT on a kit car, they said pre MOT to check everything was ok before going to see VOSA. So nice not to explain what I needed and what I was doing.
From the MOT, I firstly wanted to make sure the car was safe, brakes worked etc and that nothing was going to fall off. Also wanted to test the emissions, brake balance, handbrake strength, headlight setup and get the alignment/tracking sorted.
Woke up early to the sound of rain, after an hour or so the Sun was trying to break through the clouds.
Getting close to going it looked like it was going to turn out to be a nice day. Roads were still very wet but at least it had stopped raining.
All set... Tank full, everything as ready as I could get it. MOT was at 11:30, the direct route to the garage would take 15 minutes but I wasn't going to go through our town so I went a different quieter route. We decided to leave 1 hour before incase we had any problems. The misses followed me behind in her car.
Decided to wear my new race shoes Didn't want my feet getting caught up in the pedals.
Here we go....
I made it!!! JUST!!! The drive to the MOT test centre was terrifying.. It was only 11 miles. The front alignment was so far out, I think I had far to much toe in. Ever small amount of input and road camber change and it would go darting off but apart from that no other issues, well apart from speedo miles out and oil pressure warning but I think this was down to digidash setup.
Arrived at just after 11am.
Up on the ramps in the test bay...
I plugged the laptop in while the emissions were being tested.. Increased the throttle up to 2500RPM, I was well within the limited which I was pleased about as I had no O2 sensor and no pair control value.
Jacked up to test all the joints for wobbles.
Moved over to the another unit to test the brakes and alignment.
The brake were fine, very even braking between sides and very strong. A pass here.
The handbrake pressure was low but apparently enough to get it through an MOT.
The rear end.. A little out so a bit of adjustment needed it.
The front end.. The toe in again was well out and needed adjusting.
Yuck!
Finished at 14:30 ish.. with a £79 bill to pay.. Complete bargain. Will 100% be going back to get the alignment finalised after a shake down.
Would 100% recommend PRC Near Farnham. Here's the link - PRC Website
Time to drive it home, hopefully this will be less terrifying..
Straight away I could feel the tracking/alignment was much better. It felt like a proper car and pointed where I wanted it to go.
Managed to give it a bit of a blast, not flat out but enough to get a feel of what it could do. I was a getting a little cocky and pulled out of a junction and gunned it.. All of a sudden I had no power, and the throttle pedal went very very light.. Something wasn't right. Bugger, had I snapped the throttle cable.
Luckily I just managed to free wheel into a layby.. With the bonnet off and head into the tunnel it was clear as to what had happened. The split pin had come out of the pin holding the clevis in place so the cable was no longer attached to the pedal.
So pleased the misses was with me, she had a hair clip that I nicked, upside down in the drives footwell I was able to fix it.
Steady the rest of the way home and I made it safe back in the garage.
Now with it complete dirty and in need of a clean..
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