MOT with roll cage, buckets etc for track day car
 

My 2003 WRX is basically a stripped out track car with a weld in roll cage, bucket seat (one of, no other seats), harnesses etc.

I took it in for an MOT (first time since 2011!) yesterday and it failed on emissions (which is fine, I've just fitted a brand new 2.1 and it hasn't been mapped yet), but it also had major faults recorded for seat not being adjustable, airbags not present, and also the Engine Management light being on.

Has anyone had similar issues? I'd say my car is very obviously a track day car only, but obviously the regs have changed now with regards to airbags, and seat adjustment since I last had it MOTd.

I'm in a bit of a pickle, because without MOT I can't really have it mapped. I also don't have a trailer license (and more importantly, I have nowhere to store a trailer), so going further and making it an out and out non-road legal car will not work for me :(

I'm hoping to eventually get the car to slowboy racing, because he's quite local, but he doesn't do MOTs, and I think he also only road maps (which I guess he can't do if it's got no MOT).


Bloody regs - I feel like selling up and getting a westfield or other kit car which never had any safety features.

Can you get it mapped on trade plates at Slowboy,

Was thinking about that but afraid to say but that's only one of his hurdles. Trade plates are dodgy enough if vosa are involved police haven't a clue.
Next march I think there's a whole lot of new mot rules coming in.

What we do on our race Lotus Elans, that require an mot for the race series is use a road going one & swop the plates & vin for the test, never had a problem, but now don't require a test anyway, due to the last mot rules update.

Henrik,
I can't understand why your licence doesn't allow you to pull a trailer? a uk driving licence allows you to pull caravan/trailer.
Also Indespension Trailers have car transporter trailers daily hire for not a lot of money and they have depot's nationally
Trev

You have to have what we call the Granda license :norty: Think you had to of had your test passed before 1997.

well that ages me lol, sometime in the 60's

Trev/Joe: correct, I have a b license. Just checked where the closest trailer hire place is, and they're 30 miles away in Maidstone, and aren't open on Sundays... This would mean a weekend track day would require an extra days holiday, which I really can't afford as I already have to use my holidays for other family commitments..

MotorsGT, I like your idea the best :)


Reading the vosa rules around competition cars, it seems only basically MSA log booked cars are ok, so that may be the way cars like mine would have to go down.

its a real shame that they changed the rules retrospectively, and also i cant help but think that this is bad for motorsport in general. How many people start doing track days and then progress onto other forms of motorsport? Also, most decent track day cars are way faster than the lower series of motorsport, which require full cage setups etc for safety.

I will investigate mapping without MOT etc, but i think that unfortunately thats only a small part of the problem at this stage. Not sure what the answer is at the moment, just having a moan, but selling up and getting something pre 92 feels quite attractive (or kit car as per above...). Would feel like such a shame to have the project killed off by changing regs, though, after all the late-night blood, sweat and tears I've poured into the car since 2003.

Why don't you get it MSA logbooked. Its not that difficult and could open up competing on events ( sprints,hillclimbs )

If you go on the MSA website you should be able to find a local MSA scrutineer to contact for advice.

Pacenote, would I not need to eg run a restrictor etc for this?

​​​​​​Ie does the bluebook tie you to a specific class etc? As the car has "grown organically" over the years, at the moment I don't think it classes into anything, except maybe sports libre, but I could probably make it fit e.g tarmac rally spec without too much trouble (except the turbo intake restrictor).

You may not need a restrictor, I will have a look in my bluebook later and see if I can find anything out.

here's the 2018 blue book as a PDF: https://www.msauk.org/assets/000bb20...elow-res88.pdf

It looks like a restrictor is needed, but tbh it's no biggie. My car is near enough a rally car as per page 384 onwards (section 48), so it looks like all hope is not lost yet :)

Yes, restrictor needed for rallies but, at first glance, can't find any mention for sprints and hillclimbs.
I'm at Loton Park hillclimb next weekend so will have a chat with one of the scrutineer's there.

That would be amazing if you could! I'm sure others will run into the same issues as I have :)

Had a chat with scrutineers and also a competitor running a GC8 STI at Loton Park.

For sprints and hillclimbs it's pretty much open. No restrictor needed on turbo, no need for seats and belts to be in date etc. Advice was to contact a local scrutineer who does MSA Logbooks, should be fairly straight forward. :thumb:

If you want an MSA log book, you'll need to log in to find the closest scrutineer. If you don't have a current license, you won't be able to log in.

Hill climb/sprint classes have no restriction on induction/ECU, the main limitation is that the engine block must have been available in the car from the manufacturer at some point. This even applies to the road going class. You will have no problems with that.
You would probably be in Mod Prod, as you've removed the interior.

To apply for a log book, download this form:
https://www.msauk.org/assets/vehicle...cationform.pdf
Take the pictures, then contact the scrutineer, fill in the form.

Awesome stuff pacenote +sparrowdclxvi :)