The NZ Police have been found out making up their own rules- and have had to cancel a number of Pink and Green Stickers, and related offence notices.
A customer (who shall be nameless) was given a Pink Sticker because his car was below 100 mm gound clearance, even though it was Certified, and was at the ride height on the LVV Cert plate.
When the Police Officer was contacted, he advised that they had been told to issue offence notices if the ground clearance was less than 100, regardless of the LVV Plate ride heights.
The Police even wrote a piece in the advice column “NZ Performance Car” magazine explaining their policy.
The Low Volume Vehicle Technical Association contacted the NZ Police and explained the situation, and now the Police have changed their policy, and we expect a retraction in the next issue of the “NZ Performance Car” magazine. The customer who first complained has had his offence notices and Pink Sticker cancelled.
Top marks to the NZ Police out on the road for having to deal with some of the garbage cars out there, and dealing with the attitude they sometimes get. Lets hope that they get some better training on the rules!
If anybody else thinks that they have been wrongly ticketed when their car is LVV Certified, they should contact the Police, and if that doesn’t work, contact the LVVTA
A stringent Road Test procedure is required for modified vehicles with changed wheels and tyres, modified suspension such as coil-overs, brake modifications, engine changes or any other modifications which may affect the on-road performance.
Part of the road test is the cyclic brake test, which requires the Certifier to perform three or five hard stops from 100kph to zero within two minutes, on a typical, uneven road surface.
Problems which can occur during the Brake Test are
1 Brake Fade, where the brakes or brake linings are inadequate for the performance or the weight of the vehicle,
2 Brake imbalance, where front and rear brakes are not matched, and wheel lockup is happening before optimum braking is achieved,
3 Wheel bounce and chatter, where the suspension is unable to keep the tyres in contact with the road surface to achieve good braking,
4 Dangerous effects on the steering, where the vehicle becomes unstable, or is hard to keep on course during braking.
5 Malfunction of ABS, EBD, Brake assist, and Stabililty Control systems.
The car being tested here is a 1988 Nissan Silvia, fitted with a SR20DET motor with drivetrain, front intercooler, S14 brakes and 5 stud hubs, adjustable platform struts, adjustable caster bars (front) Adjustable camber arms and adjustable toe arms (rear) and competition seats. It has been set up as a drift car, but it is an excellent handling car for road use.
The rear wheel drive Nissans are absolute classics in their own right, and a gold-mine for anyone wanting to build a fast, reliable, good-handling car, either for road, track or drifting.
Send us a picture or two, a write-up, and a plug for the Low Volume certifier, and anyone else who helped, or supplied parts. You can register as an author, or just email john@lowvolumevehicle.co.nz
