Low Volume Vehicle Certification » Nissan

NZ Police get a RED CARD for RED STICKERS

johnbrett — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 05:24:28 +0000

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

Examples of modified vehicles

johnbrett — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:43:21 +0000

Here are some examples of vehicles which we have NOT Certified recently!!

The Low Volume Vehicle Certification system (and of course the NZ Police) are why we DO NOT see vehicles like this on New Zealand roads

Enjoy

Road Test requirements for LVV Certification

johnbrett — Sun, 23 May 2010 12:06:57 +0000

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.

Classic Nissan

johnbrett — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:56:23 +0000

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.

Nissan RB25DET

Nissan SR20DET

There are the six cylinder cars- Skyline, Laurel and Cefiro, and the four cylinder cars – Sylvia, 200SX, 180 SX, all available with and without turbo.
The sixes (the RB’s) come on 2 litre 2.5 litre, 2.6 litre (the Godzilla) and 3 litre (Aussie Nissans and Holdens) It is possible to build a RB30DET by taking an aussie 3 litre block and fitting an RB25DET head. It is common to fir bigger turbos, and some phenomenal power outputs can be achieved.
The fours (SR’s) are no slouches either- conversions of a DE to a DET by fitting a turbo are common, as is fitting bigger turbos.

The suspensions on all of these cars is basically sound from the get-go, and respond well to fitment of adjustable platform struts (coil-overs), adjustable camber arms, caster bars, etc.

The braking systems can generally be interchanged- the bigger brakes come with 5 stud hubs.

Front Intercoolers are commonly fitted, and often holes cut in the inner guards for Intercooler ducts.
There is a problem with later, “frontal impact” cars- no LVV Certifier can test the crash performance of a car, so cannot approve anything that affects frontal impact. We heard of a man who bought an intercooler kit from Japan, and followed the instructions to modify the front siderails to make it fit. He ended up having to have the whole front of his car re-built with new side-rails. If your car is fitted with airbags, or is later than about 1997, check FIRST with your LVV Certifier

John Brett Technology Ltd. Ph 0800 LOWVOLUME (0800 569865)