Hawk chassis tested to European standard?

[thomas]

For the registration of a kit car in Switzerland I have to give evidence that the seat belt anchor points are tested to European Standard ECE 14.

Gerry states in the HF3000 brochure, that the chassis is "extremely strong", but what does it mean exactly? Have any tests been carried out or is this just a statement from his experience?

By the way, has anybody invited Gerry to participate in the forum to reply to such questions directly from the source?

[Stratos]

John Rutter will be able to be more accurate than me on this, but I believe that the Hawk has already passed the TUV standards.

Originally posted by thomas
By the way, has anybody invited Gerry to participate in the forum to reply to such questions directly from the source?

Gerry registered as a member on 29th May 2002.

[rutthenut]

From memory, I recall that specific tests were done on the seat belt anchorages a number of years ago for somewhere in Europe, probably Holland. The kit did pass the tests, whatever they were. I'll see if I can find out more (this was also in a newsletter at the time too, but that doesn't exactly narrow it down). Gerry is obviously the person to check with for that.

I have a feeling that TUV tests are covered, perhaps by tests applicable to UK vehicles. The SVA process should help a bit here, which is particularly of use in getting a UK registration and then exporting the car to another European country. As the test you listed is a 'European Standard', I would feel confident that the car will pass. The problem may be in getting paperwork that proves this.

Note that the chassis and roll-cage structure were independently tested in order that the vehicle could get an [RAC] MSA roll cage certificate. Totally different requirements and specifications, so not of much use for your immediate query.

There are cars in other countries in Europe, but I have no idea if they have had to prove any of these tests in order that they could get registered. Fritz Phillips may know more about this, from a German point of view.


A final comment on the statement about the chassis being 'very strong' - besides the engineering design, this probably relates to the incident when John 'crash test dummy' Whalley managed to crash his HF3000 into a Mercedes truck that pulled out in front of him. The impact bent the roll cage and John did get a cut on his head (I think from climbing out). More to the point, it wrote off the chassis on the truck :cool:

[rutthenut]

Originally posted by thomas
For the registration of a kit car in Switzerland I have to give evidence that the seat belt anchor points are tested to European Standard ECE 14.

A Google web search for that standard threw up, amongst other things, the following web page url

http://www.roads.dft.gov.uk/consult/singlev/07.htm

This seems to indicate that the SVA tests, which the Hawk kits are all able to pass, deem the seat belt standards as being comparable to the test requirements of SVA.

This does not state which tests are more stringent, nor whether the European authorities will view an SVA test pass as being equivalent to the corresponding ECE standards. That is certainly the intention of SVA approval though, with the possibility of 'fair trade' throughout Europe (as if there ever was such a thing!).

Hopefully that will go some way towards answering your question. There are plenty of other SVA related sites out there, as well as more web pages listed on the Google search. I guess you should be able to trawl that information for something specific that answers your query.

You can (should) ask Gerry for information such as this anyway. I've sent a query to him about it and will post any definite answers in here, if there are any.

[rutthenut]

Bouncing around through some of the links on the Dept of Transport web site, I came across the following page

http://www.roads.dft.gov.uk/vehicle/vse/research/evsc/index.htm

And I really don't like the look of it!

I haven't gone to the trouble of reading the documents linked from that page, but it really looks as though we are heading for a 'Big Brother' 'Nanny State' that dictates all that we do.

What do any other forum members think of this?

[rutthenut]

Gerry did reply to me with some comments on chassis testing, but none of it specifically relates to this particular standard.

Official tests can be performed at STATUS, but that costs thousands of pounds - especially if someone from the 'Ministry' needs to be present to witness and verify the tests. (It's things like this that add to the costs of a business, so please no whinges in here about the cost of the kits as I may just have to shout back in defence of Hawk Cars).

The Hawk chassis had been tested at STATUS, but only informally, as a member of that organisation. Apparently, it exceeded the torsional rigidy tests fivefold. Hence Gerry's claim that the chassis is 'extremely strong'.

<off-topic>
And I do know that the CAE chassis obtained a 'Blue Riband' award, but that was an especially unofficial rating given by STATUS in an informal fashion. I have no doubts that the Corse chassis is very strong, but the award was very much 'tongue in cheek' and I think that using that as an official quote put the tongue even further in that direction!
</off-topic>

I've no idea what specific loadings or measurements have been used for any of these chassis tests though, but suffice to say that all of these kits seem to have stiff structures as part of their design.

[mogul_x]

When I ordered my Hawk, I was half considering sending the chassis to my place of business, and doing a couple of static stiffness tests on it. It wouldn't take too long to do a quick vertical bending and torsional rate test, and I was interested to see how well the Hawk chassis compared to some published figures I'd seen for the Corse.

Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to deliver the car there, so I had it shipped to my house instead. I don't think I'll be doing the static testing, unless one of my bosses wants to "benchmark" the frame, and is willing to pay the freight to have it shipped there and back. I definitely won't attemp it after the car is finished.

[shaun]

I would be interested in contacting the French owner of a Stratos replica. Does anyone have any telephone or Email address for him, if he is not reading this forum?

[GMC]

Shaun,
The car is longer in France as it could not be regestered there, I now own the car and it is in Ireland. I do have this telephone number.

Gerard.

[rutthenut]

Originally posted by shaun
I would be interested in contacting the French owner of a Stratos replica

I don't know about the particular owner you were thinking about (David Boorer, was it?) but Hawk Cars does have an agent in (Northern) France if that would be of any help.

I don't have his contact details either (fat lot of good I am, eh?) but Gerry would certainly put you in touch. There is also Oracle Cars of Belgium if you want another mainland-Europe contact.

[Stratos]

There is Jean-Claude Charvin. I sent him an email and he has now contacted Shaun about this.