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First RAWS approval granted to an RV8 importer in
Australia
Stuart Ratcliff of RV8 Cars Australia has completed
the RAWS process so will soon be able to carry out necessary works
on imported RV8s to comply them for the Australian market. (Jan
05)
Stuart Ratcliff sent Dr Gavin Bailey an email just before Christmas
2004 reporting "Had my final inspection by the engineers
from DOTARS (Department of Transport and Regional Services) last
Friday and am expecting a RAWS (Registered Automotive Workshop Scheme)
approval may be through by Christmas. That will be a good Christmas
present after 18 months of hard work! After all the horror stories
from others involved in the RAWS I must have done something right
as I was only given one item to review." Then on Christmas
Eve Stuart sent a further email with the good news - "Accreditation
as a RAW (registered automotive workshop) came through yesterday
so we are now able to comply vehicles for Australia."
The RAWS scheme
came into
effect in May 2003 cutting off imports of all used cars under 15
years old, except for cars brought in by migrants. Stuart comments
that "the changes had been pushed along by the likes of
Nissan and Toyota under the guise of safety (no side intrusion bars
in some imports) when they saw large volumes of 4WD vehicles (Toyota
Surfs) arriving on the Australian market." The RAWS scheme
meant that workshops wanting to comply vehicles for the Australian
market had to meet strict criteria including their being established
as a corporation, have a workshop, have clean criminal history checks,
have relevant automotive skills, and bring their company up to ISO9001:2000
standard. That process has involved a great deal of time and money
to gain a RAWS approval.
RV8 undergoing ADR37 emission testing at FORD as
part of the RAWS approval process. (Photo: Stuart Ratcliff)
Once quality assurance has been gained, the preparation of an evidence
file showing that your vehicle meets the relevant design rules in
force at the date of manufacture of your type of vehicle must be
undertaken. I now have a 200 page file covering such things as lamps,
door latches, seats, seat belts, glass, steering column, mirrors,
emissions (details from the full ADR37 emission test at Ford Motor
Company) as well as ADR29.
ADR29 (Australian design Rule 29) is for side impact (intrusion
bars) and requires evidence to
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RV8 undergoing
side impact testing - painful to watch in slow motion. (Photo:
Stuart Ratcliff)
prove the strength
of the side of the vehicle. The only way to demonstrate compliance
with this rule is a test involving the destruction of a door attached
to a vehicle. As you can see from the pictures the side of the vehicle
is crushed and certain force criteria have to be met at given points.
Our design of intrusion bar worked well and we were able to pass this
test with only financial discomfort! By the way this test is done
slowly over a period of 30 sec so you get to feel the pain of seeing
the car slowly crushed!
Stuart recognises
there have been concerns that auction prices in Japan might jump
with the return of buyers for the Australian market with the granting
of RAWS compliance approvals to specialist RV8s importers in Australia.
Quite what effect Australian buyers will have when they start hitting
the RV8 auctions again in Japan to meet the pent up demand from enthusiasts
in Australia who have been unable to import RV8s for 20 months, is
uncertain. Stuart offers reassurance on this front saying "in
relation to the flow of cars to Australia don't worry. Australia might
be a large country but we only have a small population, most of whom
don't remember the glory days of BMC and don't know what an MG is.
There are currently around 130 RV8s in Australia of which we complied
around 75 (some 58%) under the previous vehicle import compliance
scheme. We will not be driving auction prices up so don't get too
worried!"
Copyright
reserved by the V8 Register of the MG Car Club, PO Box 251,
Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire OX14 1FF
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