So it's kinda the moment the whole build has been leading towards. That mythical test where the government decide whether or not your car can be registered for use on the road. 

One of the last jobs to do before you head off to the test station is to stick some videos of a walkround on the GBS Facebook group so people can constructively criticise your build!

Surprisingly... they didn't find anything we didn't already know about, but thank you to everyone that took the time to have a look!

Make sure you use lots of camera angles to show off your pride and joy!

If your wondering why there is a hole in the dash, it's because our speedo was away being repaired when we took this video as it turned out the indicator lamp was broken in it...  The perils of buying second hand - but at least we spotted it sooner rather than later!

Caerbont Automotive Gauges were very good though and did get the gauge back to us in time for IVA (JUST!!)

We had made plans to borrow a trailer from a friend who has a Westfield to get us to the test (the same trailer we used to collect the MX-5) so we set off on the Friday morning to pick it up (our test was at 8am on the Tuesday after the bank holiday weekend). We had a nosy at the Westfield, happy with our choice to build the GBS instead. We got home and backed the trailer onto the drive and started worrying about the events to follow at the IVA, we already had plans to be away for the weekend so there was nothing we could do about it anyway.  Whilst standing around chatting Kathryn started looking at the trailer with concerns... it did look a bit on the small side... surely the 2 kit cars were the same size? Out came the tape measure and... it wasn't even close to fitting! OMG! What a nightmare!! We now had no way of getting to the IVA!!

Fortunately we found somewhere to hire one that was open and had one available that also didn't cost an arm and 2 legs given we needed to have it for 4/5 days due to the bank holiday. Crisis averted!

Even though it's just a 30 minute drive to the Derby test centre for us, we figured it wasn't worth the risk driving it there and potentially damaging anything - especially on the dodgy roads we have to put up with these days. We were also planning to put some stone chip protection, mud flaps and a windscreen on after IVA to keep it looking nice long term so didn't want to spoil it now. We packed the Land rover full of spares and repairs (far too many things to list!) and we were finally ready to go.

We rocked up at the test centre and waited for someone to come and see us, 30 minutes past and no-one appeared to see us. This is pretty nerve-racking!

It's also pretty scary because the IVA test centre in Derby doubles up as a driving test centre and there's always that risk a learner driver will reverse park into you!! But we got there before they arrived and tucked ourselves away safely and watched the chaos commence. They came and went, still we waited..

So, unfortunately for us, the test centre's emissions tester wouldn't boot up fully and it turned out the tester was trying his best to get it sorted, but alas, the pump was dead... We were hoping for a free pass on that one but that was wishful thinking! It wasn't likely we were going to pass today (only 1 in 10 pass first time) so we figured, whilst annoying, it wasn't the end of the world.

The tester said he would do the rest of of our test for us, but advised we'd have to return to do the emissions test. A very unfortunate situation given that we'd both taken the day off work and had to hire a trailer.

The test drew to a close and not much had been said about the car in terms of anything being wrong so we didn't know what to expect. Perhaps he was saving his long list until the end..? But... we passed everything else. PHEW! We were not expecting that! The tester said ours was one of the best built cars he had ever tested and commended us on our stunning build. He even commented on how few home built cars pass first time and that we should be very proud of ourselves to add ours to that list (assuming all went well in the emissions test).

On the way home we detoured (in what had now turned from a nice day to drizzle!) to our friendly MOT man to check the emissions. We connected up the laptop to the ECU and leaned the car off until it passed - the car was not at all happy about this but at least we knew we shouldn't have to make a 3rd trip after the days success! I would definitely recommend getting the emissions sorted before you go. Ours was a mile off!

Whilst we were at the MOT station we were about the back the car out when a horrible loud rattling noise started in the engine bay... well at least it waited until after the mornings test I suppose! After much pondering over how serious the issue causing the noise may be, it turned out the pulley on the water pump was coming loose so that was a quick fix. PHEW!

It must be said, the IVA experience was much better than we were expecting (especially with it being a government agency). The guys there could not have been more friendly and they were incredibly apologetic about the broken emissions tester. We even spent some time having a general moan together about how government stuff is so slow and cumbersome.

All credit to the guys at the Derby test centre, they made the IVA almost an enjoyable experience!

A quick trip back, 3 weeks later (I know, you'd think the computer would have let us got us in a bit earlier given it wasn't our fault we had to go back - but at least we didnt have to wait the full 8 weeks for the first retest date they gave us!) and we were finally in possession of an IVA pass certificate, WOO! We did unfortunately forget in our excitement to take the obligatory test pass photo at the test centre, so we took it at home instead!