I am running at a hillclimb event over Easter and am in a legal roadgoing class. I still have the original steering wheel with airbag fitted as I am thinking this is original equipment and would be needed to pass the MOT.
I am also finding it difficult to find a replacement wheel boss for an after market steering wheel which would suit an airbag removal.
Does anyone know if keeping the original wheel will cause scrutineering issues, because my view would be that removing it no longer makes the car roadgoing legal
Hi
Thanks
I had just read the BB on line before placing post and couldnāt see anything in Sprint, Hillclimb section (S?)- just seems to say must be road legal. If air bag is specifically referred to what para number is it in case I am in need of back-up.
Robbie Roadster, a member of the forum, ex technical adviser to the club, a Mazda mechanic and MOT tester advised that the MOT regs allow air bags to be disabled on cars used on Rally special stages due to possible nuisance air bag deployment.
Not sure if that was disconnecting the air bag from the activation mechanism or removal of the air bag.
I will leave it to the original poster to research this.
JS
Thank you so much for this link.
The debate seems to be whether the safety angle of having an airbag go off in a road going production class over-rides the Legal requirement (MOT) that if a mildly modified car has no driver airbag it would fail its MOT and therefore cannot be road legal and ineligible for that class.
My other concern is that I have to drive the car to the hillclimb event, and therefore my insurance could be invalidated if someone hit me and the airbag didnāt go off because it wasnāt there!
I think I might contact Motorsport UK for a view.
MF
A friend races a Citroen C1 (yes, really).Ā The C1Ā has a non-airbag wheel fitted as required by the race rules, along with a stripped out interior, race seat, fire extinguisher, full roll cage etc.Ā Itās road registered and he came over in it the other week as his āotherā car was off the road.Ā It takes advantage of the relaxation in the MOT rules for having the factory airbag removed.
That would be more than Mildly modified as mentioned in Section 13. However it seems the organisers have seen the sense in identifying a possible problem and ruled that drivers airbag should be removed?
MF
My reading of Section 13 is that it allows true ācompetitionā cars (like my palās C1) the relaxations but excludes āmildly modifiedā cars from them - which Iād interpret as as mock competition cars i.e. road cars masquerading as competition cars. Just my interpretation of course. Not my specialist subject.
Dear All
Some MX5ās in my class ran with airbags and some didnāt over the weekend.
Following JSās helpful pointers I contacted one of the technical group advisers at Motorsport UK. He also quoted section 13 of the MOT testers manual and suggested that those in the government department who drafted the example of a fully modified rally car may not have known that other competition cars were used on the road.
He also suggested I asked my friendly MOT garage what they would do if my MX5 was presented without an air bag. My friendly MOT man said it would be a FAIL!.
So it seems to me that the DVSA/ Motorsport UK need to talk to each other?
My view would be that if a competition licence was presented at the time of the MOT there should be an āallowanceā for removal of airbag due to competition use, and a statement made on the certificate.
MF
you can always remove the airbag for the event and replace afterwards for road use & mot time - presumes the use of the original steering-wheel for the event AND scrutineerās accepting the airbag being removed for driver safety*?
Driver safety, by removing a driverās safety item? oh, the irony
But the main question mark is still over what is road legal? Running with a non-airbag steering wheel could be interpreted as not road legal and may be classed as an MOT failure depending on who one goes to.
I still think DVSA and Motorsport UK should sort it out between themselves, and will write in that vein to the technical chappie to suggest this.
Will let you know the outcome!
remove the airbagās ābombā or gas generator from the unit, the steering wheel can have the centre re-fitted & ālookā complete? - another bonus for this is making the car lighter while looking standard
Ā
okey, this is just a few lbs but everything helps
Ā
^Iāve done this when fitting a newer vw steeringwheel on my t4 van, the van had no airbag as standard & I adapted a mk4 golf leather wheel to fit using vw parts.
Curious to know why one would want to remove the airbag in the first place ? In my experience an unintended airbag deployment is far more likely during the 10k I drive my NBFL on the road each year than during 100 miles or so I drive her on track annually. Plus should the worst happen and I find myself heading for a barrier or tree at unabated speed I might be jolly glad to have the airbag deploy as it was designed to.
Hillclimb and sprint competitions unlike track days fall under the remit of Motorsport UK (MUK) and any club organising such a competition will be affiliated to MUK and so participants must be Motorsport UK licence holders, at the most basic level the licence required to compete in such events is RS Interclub. There are test days, experience days and other non competitive events held at some of the venues used for hillclimbs and sprints and you will need to check the licence requirements for individual events on an event by event basis. I believe the MX5OC is involved in one such event at Curbrough. Hope that helps.