Skip to main content

Department of Transport Modification Application

As I mentioned in the previous post I wanted this car to remain street legal and as a result I was going to have to get a Modification permit and approval for the level of modifications I was looking at. This means that all of my modifications were going to have to comply with the National Code of Practice for Light Vehicle Construction/Modification.

The initial stage of the process is to complete a Modification Application which outlined what I planned to do. This stage is relatively simple and is just so they can stop you from starting anything that they will reject straight away. All you get at the end of this stage is "in principal" approval to continue with your modifications. As an engineers report and thorough inspection are required to get the final approval.

I wanted to get this stage started as quickly as possible as it had to be submitted by mail so I knew the processing and response times would be slow. As a result I did some rather quick and high level research and started selecting parts that I may use in my build so that I could fill in the initial application. I would be able to change these parts later in the process and providing they were similar in function the "in principal" approval would still stand. I will also contact an Automotive Engineer to go through this process once I get "in principal" approval so then I can double check with them what will be allowable as I go through the build process.

To start off I completed the below application (has personal detailed redacted):
Modification Application

Then while that is being processed I will begin stripping the car and doing thorough research on each part before I go ahead with a purchase.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Radium Automotive Order

After deciding on an purchasing a Evolve Carbon Fibre intake I wanted to look into an Oil Catch Can to protect the new intake from vented crank-case gases. There are multiple generic options out there ranging from ECS Tuning, to Mishimoto and there is obviously the option to build a custom kit, all of which would meet the brief. Although, as usual, I wanted a ready to go kit for this car. After a bit of research the only ready to go kit I could find for the E46 M3 was the Radium Automotive Oil Catch Can Kit . Checking out their website I also found a few other E46 M3 parts/kits they had on offer; Fuel Surge Tank Kit , Fuel Rail Kit and Fuel Pump Install Kit . Unfortunately I fell in love with their high build quality and marketing material as very quickly I found myself wanting it all. So as a result I set out to justify why I might need all of it. The Fuel Pump Install Kit was the easiest to justify in some ways as I was at the level of mileage where it would be prudent to re...

Purple Tag Steering Rack

Given the age of the car and the condition of the steering rack I decided that I should investigate a rebuild or upgrade. My research brought me to a great thread over at M3Forum written by forum member Volke -  Comprehensive Steering Information Thread  (updated to NAM3Forum link). It seems as though the dead feeling I had been experiencing on my stock rack was due to the progressive nature of the stock E46 M3 rack. An "upgrade" or remedy to this would be the CS/CSL steering rack, E46 330i steering rack or a few options from the Z cars. Taking my research back over to M3Cutters (as M3Forum better serves LHD cars and my car is a Euro, hence RHD) I found that the E46 330i Steering Rack is normally noted with a "Purple Tag" on RHD cars and so a common upgrade is the Purple Tag Steering Rack upgrade.  As I dug further it seems that as this steering rack came off a more standard car they were cheaper and easier to come by - especially refurbished/rebuilt - and showed co...

Redish Motorsport and PowerFlex Bushings Order

So after doing some extensive research prior to purchasing the car I had already decided that I was going to need to address the "subframe" issue. I do not have the capability to do any custom fabrication work, yet, so as a result I wanted a ready-to-go kit of sorts. Based on my research I found that the two best, most available and most commonly used options were the Turner Motorsport Subframe Reinforcement Plates and the Redish Motorsport RACP Reinforcement Plate Kit . Redish Motorsport have YouTube channel ( www.YouTube.com/RedishMotorsport ) where they discuss their kit in quite a lot of detail and also have a fair few videos of the whole process. Based on this extra information and the larger size and better looking design I decided to go with the Redish Motorsport RACP Reinforcement Plate Kit over the Turner Motorsport option. Following the Redish Motorsport recommendations for the install I also decided to buy up a set of PowerFlex Street Bushings to replac...