Monkey Boy 1

For this, the offence is non-recordable criminal offence so there will be no criminal record. (deemed not to be a conviction for any purpose other than the purposes of the proceedings in which the order is made and of any subsequent proceedings which may be taken against the offender )

Thanks Digs. Well, if you know you are in the right you have to put the homework in. It certainly opened my eyes to vehicle regs and what is and isn't allowed in legal terms and also how the Police and media can pull the wool over 'Mr Average's' eyes.

Too right. I think you can get Banana Beer too so it may be a drunken Monkey :-)

Just talked to the courts about what an Absolute discharge means. Their answer means No further action. No criminal record. No need to tell insurance company as there was no case for the prosecution ti answer. So the Monkey is free with nothing hanging over his head. :-)

I would assume ALL OEM painted cars have a laquered finish. It;s the laquer which gives the paint a depth look to it and protects the paint coat

I have a frozen chicken in the freezer, will a photo of that do ?

The bikes I had in the 80's the exhausts were very restrictive, and so were the intake systems, as you say, first thing was to bin them. I fitted straight through reverse cone megga's Great noise too,and open bell-mouth inlet stacks but that was on a 1977 Triumph Bonneville Bikes of that era and before needed a lot of 'Bang' to clear the exhaust gasses. I would often sit behind my mates 900SS Ducati or his Dad's Vincent when out on a run and get hit by the exhaust pulses at over 10 feet away.

Well, if that is the case, he chould be hung, drawn & quatered and the bike taken to the four corners of the kingdom and destroyed on a fire. Just goes to prove, one set of laws for one, and another for the general public.

Only issue now is that, as I took the Police to court and didn't get a NG verdict I have a criminal record. How stupid is that?

God I am muppet. I asked the courts today what conditions were laid down in the sentence. I was then told I was mistaken as the result was an Absolute discharge. That makes me feel a lot better.

the rear end of a 7 needs a spoiler to make it look better IMHO, the GT is the best looking of the 7's

WHAT With the 7 it looks like the guy who did the styling died half way through drawing it and it was left to the tea boy to finish the rear off

That was going to be my option, when I am not using the car for a day or two

I have a which I need to fit on my 6, I had a look to see how to fit them when I fitted my calipers, but gave up as I feared I would muller the fittings to the brake pipes.

They will take you back to the local station or to a deserted carpark, set up their microphones placed 20cm from the ground and 50cm away from the tail pipe and at 45° to the car. in accordance with ISO5130 and they should then do 3 tests at 3750 RPM and take an average dB reading. There should be no obstructions within 3m of the vehicle in any direction. They will also do an ambient background test for noise. Now this is where it becomes a very grey area, ISO5130 does not have a table of pass/fail results, Norfolk police take their figure of 82dB (UK car) or 99dB (Import) from the vehicle construction & use regs, section 55 Now this is where I did my homework and found out that the 82dB comes from a drive by test, not a stationary test therefore if they say your car failed, then take them to court because their measurement procedure is incorrect. This is where they failed in my case. If anyone want to read the ISO5130 spec, here is a link to it http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc/2007/wp29grb/ECE-TRANS-WP29-GRB-45-inf01e.pdf

I should have said an aftermatket exhaust only become illegal if it emmits more noise than a standard exhaust system. (but how do they test for noise when the static test has no target figure? Catch 22)

If it says 102dB then you could get fined. VOSA limit the noise levels on imported cars to 99dB

well said Dublet

The difference between bikes & cars (apart from the bloody obvious) is that the Bike exhausts should have a BS Kite mark on them to show they are 'legal for road use', Car exhausts have no such system

the three letters you are looking for Dublet are IVA - Individual Vehicle Authorisation

James, If the courts / Police want to be really anal about it.... Yes. There are a lot of things which we have on our cars which, would be illegal, if it was thoroughly looked into, but obviously the courts would collapse with the weight of it all. Dublet, that was a touching thought. Thanks

Cheers guys for the support, even those who thought I would go down for life (Bill T), and those who thought I would be executed - (Dublet) and NO WAY am I going to share a cell with Sonic, he owns a Gen 5 for God sake It's been a long drawn out experience, not something that I really enjoyed, but now I know how the courts run.

Hey guys, you can't get rid of me that quickly Right, The verdict was GUILTY for having a modified exhaust system which contravenes the Road vehicles Construction & use regulations 1986. section 54 (2) "Every exhaust system and silencer shall be maintained and efficient working order and shall not be altered so as to increase the noise made by the escape of exhaust gasses" Which, to be honest I thought they would go for, BUT, and this is the big But, I was given a conditional discharge because the Police paperwork stated that the test was done in accordance to ISO5130 and the vehicle checked at 3/4 revs, which, by now if you have read this post from the start you will know is incorrect. They checked the car at 1500RPM too high. The Magistrate actually knew his stuff too. The copper said the exhaust was excessively loud, The magistrate said that the pipes didn't look loud at all and were more in keeping with the looks of a Merc, Jaguar or BMW system. The Magistrate also picked fault with the copper saying the car was Green, Magistrate said that the car is no way green, more Blue, He also picke up that the Copper got the veh. Reg incorrect.. When asked about the ISO test the copper said that he knew the ISO spec, end the Magistrate picked up on the fact that it was tested at the wrong rev range, He also asked as to why I wasn't given a 'corrective action' form to get the exhaust checked. to which the copper said that at present an MOT does not check vehicle exhaust noise. Copper squirmed a bit when asked about how they deduce the noise result and where the 82dB and rev limit comes from. His answer was the standard "We are trained in the use of the machine and adhere to the procedures laid down by Norfolk Chief Constable. I said that the 82dB comes from a drive-by test which is totally different to the static test and that the ISO5130 regulation actually has no defined result to work from. Really to sum up, I didn't have to pay a fine or court costs and the Police did not have to pay compensation or court costs. The Magistrate was really impressed with my homework and thanked me for submitting the ISO standard and the construction and use regs, and said that because the Police did the test correctly and that my car did have a non standard exhaust system but the Police paperwork was incorrect he had to give a conditional discharge. I also found out that if your car has no rev counter they can only test at tick-over, but there is no set legislation for that, and if your car is a JDM or import you need to produce, at the roadside the SVA certificate to show it is an import.

Haha thanks Dublet, will remember that. I must say there are some 'special people' here. Very NFN. (Normal for Norfolk)

Well here I am. In the waiting room at Norwich Magistrates court,waiting to be called in. If it is anything like last time it will be hours.