Certificate of conformity

[simon walton]

Hi , anyone know how I can get a certificate of conformity to make it easier to export my car to Europe ?

[Rednop1]

Impossible !

[Mark (smokey mow)]

They don’t exist unless you happen to have one of the type approved ZEI’s sold in the late 90’s or a sport turbo.

[Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO]

you can read more here-https://www.vehicle-certification-agency.gov.uk/glossary/certificate-of-conformity-or-coc/

 

Bottom line is it's costly and normally only done for volume car manufacture. Hence Westfield and other kit builders, don't generally take the cost or pain of doing it for every model etc.

 

 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

15 minutes ago, Mark (smokey mow) said:

They don’t exist unless you happen to have one of the type approved ZEI’s sold in the late 90’s or a sport turbo.

 

What Mark said. There were special models over the years from Westfield that were able to be sold normally in Europe. Outside of those models, it's very, very difficult, and usually has to be done on a one to one basis, as far as I know, if possible at all in the destination country.

 

The only exceptions granted that I'm aware of are on models old enough to be covered by classic car regs in the destination countries, which typically means a Westfield built and registered, before around 1989/90 or so.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

And of course, given the current situation, even if you had a Euro spec Sport Turbo, if you don't have the paperwork already, there is no vehicle manufacturer at the moment to supply any.

 

The only other thing I can think to suggest, is to reach-out to Westfield old German importer, he may just be able to offer more advice based on his knowledge and experience. - Christoph A W Bettag, http://www.Westfield.DE/

[Andrew O Byrne White - Ireland AO]

Where in Europe are you/the car headed to? Different rules in different countries, but the IVA counted instead of a CoC when I brought mine to Ireland.

 

Regarding Dave's point about paperwork, again, it may be different elsewhere, but in Ireland, they'll accept a letter from a classic car owner's club if original paperwork can't be obtained from the manufacturer. Worth looking into with your destination country to see if they have a similar route. 

[pierreA]

On 21/07/2022 at 14:49, Mark (smokey mow) said:

They don’t exist unless you happen to have one of the type approved ZEI’s sold in the late 90’s or a sport turbo.

Hi guys,

sorry to step in. Mark I'm seriously interested in what you wrote. Do you mean ZEI until 1999 are European type approved ? How can I get sure with that? the thing is, I recently bought one this year (first reg is 06/99), asked for conformity notification from Westfield France importer and the answer was : not approved. Meanwhile, I found out a mistype in VIN number changing "ZEI" to "ZE1"... in all documents including logbooks and others.

Finding a way to get evidences that it's a type approved would make registration in France so much easier, I can't say how much it would, believe me!!!

thanks

Pierre.

 

[Kingster]

8 hours ago, pierreA said:

found out a mistype in VIN number changing "ZEI" to "ZE1"

Not mis-typed. The licensing agency over here do not allow the letter “i” to be used in VIN numbers. So the i gets replaced by a 1

 

Same thing on other models - SEIW gets stamped as SE1W

[Mark (smokey mow)]

8 hours ago, pierreA said:

Do you mean ZEI until 1999 are European type approved ? How can I get sure with that?

 

The ZEI was designed for European Small Vehicle Type Approval and may were sold as such, although I cannot say whether those that were sold in the UK were equally certified as it would not have been required here.

 

Those cars destined for the continent where the European Type Approval would have been required were supplied with a datasheet describing all the components used on the car and their E-marking, together with the CofC and evidence that they were factory built.

 

the ZEI is distinguished from the SEI by having a fully enclosed body tub around the front suspension, the indicators set into the clamshell wings and an offset bonnet scoop to enclose the downdraft carburettor.  Copies of the sales brochure can be found in the download area on this site for fully paid members and there's also more detail in the Robinshaw Bouckley book, all small extract from which I have shown below.

 

 

[BigSkyBrad]

It’s not that cut’n’dry though - our 1999 ZEi (with ZE1… vin) was factory built, but with cycle fenders, V8 bonnet, exposed suspension and Supersport scuttle. Perhaps by 1999 they had a surplus of ZEi-stamped chassis’ to use up? The chassis has the hallmarks of type-approval, such as tow rings front and rear, underslung exhaust, etc.

 

CoC for our car would be helpful, should we return to NZ with it.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

This may or may not be applicable to the ZEi, but sounds like it may, from some of the recent comments.

 

A kind of three way conversation pre the factory closing, re Sports Turbo's and someone wanting to buy one second hand in the UK, to take to France, revealed the following nugget I hadn't been aware of, but that made perfect sense: Sport Turbos in Euro spec, as sold via the European dealers, (and I guess the Mid/Far Eastern Market dealers, too, though not sure if they had their own spec variation) were the only ones sold with relevant certification of export to those markets, as standard. UK sold Sports Turbos, for the UK market, weren't usually fully compliant, so never had the export paperwork. I'm sure you could have ordered a fully compliant one if you wanted, equally, I don't think the "missing" parts would have been that difficult to add, at the time. However, I'm not sure, if even then, the factory would retro issue the paperwork, without at least the car going back to them for "conversion".

 

 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

10 minutes ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman said:

However, I'm not sure, if even then, the factory would retro issue the paperwork, without at least the car going back to them for "conversion"

And therein lies the problem. Setting aside the issue that the factory is no longer trading for the foreseeable so the potential source of the required paperwork is unavailable, we’re discussing a model here that is 25years old so the chances of it still complying exactly with the original type approval documents would be very remote.

[pierreA]

Hi guys, thanks for all your comments and explanations. Seems a little bit clearer now. Understood for the vin number. Regarding vehicle IVA in France I don’t expect anymore Coc or anything else, only keep Hope by the fact zei cars where made in the way  to be european type approved. Cheers. Pierre.