Its now been over a week since I had my car inspected. I rang the RTA Inspector early in the week, around Tuesday to find out what was going on and he told me he is still working on the report for my car and that he would ring me in the afternoon of Friday 4/6/10. It came 3.40pm and no word from him so I took the inintiative and rang him. He informed me that he was working on my report and was up to ADR 22. He further advised that he would ring me when his report was complete. He is going through each ADR thoroughly and seeing that there are 84 of them and he is only up to 22, I dont think I will be going to the Nats in October.
ADR 22 relates to seats. Back in late 2009 after I had my MX5 seats stripped down, speakers installed, additional padding installed and then upholsered in Connolly Leather, the relevant ADR was altered, yes the goal posts were changed midstream in that the required height of the back rest was changed from the normal 780mm to 850 mm. In other words, this made my MX5 Mazda seats illegal. In order to overcome this problem, I had two extension head rests constructed which fit perfectly over the top of the MX5 headrests. Today, the RTA Inspector informed me that those headrests were not acceptable and that I would have to strip my seats down, extend the internal frames so the actual seats complied with the ADR. He indicated that my additional headrests did not form part of the seat construction and were similar to 'Wood covers on golf clubs.'
I informed him that I had sold my roof and would not be fitting one in the future. His reponse was that even though my tenax fittings were still on the car, that it was CAPABLE of having a roof fitted, I would still need demisters, even though I told him that those tenax fasteners would only be used with my tonneau cover.
This is where we are at and we are only up to ADR 22. By the time we reach ADR 84 I might never recover. I have inserted a couple of pics of my MX5 seats before the additional headrest were manufactured and fitted and after. Judge for yourself.
Standard height MX5 seats which complied with pre 2009 ADR.
MX5 seats with additional headrest to comply with revised ADR 22 Backrest Height requirement.
Baz