The funny side of a testers life.
Coming from the UK the dreaded MOT (comes from the old fashioned Ministry of Transport of the last century ) an approved safety test advisory first introduced by the Gov in the 1960's. Originally for basic requirement of safety conformity applicable to Brakes, Lights, Steering and Tires (Tyres).
Of course its has grown in complexity and government oversight and in fact morphed into an "Agency" which is another word for an over bloated government quango!
Funny we in the West like to look down our noses at lesser authoritarian Govs in the world and their Secret Police but we call them "Agencies" when they are up to doing the same thing!
Anyway I used to be one of those inspectors for the local authority. In this case Gloucestershire County Council in the early 70's. Of course in "them" days there were a lot of old rusted out cars running about, which prompted the Gov to introduce the tests in the first place!
One day I was asked to test this mid 1930's wreck of a Riley.
I failed it on brakes, steering, tires and holes in the floor. It was like a kiddies pedal car to describe it. In fact it was so bad that I issued a "red 'un" basically a failure to road test it as unsafe and it had to be towed to a repair shop or the owner's place of residence. This meant a tow charge which infuriated the owner who I latterly discovered a war hero having fought Rommel and his Afrika Corps at El Alamein with Montgomery's Desert Rats.
He lived in a council house and was on welfare but he kicked up such a stink about his bloody car that even our local MP got involved to "do something'!
In turn I was brought before the "management" who ran the place at the time by two retired ex British Army bods, and Brigadier and a Colonel. I was politely told that I was young, too enthusiastic in my job and full of excess of zeal.
Hence I was to pick the car up and re-test it in a more "favourable" light with an oversight by another fellow tester who was about my dad's age!
Having re-tested the car he said "Well Laad lets squirt some grease in them thar king pins that will take out the wear; Yes he will need a couple of tyres and I can adjust his brakes for him so that they will comply. The police workshops can put two bits of metal sheet down to cover the holes!
Having got all this done, test the brakes! In those days we used a Tapley meter to measure brake efficiency and record it on the test record sheet.
Ted the old guy tested the brakes in the yard, and yes they worked--- skids --compliance!
BUT
In the back seat were a stack of old batteries which I suppose the owner was about to weigh them in for cash. All the furious braking activity has tipped them over and acid was dripping out of the holes in the rear section of the wooden floor. Ted the old tester put the car on the pit to do a final walk through when acid dripped down his neck!
Mad as a wasp, Ted tore out of the pit heading to the mens' rooms; recovered agreed with my original test, wrote another red 'un and cussed out the two old soldiers running the show!
Suffice to state that we never saw that bloody awful Riley ever again and everything fell silent--Until that is I failed the Ford Lotus Cortina belonging to the local Chief of Police--It didn't make him too happy--especially getting a red 'un twice!--
That zeal will get yah every time!
Dennis