Is this the end of Modified Vehicles in the UK?

[joloke10]

Ive been reading several threads on various forums and the odd magazine or ten and it seems the Government are Hell Bent in the UK with putting an end to Modified Vehicles

Where will it all end?

I agree that cars have to be Safe that benefits everybody but does putting another Manufacturers Running Gear into a Mini or any other car for that matter really affect its safety?

There are two ways to look at things,if you want a Classic Car maybe it,s better to leave things as they are so you get that unique driving experience from driving old technology

But on the other hand the Government want us all in modern Eco Friendly Boxes that run off Juniper Berries that hug trees

So shouldn't they be encouraging modifications that bring our classics up to modern standards?

I whole heartedly agree that cutting the front end off a Car completely including the inner wings and replacing it with a full fibreglass front end is going to compromise strength but surely cutting a sandwich box size hole out of your bulkhead and properly welding in a properly constructed box to allow clearance for an alternative Carb or Larger Engine clearance isn't going to compromise Safety?

Lets Face it most of the pre made Sub frames made for engine conversions are often stronger than the Original and Lazer Welded

I despair sometimes before too long I'm sure there will be an emissions tax if we pass wind ;D

Sam was telling me the other day that one of her colleagues was stopped by the Police for a blown bulb,apparently now even if you replace them yourself you have to have the job signed off by an MOT Station and i cant see them doing that for nothing

Its all gone Mad!!!

The Classic Car/Modified Car/Kit Car industry is bigger than the New Car Industry so are they going to keep chipping away until there are no older more interesting cars left?

It'll serve them right when thousands of businesses close and they have to provide unemployment benefit for what they've caused

Im afraid they will have to drag me kicking and screaming before ill give up my human right to drive what the hell i want and not what I'm told to!!!

Rant Over,

Any Thoughts?

Huggz
Jodie

[33grinder]

I too have heard this rumour banded about, mainly at the time I was doing the V8 conversion to my Rover 2600S(can be seen under the Other Cars section).

Fortunately for me all I had to do was tell DVLA what I was up to (even then it took two attempts for them to get the V5 corrected properly) and then take her for an MOT!! No engineer's report, nothing. Mind you, I was putting in an engine that was part of the range when the cars were built new.

I think the government's stance on old cars can be seen perfectly well by the scrappage scheme. They would rather promote the car building industries of other nations (apologies to anyone who bought a British car under the scrappage scheme if which, please do tell) than preserve older cars to keep an industry going. Gordon Brown is well known for hating older cars. He was the same PM who is trying to sign us up to ever more punitive CO2 emissions targets, whilst the cars that are removed from the road have already paid off the pollution caused in building them!

I should mention at this stage that my missus bought her new car under the scrappage scheme, much to my chagrin, however that was a case of protecting my interests (i.e. it would have put a strain on our relationship if I had said 'no', which for a long time I did)!

Unfortunately the days of Britain being the workshop of Europe are long behind us. I think the government would be quite happy if we were purely a servicing industry, however we don't even do that very well as many companies have relocated that side of things to places like India.

Well, rant over but you are not alone at feeling very frustrated at this government. I mean, who voted for Gordon anyway?!! ;D

[joloke10]

A Shame Lord Sutch brought his life to an abrupt end

He would of made a Great Leader ;D

One of his Policies was your own personal Free Shopping Trolley for Everybody ;D

Now you could Say Dafs being Great Shopping Cars they come under that Criteria ;D

[spunkymonkey]

I can totally understand your concern about such rumours, Jodie, but look at it this way - any such laws would at least save us from being subjected to monstrosities like this:

cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUNBEAM-RAPIER-4x4-v6-hot-rod_W0QQitemZ270548097476QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAutomobiles_UK?hash=item3efdec59c4

On a more serious note, I suspect that these (fairly regular) rumours are a little hyped up from reality. There do have to be limits to what is, or isn't, allowed - the guy who's built that Rapier claims to be a qualified welder / fabricator but that doesn't necessarily make him qualified to design and build a vehicle and can you be confident that his rapier shell with 2.9 litres and 4wd Sierra running gear is actually safe on the road?

"Well, it got an MOT" certainly isn't any guarantee of safety: the MOT test barely touches on the bare minimum requirements, and even then it's a very quick (45 minutes to inspect an entire car?) carried out by people who do not necessarily have any knowledge of vehicle design or construction, and without removing anything that might obstruct inspection. They can assess whether something is reasonably to manufacturer's spec but they can't (officially) assess the specification itself. As an example of that, from an MOT forum I use, a while back there was a case of a camper-van where seat belts had been mounted to a ply-wood cupboard. There was, as far as they could tell, absolutely nothing they could fail it for because the belt was firmly attached to the vehicle structure (via the plywood sheet!)

When someone throws the manufacturer's spec too far out the window, they certainly can't be expected to know whether what it's replaced with is acceptable. The SVA scheme (or whatever it is now) isn't much better - again, it's basically a check-list to ensure that "things are in the right place" - lighhts at the right heights, dashboards with suitable soft bits and so on.

Even manufacturers have managed to produce some horribly dangerous cars over the years - often by putting in more power than the basic structure can handle without flexing. Given that most highly modified cars involve putting in lots more power than the shell was ever intended for, there's a lot of scope for killing people by getting it wrong!

Even apparently sensible things like "upgrading" brakes can cause problems - an over-braked car can be just as dangerous as an under-braked one if the suspension behaves unpredictably under the extra braking. In fact, it's potentially more dangerous cos bad brakes encourage the nut behind the wheel to drive a little slower!

So, there have to be limits to what's acceptable or else I'm off out the back to fit a lawnmower engine onto a kiddy's pedal go-cart and insist on my right to take it on the road ;D

[Patrick]

My Mother in Law will be taking delivery of a Vauxhall Cobacksider (deliberate spelling) soon - having signed the death warrant on her tidy (late) S reg Fiesta. When you look through here and see the work folk do on their cars, and other message boards - her reasoning that the bit of rust (nothing worse than a few bubbles) is uneconomical to repair is beyond belief. The most infuriating thing about this scheme is that the cars are just squashed! No gathering of parts, no stripping of any good bits in most cases - just flattened or cubed straight from the lorry.

In the same vein - despite the increasing amount of electrical waste, the Government refuses to drop or reduce VAT on repairs of household items - despite regularly being petitioned to do so. So all those little back street repairers that used to be round in their hundreds are now as rare as rare things.

[joloke10]

My Eyes


My Beautiful Eyes

[pauldaf44]

Mar 23, 2010 15:21:20 GMT @joloke10 said:

My Eyes


My Beautiful Eyes

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 thunderbirds are go!

We must save the world from the Rapier abomination

FAB Virgil

Dadada dada da dadadada, dadada dadada dadadadada dada dadadadada dadada dadada dada.
;D

[howard]

I just hope it gets rid of the backwards baseball cap brigade who fit extremely wide wheels/tyres on their cars without uprating the suspension and steering (witness the amount of plastic bodykitted monstrosities littering the end of every dual carriageway with a wheel buried in the back of the wheel arch).....

[joloke10]

Couldn't agree more howard
I think like most things these days though its people like you mention that spoil it for those of us that may want to do well executed Modifications for reliability or safety's sake Rather than to show off and bow to peer pressure that end up loosing out

[howard]

Everyone likes quick cars though, and I particularly subscribe to the "actions speak louder than loud exhausts" front. Discretion is the order of the day for me. My Saab Turbo (on an "N" plate) doesn't even have any turbo badging, which tends to bemuse people when they think that my big lumbering barge is an easy target! The only problem being that the acceleration is so fuss-free it doesn't feel like much is happening (my first days with a Saab were very much a case of "watch the speedo" after realising I was doing 90 down the motorway slip road in third gear). I'm used to it now though, thankfully!

Don't get me wrong, a boy racer I am not, and sensible I am, but knowing what your car can and cannot do if you need to is also important. 30 to 70 speeds are more important than 0 to 60 in everyday driving, and safe overtaking is the order of they day in my world, and where the Saab excels.

I know a chappie who has a Cosworth engined Ford Prefect, that looks pretty much standard apart from wider wheels and a somewhat larger bored exhaust. But obviously the modifications go much deeper than that and are done properly and sensibly. It's a splendid piece of kit and certainly much more handsome than that Sunbeam!