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Most days I have a look at : http://www.prewarcar.com/postwarclassic/
It's usually worth a few minutes browse, but yesterday I saw this and thought it worth sharing (and there's a pic of a very nice modded Mk2 Jag as well) -
Substantial changes by the Department for Transport mean that more classic cars are freed from MoT and road tax in the near future. That’s the good news. The bad news is that another group of classics may become impossible to be driven legally anymore.
What’s the story? From May 20 next year classic cars of 40 years and older will be exempt for the annual MoT and won’t be charged for road tax either. Currently, only vehicles registered before 1960 are MoT exempt so with the new rules the number of roadworthy classics benefitting from no MoT and no road tax will be more than doubled. But that’s not all the DVLA have envisaged.
These rules are applied to completely standard cars as the new legislation also states that vehicles that have been ‘substantially changed’ still are subject to an annual test. The question now is what ‘substantially changed’ exactly means. It is believed that an ‘eight point rule’ on what is original and what not will be made up. One of the themes included in this is the car’s power to weight ration. A ratio of more than 15% in excess of the car’s original design won’t be allowed, ‘unless’ (there’s always an exception…) ‘such a modification took place before 1988’.
That exception should safeguard most of the historical stuff, but there is no doubt that there will be many others that may fall out. Classic kit cars, custom cars, hot rods, reconstructed classics and plenty of other conversions may become in serious trouble. Not just MGBs with Rover V8s and Mk2 Jags with BMW engines. How about the ‘official’ reconstructions, resurrections and ‘sanction two’ cars by motor manufacturers? We foresee a legal minefield here.
(Words Jeroen Booij, picture Jaguar PR)
It's usually worth a few minutes browse, but yesterday I saw this and thought it worth sharing (and there's a pic of a very nice modded Mk2 Jag as well) -
Substantial changes by the Department for Transport mean that more classic cars are freed from MoT and road tax in the near future. That’s the good news. The bad news is that another group of classics may become impossible to be driven legally anymore.
What’s the story? From May 20 next year classic cars of 40 years and older will be exempt for the annual MoT and won’t be charged for road tax either. Currently, only vehicles registered before 1960 are MoT exempt so with the new rules the number of roadworthy classics benefitting from no MoT and no road tax will be more than doubled. But that’s not all the DVLA have envisaged.
These rules are applied to completely standard cars as the new legislation also states that vehicles that have been ‘substantially changed’ still are subject to an annual test. The question now is what ‘substantially changed’ exactly means. It is believed that an ‘eight point rule’ on what is original and what not will be made up. One of the themes included in this is the car’s power to weight ration. A ratio of more than 15% in excess of the car’s original design won’t be allowed, ‘unless’ (there’s always an exception…) ‘such a modification took place before 1988’.
That exception should safeguard most of the historical stuff, but there is no doubt that there will be many others that may fall out. Classic kit cars, custom cars, hot rods, reconstructed classics and plenty of other conversions may become in serious trouble. Not just MGBs with Rover V8s and Mk2 Jags with BMW engines. How about the ‘official’ reconstructions, resurrections and ‘sanction two’ cars by motor manufacturers? We foresee a legal minefield here.
(Words Jeroen Booij, picture Jaguar PR)
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