Could this be the end of modified vehicles?

In message , Grimly Curmudgeon writes

Absolutely. I certainly remember hearing it as a youngster, probably played by Uncle Mac, Saturday morning, and could easily visualise all the little houses and people, all looking the same.

Apparently described by Tom Lehrer as "the most sanctimonious song ever written"!

-- Halmyre

I fitted a 1498cc GT ford Corsair (remember those?) engine to a 1956 series 2 Morgan (Ford 100E side valve).

My insurers were happy at that time. I also fitted smaller but wider wheels and uprated front brake drums.

I think they took the view that Morgans were always *bitsa* cars and there was normally a choice of engine sizes.

For interest I checked the registration on the DVLA website and found it still exists and now claims an even larger engine!

regards

Other than wearing a reversed baseball cap all you cite are already covered by existing legislation, yet this is probably the exact area that this new bill is aimed at. Trouble is it is being advocated my people who only ever use modern cars, probably never keeping them beyond 3 years old. They seem not to understand that real people often can't afford the luxury of running a new car and keeping older ones mobile and safe often involves fitting modified parts.

A good illustration is air sprung Range Rovers. The system often fails and is very expensive to repair. Aftermarket companies have therefore developed coil spring replacement kits that are a lot cheaper, don't rely on expensive pumps, pipes and sensors yet are perfectly safe to use. Trouble is they are not original equipment, and therefore would make the car illegal to use on the road under this proposal!

Should this freedom be taken away? I think not. I do however think that we should spend a little more on road policing and get the badly modified cars off the road under existing legislation.

Mike

... that is already against the law.

So why do we need more laws?

I'd suggest you get yourself along to any classic car show - if only to see just how wrong you are. But many are subtly modified - like say fitting disc brakes in place of the original drums. And likely modern spec tyres. But even something like replacing a dynamo with an alternator would be banned under this directive.

Chances? How about some figures rather than blind prejudice?

I thought it was the German car industry, where rules like these have been in force for years, and they've been trying to force them on the whole EU for years too.

And then I opened my eyes in 2010, and there they all were..

Fit a Britpart component and the vehicle is probably knackered.

Modified cars are pretty common in Germany, albeit at a fairly low level. Is it possible that the rules aren't actually as strict as people are making out?

The German rules, as I had them described to me some years back, were all about making sure you could only fit parts certified by the manufacturer, e.g. no third party brake pads, etc. unless the manufacturer had approved them.

All done in the name of safety, but in practice more about protecting their own business margins, of course.

You would hope there had been a regulatory impact accessment to weigh up the numbers of accidents/deaths caused by modded cars, to show the measure was justified, but it probably looked like the original Part P one did - a pile of crap which they hoped no one would look into and see how they had misused the figures.

As they stand now, even in Germany, the rules are not so strict. The new rules proposed are extremely strict, and, as others have said, could put any car off the road if you use parts not as originally supplied. Say, putting a Bosch distributor on instead of the original Lucas, and possibly even if the Bosch was supplied new on some cars of that type.

Mine would definitely be off the road immediately, as it's had a new chassis made by a firm in Yorkshire, not by Land Rover. The design and all specifications are identical, except for the galvanising. Then there are the lights, which all comply with construction and use regs, but are not Land Rover supplied, and are a pattern part without the Land Rover marking on them. The headlights are okay, though.

Fitting bigger engines, or declaring them bigger after a rebore was a useful way of getting an increased tax free pence per mile limit from HMRC 20 odd years ago, Just enough to drop the cc into the next band but not a cc more. Insurers didn't care about a 'maintenance rebore'' Swansea updated the V5 and tax liability dropped.

Some apparently did it purely as a paperwork exercise :)

I fully agree with you. But the police seem powerless to do anything about clearly illegal vehicles. I dread driving round big cities, uninsured drivers all around, airhead females slapping on their makeup, chav scum showing off to their mates, bullies in their 4x4's.

The lamps are standard fit on some new Audis.

Andy

Where they have the required self-levelling system and 'projector' lenses ...

On Fri, 24 Aug 2012 09:11:38 +0100, "Muddymike"

They have the power, sadly cutbacks mean they don't have the time.

Mike

Also, what happens when the manufacturer no longer makes spares for their car ?

Isn't it something like eight years after car production ceases that spares are made for ??

David

Actually I mean the new "day notice" LEDs.

Andy