Things
have finally settled into some form of normality back in the workshop
with the Club Triumph Ten Countries Run having taken place and Maude
having conducted herself perfectly except for getting a piece of crud
stuck in the front carb needle valve nearing the summit of the
Fluelapass necessitating a quick pit stop to clear the problem –
hardly the car’s fault though.
Of
more concern is the Department for Transport’s recent announcement
that they will be extending the MoT exemption to all 40 year old cars
on a rolling basis from May 2018 and the underlying issue which this
carries with it, of the definition and possible certification of cars
as Vehicles of Historic Interest – or not!
Whether
or not your car qualifies for MoT exemption then depends on whether
it is a VHI or not and if it is considered to be ‘Significantly
Changed’ from the original spec which it left the factory with,
then it is not. It seems that DfT are likely to use the ‘8 point
rule’ including “has it got a power to weight increase of 15% or
more”, to establish if a car is substantially changed and one of
the main problems with that is that most cars have now had very
sensible upgrades to safety related systems such as brakes, lighting,
suspension and sometimes steering to make them easier and safer to
drive in modern traffic. This obviously means that by making your car
safer to drive you may well stop it from being considered a ‘Classic
Car’ – what then?
The
ramifications of this are likely to be considerable and rumble on for
some time, we can only hope that by the time this comes into action –
if it does – that the government have sorted out the mess they have
now created, albeit possibly unwittingly.
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