PLEASE READ!

[redvictor]

It has come to my attention that an EU directive to ban ANY kind of modification to a street legal car is about to be passed as law.

Concerns where voiced to MEP's when this was proposed but we were told "not to worry".

Now is time to be VERY concerned.

This is the EU directive. http://ec.europa.eu/transport/doc/roadworthiness-p...

If this passes through every business that has anything to do with modifying any car for the public highway is done for. Any individual who owns a car that is legal for the road and is modified in ANY WAY from standard is done for.

WE NEED TO ACT NOW!

A draft letter will be on here today http://www.the-ace.org.uk/armageddon/
to send to your MEP, so you can voice your strongest concerns.
Business owners, promoters, street legal class organisers, RWYB'ers especially need to voice their protests. It affects YOU!

Do not ignore it. If this goes through there is no going back.We have very little time, so action is required immediately.

ANDY FROST.

[shovelheadrob]

There's already a wider audience thread here http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f... with some well informed comments.

[hornet]

Seen this on a few other forums, so I've just sat down and read the directive, but I can't see any mention of modifications being outlawed? Seems to mostly relate to harmonised standards of vehicle inspections, more vehicles being in-scope depending on certain criteria (age, mileage, use type) and identifying a means of recording and sharing testing data electronically across all member states.

Only things I could see that could be linked to modifications are these :-

EU directive said said:

Vehicles of historic interest are supposed to conserve heritage of the époque they have been built and considered to be hardly used on public roads, it should be left to Member States to extend the period of periodic roadworthiness testing for such vehicles. It should also be for Member States to regulate roadworthiness testing of other types of specialised vehicles.

Frequency of tests should be adapted according to the type of vehicle and to their mileage. Vehicles are more likely to present technical deficiencies when they reach a certain age and, in particular when intensively used, after a certain mileage. It is therefore appropriate to increase the test frequency for older vehicles and for vehicles with high mileage.

4. Notwithstanding the date of its last roadworthiness test, the competent authority may require that a vehicle be subject to a roadworthiness test or additional testing before the date referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, in the following cases:
– after an accident with serious damage to the main safety related components of
the vehicle such as wheels, suspension, deformation zones, steering or brakes,
– when the safety and environmental systems and components of the vehicle have been altered or modified,
– in case of a change of the holder of the registration certificate of a vehicle.

The bits in bold are the only things I can find that may have an impact, depending on how you define "specialised" and "modified", but they would seem to relate to ensuring modifications do not render the vehicle unsafe rather than not allowing them to be performed in the first place. I'd imagine that's intended to avoid scenarios where a car is MOT'd in stock condition and deemed to be roadworthy, then undergoes significant changes to things like wheels, brakes and suspension that dramatically alter the characteristics of the car, possibly rendering it unroadworthy. Currently, these vehicles could be driven for a full year (until the next test date) in a potentially dangerous state. The requirement would seem to be that if said modifications are significant enough, another roadworthiness test could be required, which seems fair enough.

Not sure where the alarm has come from?

[Upatdawn]

ACE has always been of the opinion that modifying of vehicles would eventually end by the ability to do so being slowly eroded by small pieces of legislation rather than one single regulation.

We have unfortunately now been proved correct with a single item before the EC parliament that will prevent any modifying and will, currently, render already modified cars illegal.

Without a large effort over the next 6 weeks this ’proposal’ will pass into law very shortly afterwards.

We have in our possession a questionnaire issued by DfT asking for views on the legislation and we feel it couldn’t make any clearer the end outcome.

This is NOT a Consultation document as there are no active documents via VOSA or DfT relating to this legislation.

http://www.the-ace.org.uk/armageddon/#more-901