[Rob. Smith]

There's an old story that goes... A hot rodder got his car engineered then passed by the RTA (NSW) then went down the road with his pregnant wife in the car and crashed. (no description to whether he was driving correctly or not) as a result the wife lost the baby... so the hot rodder sued the engineer and the engineer sued the RTA. Hence the strict rules in NSW. Fear of litigation. The RTA hates non standard vehicles. Another issue is that all the RTA technical inspectors were made redundant and relocated to office jobs. Their inspection jobs were transfered to 'blue slip/pink slip' inspectors (petrol station mechanics) nothing wrong with the latter, BUT when these mechanics phoned for confirmation or questions they are talking to the desk bound inspectors. Those inspectors are very aggressive in their reply. I've witnessed it twice. Once with a mustang I built (wheel width question) Resulting in abuse and reference to a donkeys deaf behind and the second time with my cobra regarding whether I needed roll bar. resulting in more abuse and reference to a deaf vagina ! Both times I heard this from the phone close to the callers ear. I was at least 3 feet away.