A very tired subject: SB100

[Jamo]

Originally Posted by Black Mamba

Brought to you by a different set of knotheads:

Sacramento: Senate Bill 100, authored by Senator Maurice Johannessen (R-Redding), passed the Senate unanimously 40-0 and now awaits Governor Gray Davis' signature to become law. This bill clears the air regarding emission control inspections of specially-constructed vehicles (i.e., kit cars, Cobra replicas and street rod reproductions).

Sorry if I step on your toes, but I have big feet...you evidently don't comprehend what you read very well. I'm being direct because situations like yours are exactly why we've had the SB100 program at risk at times. Just search "Titles Unlimited" or "House of Cobras"...hell, you could probably google them.

Now read Paul F's post again...if it is actually listed as having been built in 65, it's not valid. No fair trying to blame moronic DMV employees. If your engine isn't from the early 60s (ahem...you have a Windsor), then it needs smog gear consistent with the year of the engine.

This site has had dozens of articles over the past several years on this subject, and NOWHERE has it ever been explained that having a 60s registration for a replica in California is legal. Why do you think they called it an "amnesty" program when they set it up for cobras registered using fraudulent 60s dates (and likely VINs) for registration under SB100 without incurring any legal woes for the past.

Hell, we even had a deputy attorney general weigh in on it on these pages...more than a few times.

Just because you got it transferred when you bought it and haven't been bothered by the DMV thus far does not answer the question. It usually catches up with you, and in this case, it's catching up now that you want to sell it. The prospective buyer was correct in walking away...hell, he should've run given the number of Cobras for sale with SB100 numbers.

And as for your commentary about Johannessen being a knothead, again, you obviously don't understand the first thing about the history and motivation behind SB100.

To begin with, before there was an SB100, folks fraudulently registered their cobras under 60s registrations, usually "borrowing" VINs from Fords found in a junkyard (again, via Titles Unlimited and other registration agents who "helped" customers along), or they legally registered under the special construction rules (SPCN) and had to get smogged every couple of years. Folks that did it the sometimes difficult and annoying SPCN way were laughed at by the Titles Unlimited customers. Not only did the Titles Unlimited folks avoid smog issues, they also failed to pay appropriate taxes and fees because they were registering old cars of little value as far as the DMV computers were concerned.

Maurice realized how asinine this was, and recognized that folks fraudulently registering their cars were putting themselves at risk. A cobra-owning peace officer up north even got snared in this and lost his job and pension. So Maurice, who BTW took delivery on a modern CSX, got SB100 passed to allow a legal method of obtaining a registration with a smog exemption. Informed folks know to thank him for that move. Yes, it would be nice to have a 1,000 exemptions each year, or even no limit, but at least we got something. In the early years, the numbers were grabbed in a matter of hours...now they languish unused for months due to the downturn in the economy and because folks with bad registrations have been converting over to SB100 exemptions for the past several years under the amnesty program, which has been well publicized and the subject of many articles here, and the demand has softened.

Now, having said all that, yes, it's too bad this is hitting you at a bad time given the need to sell your Cobra. You can try, but you really have no one to blame at this juncture...you can blame the previous owner if that makes you feel better. Hell, go ahead and blame me for getting in your face about this...I'd rather that than watch you go through hell by doing nothing.

Go get the damn SB100 registration...there are numbers left...and store the car until you do if you don't want to lose your ass on it or get embroiled in more problems if some dumbass does buy it from you and tries to roll the fraudulent registration over to his name...you will end up being responsible.

That's it...you can whine and b!tch about it til hell freezes over, but it isn't going to change the facts.

Sorry about the toes, but they'll heal faster than the administrative and legal (and financial) hurt you'll go through if you don't take the same action the majority of us have taken since SB100 came along.

...or sell it to someone out of state who doesn't have need of an SB100 number.