New rules announced to allow street rods to be fully registered

[Rob. Smith]

Originally Posted by Donunder

Nationally recognised by whom Rog? Does this association have an official title? And what is the make-up of this body? Club representatives, manufacturers (are there such things as hot rod manufacturers in the same way there are Cobra manufacturers? --sorry for my ignorance here), transport dept reps, police, vehicle certification engineers ??? Is this organisation recognised by each of the various state governments? If so what's to stop our various state clubs doing the same thing -- forming a national body with Australia-wide acceptance by the various state transport departments?--if this is indeed the case-- apart from the expense of engaging a law firm to steer us through the legal and administrative nightmare such a move would doubtless involve. Did the hot rod boys act when things were simpler and have we maybe missed the boat? Could we use their charter perhaps? If they've done the initial legwork and a precedent has been established, could we piggyback on what they've achieved?






Rob, I don't fully understand what you mean by "consolidate their build rules".
Does that mean that for instance if you want to build a 34 Ford there is only one chassis allowed, one form of suspension allowed, one size engine allowed etc and are these rules enforced by some national body during the build and prior to the completed vehicle's being presented for registration approval?

And isn't any vehicle built by a guy in his garage an ICV, regardless of whether it looks like a 34 Ford or a Cobra when it's finished? It's still constructed by an individual to his particular taste and desire --- isn't it?

For instance is a Cobra built by you regarded differently from a Cobra built by Absolute Pace for example? Is one an ICV built by a skilled amateur and one a factory build by professionals? I mean a Superformance or Factory 5 car, one of dozens and dozens being churned out by the factory could hardly be termed "individual" could it? I know they're US cars but bear with me here.

I just don't see why it should be so apparently easy for a T bucket with all its obvious design flaws and safety issues, sail through rego when it's so bloody difficult to compliance a Cobra. I know which of the two I'd rather drive my grandkids around in.

Years ago the hotrod community consulted and set rules with the RTA..there were agreements about how much of an original car was present and the registration rules. Funny I wrote to the hot rod federation asking about jag rear end mods on my cobra and never got an answer...I rewrote the letter with another name and address about a jag rear end in my 34 ford and got pages of information !!! T buckets are history...no more can be built in australia..horsepower to weight restrictions. As for the factory built cobras ...Those builders go through the nasty australian design rules puzzle. as do the individual builders ! there's an old story about a builder suing his engineer for a failure then the engineer suing RTA for approving it. I don't know how much truth is in that yarn but when I was going through my engineering approval... this seemed very valid...the RTA did not want to know about ICV s so they just threw the full ADRs at me...My engineer was very savvy on the situation and helped me through the process with great aplomb ..as he said its interpretation of the rules and making the pen pushers accept the description. My engineer made sure my car was above the requirements for safety and compliance.. a nightmare but worth it.
I'm afraid we have to wear the brunt of the rules...but what really pisses me is that the insurance companies wont recognise that these vehicles are better built and maintained than most production vehicles ! ( yes there are a few scary ones out there ) but look at what's on the roads nowadays !
We have to wear the rules but with the confidence that they are better than what ford and holden ..etc produce. ha ha ha