If your building a cobra in nsw - read this.

[Baz]

It's been a while. My car has been in the paint shop for 10 weeks and should be finished in a couple more. To say I'm pissed off would be polite. Insurance jobs certainly take precedence over the individual. At any rate, Friday week is the promised date. Then it's into the workshop for a few days to have the bling re-attached then it's Trimmer No. 1 where the cockpit interior and boot will be finished. Then it's off to Engineering and Rego. Trimmer No. 2 will receive it later down the track to make and install the consul, soft top and tonneau. Then it's receiving the 3M film to prevent stone chips over all the vunerable parts.

In the meantime, I have been received a reply from the NSW Minister for Roads regarding the 160kph Brake Test for ICV's. His letter was a two page response and the first page consisted of telling me what an ICV was. The final answer as to who was responsible for death. injury or damage caused during this test was; if you said "ME", your totally correct. This took 7 months to receive back from State Parliament. What a joke.

I also emailed the Roads and Traffic Authority concerning problems I had with technicalities on the Unregistered Vehicle Permit Application and the response I received will be of interest to everone building an ICV in NSW.

I attended my local Motor Registery and asked for information concerning an 'Unregistered Vehicle Permit'. They supplied me the necessary form which included a question requesting the Chassis or VIN No. of the car I was building. "Der." You receive your VIN No. after you have been through Engineering, received your Blue Slip and had all the papers processed through the RTA.

As my new RMC body and chassis didn't have a Chassis No., I decided to email the Registration and Vehicle Manager of the RTA, a Charles Kwu, and requested from him, a direction on how to proceed. His response is worth noting and keeping in your glove box as a reference to this email which was dated 27 March, 2009 at 12.08pm..

I will quote his response verbatem;

Thank you for your email in regards to an application for an Unregistered Vehicle Permit (UVP).

To issue a UVP for any vehicle it must have an identifier. A Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) Chassis or serial number is required.

However, unregistered vehicles can be driven for the purpose of obtaining registration by the most direct or convenient route:

*to the nearest convenient motor registry, or
*to the nearest convenient vehicle inspection station or authorised inspection station to determine whether the vehicle complies with the applicable standards, or
*in the course of inspecting or testing the vehicle to determine if it complies with the applicable vehicle standards, or
*to the nearest practicable weighbridge to determine the weight of the vehicle, or
*from a motor registry or inspection station or authorised inspection station where registration of the vehicle has been refused for any purpose, to the nearest convenient place where necessary repairs and adjustments to the vehicle can be made or where the vehicle can be garaged,
*unless a direction has been issued that the vehicle must not be driven before necessary repairs have been made, or
*to the nearest convenient office of a licensed insurer for the purpose of obtaining Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance, or
*to the nearest convenient location for any other purpose directly associated with the registration process.

Regards

Charlie Kim (Registration & Vehicle Management ) RTA (end email).

I appreciate that I will need an UVP for my trip to Trimmer No. 1, or have the car taken there on a trailer of Tilt Tray, but according to this email, I can lawfully drive it unregistered to to the Engineering, Sniff and Blue Slip Tests.

The last paragraph of the email is really broad and covers a hell of a lot. E.G. You require windscreen wipers to have the car passed for rego. Technically, you could drive your unregistered car to the local Spare Parts shop to purchase a set of wipers as your driving it " to the nearest convenient location for any other purpose (purchase windscreen wipers which is a process) directly associated with the registration process." On the other hand, I don't need trim to have the car registered, so I couln't drive it to the trimmers unregistered.

I hope this information is of assistance to someone. If anyone needs a copy of the original, send me a PM and I will get it off to you.

Baz