CA registration: when the 500#'s are gone, what can you do??

[Daren Gee]

Guppiedriver, I strongly recommend that you do not register your car immediately. You will want to be sequenced 1 through 500 as a specially constructed vehicle.

If you register as 501 or above, your car will be a 2003 model year, and your engine will also be a 2003 (regardless of block age, pursuant to SB1578). Since a specially constructed vehicle requires both a state smog certification and brake/lamp certification, your car will have to pass the 2003 requirements for engine smog equipment and inspections AND brake and lamp inspections. You probably do not want to install all the 2003 smog stuff and you probably do not want to install a 3rd brake lamp, side marker lights, back up lamps, dashboard brake warning light and anything else the Vehicle Code states as a requirement for vehicles registered as a 2003 model year.

However, if you wait, your car will be registered as a 2004 (sequenced as the first 500 applicants), the state referee can determine the year era the car is supposed to represent, and your car will only need to meet the requirements of that year. I'll guess that your car is a replica 1965 or somewhere near that date. If the state inspector, smog and also brake/lamp, can not determine its year or the car doesn't closely resemble the car of that era, then the default is 1960. This is based on SB 1578.

There has been some talk about SB 708. SB 708 will not affect specially constructed vehicles registered recently. If you regestered under SB 100 or SB 1578, your vehicle is actually registered as a 2002 or 2003, which ever year you completed your paper work at the DMV. SB 708 only affects vehicles with registered before 1974.

Why do I know this? My car was registered in 2002 (#197), the BAR smog referee determined my 1970 351W motor was a 1960, which is consistent with SB100 and SB1578. My motor is pumped out and detailed, but I also installed the PCV valve pursuant to the 1970 laws. This didn't matter since the referee determined that my motor was different enough that he had to use the default year of 1960. With the Certification, the DMV issued liscense and registration to me.

I thought I was set, but for my next years plate tags, the DMV also required a State Brake and Lamp certification. This is consistent with regulations for a specially constructed vehicle. I found a brake and lamp referree. He said my car was a 2002 and needed all the extra lights and dashboard brake warning light for that year car. This meant punching holes in my expensive body and paint work, rewiring my electrical, and reengineering my brake system. All do-able for extra cash, but who has a kit cobra with all this stuff? The Bureau of Automotive Repair has given me great assistance in this matter very quickly. However, I needed to research the laws and regulations because this inspection referree and some of the BAR officials were not aware of SB100 nor SB1578. My fax to them included all of the pertinant research information. The BAR will write a letter to my inspector by next Wednesday, then I bring my car in again, and the car will be looked at as either a 1965 or 1960, which is consistent with SB 1578, and the Vehicle Code.

These were the hurdles that I encountered and I found that I needed to become an expert of the laws. I should have my new tags within a month or so.