chowdesu wrote:
Do these rules apply to new heritage shells? Say I wanted to build a road going mini with a shell from BMH, and had a "new" engine built, would I be able to register it?
A VIN number must be supplied by the manufacturer, full stop. In the absence of a VIN number you must make the vehicle comply to the latest standard required by the authorities at the time of registration. There are no ifs or buts about this. If it complies and they are happy with the vehicles pedigree so to speak they will assign a VIN number for that vehicle and supply a complliance plate. That is the correct and only legal way to do it. What happens in reality is that if the numbers presented are legal and have no stolen background and are not on any other vehicle then the authorities are not to know any different. A new engine would have to have a number assigned to it by the authorities in a similar fashion to the shell and comply to the latest emission specs I would think. To represent the shell as anything other than a brand new shell would be illegal, but given the lack of accountability in the system, it is abused routinely by many people, such as rebirthing stolen or written off cars. BMH cannot assign a number for compliance purposes as they are not authorised to do so and the built car is not complete and ADR tested and compliant by them. Basically the rule before ADR is there is no rule. I cannot see how the authorities can to even begin to control the numbering of cars prior to this. Imagine finding a car sitting in the middle of a paddock and you rebuilding it. As I said previously, rafferty's rules apply as far as I can see. I bet there are a lot of stories from the hotrod fraternity on this subject which never come to light.
As for using a new heritege shell, I belive the quality is not the best and not all parts are supplied.
