No more MOT for UK cars over 40 from next spring

[Gmg31]

http://oldtimerdaily.com/no-more-mot-in-uk-for-cars-over-40-years-old/

[BDA]

That's great news for you Brits!

Our equivalent inspection in North Carolina is much less rigorous than your MOT, but (or and) more stupid. When I first put my car on the road, I had to get it inspected. Part of the inspection was to have a mechanic drive the car into the bay for the inspection. A guy wearing big work boots went to get in my car to drive it into the bay. I said there was no way he would drive my car wearing those boots. He tried but quickly realized it was hopeless so I drove it in. Then they said they couldn't pass me because it had an exhaust leak. My first comment is who cares if a mid-engine car has an exhaust leak since the whole purpose of the regulation was to keep exhaust gases out of the cabin and that wasn't a danger for me! Then I asked where it was. They brought me down in their pit and showed where the secondary exhaust pipes slipped onto to the collector under the engine. They made me get some RTV and hose clamps to fix the stupid leak! Thankfully, a few years later, North Carolina decided to rely on the ODB-2 port for the bulk of the inspection so older cars were excluded from inspections.

[4129R]

That means no more trying to get the brake shoe handbrake to pass the impossible test.

[EuropaTC]

That means no more trying to get the brake shoe handbrake to pass the impossible test.

Perhaps not quite impossible Alex, but certainly a tough job. Especially when a few of the period road tests commented that the "handbrake failed to hold the car on the test hill".  If Lotus had problems with their test fleet then I reckon we should have some slack at MoT time 

I've been surprised at the reaction on the other car forums I watch. The Elan forum seems to be very much in the "daft idea" camp and the others have plenty of posts claiming the roads will be filled with death traps on wheels now.  I'll come clean and admit I think it's great because it's one less hassle for me to think about, even though I now have a working handbrake !

I'm sure some folks over here don't realise what an MoT means in the real world. It's a statement that your car is roadworthy on one specific day and gives no warranty for day 2 or that it will stay roadworthy until next year's test, in fact the old certificates used to say something to that effect. From the reactions I've seen there looks to be an element of "if a mechanic has passed it, I don't need to bother with it until next year", which for our cars isn't really the case, is it ?

[4129R]

My handbrake on 4688R is on Banks rear discs, so that works, but the other 6 in my fleet will be on Hillman Imp drums operated by a mickey Mouse umbrella, with a gynecologist's adjustment device.

I wonder how registering US imports will happen now.

4688R came over in bits, as did another 4259R. The other 5 were in varying states of decay up to 4129R which was a runner, and is now being stripped for a complete rebuild.

[buzzer]

Yes I wonder. On re-registering PAN 7L (2112P) it was just an inspection on vehicle identity and absolutely nothing to do with roadworthiness. I hope fully will get it on the road before the end of the year, so will get one MOT on it, but if I don't then I guess I can just drive it... after taxing it on the road for nothing  and of course with insurance!
I have not read up on this, but this could however raise some interesting scenarios. At lease with an MOT there is once a years that the car has to prove roadworthiness. As that is no longer required could therefore the owner be more easily prosecuted for driving an unsafe vehicle in the case of an accident, we shall see. I can see that happening, so that could mean insurance companies would require their own roadworthiness certificate and I wonder at what cost, or mean that owners do it to cover any issues. We shall see.

[4129R]

4688R is new everything, so it is just a question of whether I have bolted it together correctly.