SHORT SHIFT

Igenerally try to keep away from the topic of vehicle legality: it’s a big old can of worms that’s not really the place for a magazine to get involved in. But, over the last few months, we’ve been hearing a bit of noise about how road legal — or not, as the case may be — the vehicles are that we’ve been featuring. Fair question too, I guess. But, there are some easy answers to the questions or criticism. We tend to liken a car being photographed for the magazine as being similar to when a vehicle owner puts their vehicle in a show. Sometimes, they’ll display it in a way that it may not be identical to how it’s driven on the road — maybe they’ve taken the bonnet off, maybe they’ve wound the suspension down, maybe they’ve gone even further. It’s all part of showing their vehicle at it’s best, or in the configuration that they’d most like it. We also generally try to feature cars as soon as they’re completed, so it’s common for them to not yet be certified or have a WOF when we photograph them. I’ll even admit to some of them not having been fired into life as yet — but keep that one to yourself. So, with these factors in mind, we don’t tend to get too involved with how legal a vehicle is, or what changes may need to be made to get it there. We’re not saying that we don’t care for legality; we’re all for people building cars right and making sure they’re legal when the time comes for them to go on the road. In fact, over the last few months, we’ve run a few articles showcasing what’s required to ensure that your build is legal. The owner of the Camaro that graces the cover of this issue, Llew Picton, has gone through a serious process to ensure that his car is not only built to the letter of the law but also looks every bit as good on the road as it does in these pages. Better still, he sees the hurdles that he’s had to jump through to get his car this way as a positive thing. During our photo shoot, it was interesting to hear Llew make the following comments: “The New Zealand Car Construction Manual and guidance by the Low Volume Vehicle Technical Association Inc. [LVVTA] were very helpful … if we did not have them, we would be like Australia, where it is very hard to customize a vehicle, or, on the other hand, like the States, where you can practically do anything to a vehicle even if it’s unsafe”. He went on to say that “a lack of understanding breeds negativity”, and he’s right, in terms of what’s required to get cars legal. And although it wasn’t what he was referencing, the statement is also right in terms of the cars you see in these pages being presented in a way that may not be road legal. They epitomize the freedom that we have here in New Zealand to create vehicles that are as individual as their owner(s), and we get the pleasure of showing them off in their best light — a show on paper if you like.