Would you put this tyre on your classic?
MoT testers and classic experts hit out at the state of test-exempt classics
A classic specialist’s discovery of this dangerously bald tyre – on a classic that had been driven more than 400 miles – has reignited the debate about the safety of MoT-exempt classics.
Rolls-Royce and Bentley specialist, Daniel Moore, caused a small storm on social media when a post-war model was brought to him for an oil change. The car in question was MoT-exempt and had just completed the trip with almost bald crossply tyres and various other faults.
The car was so far gone that Daniel persuaded the owner to sell it to him for spares.
He said: ‘It wasn’t just the tyres on the car: the list went on and on. The braking system wasn’t working, the body was hardly attached to the chassis and the sills were non-existent. This isn’t an isolated thing. The cars I’ve been doing have been exempt for a while and there are lots of people doing this. It’s a privilege to not to have to visit the MoT station, but people are bending the rules.
‘I don’t know the exact solution. It doesn’t have to be an MoT, but classic cars need to be inspected by someone qualified, at least every three years. I make a distinction between competent and qualified here. I’ve got a customer who’s restored lots of cars himself and he’s really good, but when he came in with a car for me to do some specialist work he was struggling with, I found a number of problems that he simply hadn’t seen.’
Calls are growing among professionals for a tiered inspection scheme to be reintroduced.
Former Top Gear presenter and classic expert, Quentin Willson, said: ‘[The condition of the tyre present is] a chilling example of how little ministers and civil servants know about cars. This MoT exemption that nobody asked for will ultimately cost lives.’
Experienced MoT tester, Nick Rawlinson, of Barnack MoT Test Centre, told Classic Car Weekly that he was seeing ‘the resurgence of the backyard bodger’ in the likes of MoT-exempt cars being submitted for inspection.
He said: ‘Most pre-1978 cars that are newly exempted are barely a year away from their last official MoT – and we all know how much cars can deteriorate in that time, even when they’re put in to storage.
‘What concerns me is the state of the workmanship put into repairing MoT exempt classics - it’s plummeted.’
‘ We’re seeing the resurgence of the backyard bodger in MoT-exempt cars’ NICK RAWLINSON, MoT TESTER