NEW THREAT FOR TWEAKED CLASSICS

Government plans to prevent vehicle ‘tampering’ could decimate industry dedicated to tuning and improving Britain’s older cars

Classic fans are being encouraged to have their say on government plans that risk making it illegal to modify vehicles – with experts saying it could hit specialists who improve and tweak classics.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said that its aim was to modernise vehicle standards and to ‘address areas of transport regulation that are outdated’, with the aim of allowing it to be easier to roll out more automated vehicles, but did not stipulate any exemptions for older vehicles in its proposals.

MG Owners’ Club technical advisor, Roger Parker, said: ‘The current wording of the proposed legislation in the consultation would see ‘tampering’ cover all existing vehicles and I see the potential to kill the tuning industry and all manufacturers, suppliers and fitters of any nonstandard pattern part, whether it be fitting an alternative engine or replacing distributor points with an electronic ignition system, or indeed other change that often has environmental or safety related improvements.

‘I find that the section tackling “tampering” as written does indicate a possible death knell for the car tuning industry and making it potentially illegal for anyone to change a standard component on any existing car for one that doesn’t follow the original standard pattern.’

In its Future of Transport Regulatory Review, the DfT said: ‘ We will create new offences for tampering with a system, part or component of a vehicle intended or adapted to be used on a road. This will enable us to address existing gaps in the legislation, ensuring cleaner and safer vehicles. We will also create new offences for tampering with nonroad mobile machinery and for advertising “tampering” services or products.’

Engineering expert Ralph Hosier called for classic fans to comment on the government’s consultation, arguing that it could make all car and motorcycle modification, tuning and customising illegal. He said: ‘It’s crucial that the right to modify your own vehicle is retained in the new laws, the sweeping way this is worded would lead to unintended consequences.

‘Every modification can be interpreted as “impacting” safety or emissions, and so on.

Different tyres may increase fuel consumption a small amount, bodywork mods affect aerodynamics, sports exhaust, even different lights.’ Danny Hopkins, editor of

PracticalClassics, also called for classic fans to have their say on the proposals, warning that it could jeopardise an industry dedicated to modifying and tweaking classics. He said: ‘In a world where a cornerstone of the green and renewable agenda is repair and reuse, this appears to be a bizarre retrograde step. It threatens thousands of jobs and an entire hobby.

‘It is unnecessary, idiotic and a real discouragement to the future engineers who are still being inspired by customising and modifying older cars.’

David Simister