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Excuse me, but I have my ranting shirt on this month and want my say on the classic topic of the day – the just-implemented exemption of classics over 40 from taking an annual MOT test.

As I write, we’re still a week off the exemption coming into force and already it’s getting like the Wild West out there – dozens of online ads for pre-’78 classics gleefully proclaiming ‘tax and MOT exempt’, usually with an exclamation mark attached. It doesn’t help that often as not the cars in these ads are also described as ‘rat-look’, where a truer description might be ‘neglected’. And sale prices of Seventies cars have jumped recently, whereas Nineties ones have slipped back. Is that a coincidence?

It’s like we’ve all been freed from the shackles of some draconian authority and should dance in the streets. But should we? When were the brakes on that 1976 Marina heading towards our street party last looked at?

I could relate it to my work here. Despite 30 years of experience, I’m still glad someone checks my work or spelling errors might sneak through. The same will go for any of my classics that fall within the exemption – they will still be tested annually because it’s a cheap reassurance that I haven’t missed something important. Truthfully, how many of us have been for an MOT in the past, picked up a ‘fail’ sheet and said: ‘Oh, I hadn’t spotted that’?

I’m not telling anyone else what to do, but just for the record, I will continue to take my 1972 Alfa Spider for its annual check-up, along with anything else over 40 that might join it.

‘Prices of many Seventies cars have jumped. A coincidence?’