PIT BOSS

As an old Canberra boy, Steve Manley’s letter re car roadworthiness (December 2018) struck a chord. Back in the ’70s, the ACT had the annual ‘over the pits’ rego inspection. This was a rigorous 30-minute car examination, with technical inspectors crawling over and under your car, poking and prodding at suspension components, jabbing the underside to check for rust, checking for oil and coolant leaks, testing headlight alignment, and brake testing on a specialised machine.

Inspection failure rates were high, but this was offset by the location of the testing centres in light industrial areas where spare parts and auto repair shops were plentiful.

Although nobody looked forward to the annual inspection, it kept vehicle standards high. As a result, ACT cars were reputedly the best second-hand vehicles in Australia at the time, especially as they were being driven on federally funded roads.