This stunning EH has all the fruit and more: awesome duco, sparkling chrome, nifty bonnet louvres, a floor-change 'box, fabulous wheels, and disc brakes all round, as well as all the niceties that accrue from being a top of the line Premier. Its owner has contacted me since this was first published and says that its powered by a supercharged 3.8. It's probably fair to say that it is immaculate and exactly the style of car that special interest registration was intended for, although the owner says he’d describe it as “a neat and tidy cruiser.”
So is it immaculate? What, exactly, does immaculate mean?
According to everyone's best friends at Google, the term immaculate is described as "perfectly clean, neat or tidy." That makes sense, doesn't it?
Not if you're administering the special interest provisions of Section 85 of the Vehicle and Traffic (Driver Licensing and Vehicle Registration) Regulations 2021, it seems. The classic car scene is abuzz with rumours that the Registrar of Motor Vehicles has amended those regulations so that in order to be eligible for Class A special interest registration, the applicant's car must be immaculate.
According to current information on the Transport Services' website relating to special interest vehicle registration, a Class A vehicle is one that:
No mention of being immaculate, though.
If it is correct that the new criterion for Class A special interest registration is that the proposed vehicle must be immaculate, how is anyone going to agree on just what that means? How does one define a subjective quality like being immaculate? Can an applicant present his or her thirty year old car, as long as it's perfectly clean, neat or tidy - and roadworthy, of course - with the expectation that it’ll be granted SI status?
It would appear not! I’ve spoken with one Approved Inspection Station mechanic who’s been informed that in order for a car to be considered immaculate, it must, effectively, appear as if it were brand new. In good nick isn’t good enough; there’s no room for anything less than as-new condition.
That's a pretty high bar! I've got two resto's on the go: my '78 Fiat X1/9 and a '76 Fiat 128 3P (Project 3P), both of which are in need of full resprays. Immaculate they are not! Are my two cars to be priced out of SI rego until I can afford a conservative $6,000 or so to have each of them painted, plus whatever bright-work and other bits they'll need to meet this pie in the sky perfection? That seems a bit discriminatory to me!
All this also leads to the question of what modifications, if any, are within the definition of immaculate? Are otherwise legal after-market wheels, performance upgrades and body mods - bonnet louvres, for example - allowable under the SI regulations? Is this magnificent EH really immaculate?
This is quite simple to look up on-line, presuming that the Registrar of Motor Vehicles has complied with Section 85 (2) of the Vehicle and Traffic Regulations 2021, as reproduced below, and the conditional registration guidelines are up to date.
The Registrar is to ensure that guidelines approved under subregulation (1) are published on the website maintained by, or on behalf of, the Department while those guidelines are in force.
However, at the time of posting, there's nothing more recent than the information that I quoted several paragraphs ago, leaving those of us in the classic car scene wondering if we can or can't seek SI rego for our works in progress or otherwise less than immaculate, but nonetheless well-loved and legally roadworthy, classic vehicles. The information published on-line would appear to be at odds with what's been told to Approved Inspection Station staff.
I will be looking into this a bit more over the next few days. If I learn anything useful, I'll provide an update in due course and would also urge anyone who does know what's happening to SI registration to please leave a comment below.
And please share! It's in all our interests to sort this out!
U M P H
(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)
iPhone images.
Here's the latest, just in case anyone's not following this on Face Book:
I've received a reply to an email that I sent to Transport Tasmania, as follows:
The current special interest hand book can be found in the below link [and] this also includes the inspection criteria. The details of the handbook have not been changed for some time with only the checklist being added to the application form in October 2020. https://www.transport.tas.gov.au/.../MR161_102020... . ... .
This does not accord with what the AIS mechanic told me and, while I don't doubt what the TT rep who replied to my email says, I very, very strongly suspect that it's all in the interpretation of the regs and that "immaculate" is likely to be an unofficial internal instruction that must be obeyed. It's not too different to the official Class A requirement that vehicles must be "... well restored or a combination of superior restoration and excellent original condition, or an extremely well maintained original vehicle showing very minimal wear in superior condition." However, as I argued originally, immaculate is a highly subjective term - an almost unobtainable ideal - that's open for interpretation and will rule out many vehicles that rightfully should be eligible for SI rego.
I get that some people have abused the system but now it seems that TT has gone for overkill in trying to weed out ineligible vehicles from the scheme. What do you think?
30 years? I thought it was only 25!
ReplyDeleteNo. Definitely 30.
ReplyDeleteThe featured EH belongs to me, not a 308 rather a supercharged 3.8. When going through the SI process I had to liaise with a lady from DIER [think her name was Polly] she was clueless to say the least. Did not understand the national guidelines and self interpreted matters in a field where her lack of expertise was astounding, I found her difficult to deal with and had to find an alternative staff member. And no, my EH is not near what I would call immaculate, it is a neat and tidy cruiser.
ReplyDeleteA seriously great car! 308 isn’t a reference to your car’s engine capacity; it’s the 308th “Random” post on vehicles that have been featured randomly, as seen on the street, but thanks for the info. I guess the fact that in my mind it is immaculate but in yours - and I happily concede that you’d know - it’s not shows what a stupid standard “immaculate” is. I have no doubt that’s what the standard is, as the AIS mechanic I spoke with is a straight shooter. And if the TT staff can’t interpret the regs, what hope is there? Thanks for getting in touch. Cheers.
DeleteLate to the party here and would be interested in any further info you may have. But I recently took my SuperBrava down to an AIS, and was told “pristine” was the word they have been using. My car certainly isn’t that, but is getting a bit of love in order to attempt to comply as paying 6 regos is not on.
ReplyDelete