Legislation

Legislation for car builds.

CAD Car spends a lot of time checking out the minutie of current UK legislation for new build and modified cars. Some of it is very opaque. It is often open to interpretation. Some is so blindingly obvious it still incredible that multi-hundred thousand pound cars are still being built, for use in the UK and further afield, ignoring it.

Therefore, the course we follow is to be ultra-conservative with builds and make clients aware of potential issues as early as possible, preferably before the build starts. This allows you, the client, to make your own decision.

We learnt our lesson on almost our first project. The lesson being know and keep within the rules, with the project being the Mitchell Special MKII. If you look at the pictures above this prose, you will see the same car with two registration numbers. This is because the car having been built and making the front cover of a number of magazines, was reported to the DVLA and the owner and ourselves had to solve to DVLA satisfaction. The owner then put the car through the full IVA, a government test, process. Now we were lucky as the chassis was new. It passed and a period plate allowed, subsequently changed to a personal number.

There are some situations that are impossible to resolve without taking a massive financial hit, or your car being refused a registration altogether.

At the start of this text, I mentioned that some things were blindingly obvious but still ignored. This is frustrating, as the answers can be found by any builder with even a small amount of professionalism and curiosity running through their veins. The answers to many questions are here on the UK Government website. Simple, but important, red lines are covered.

Two examples:

1. Can you cut a ladder frame chassis to shorten it, to make a sports model from a saloon for example, and retain the registration? No. But it still happens.
2. Can you alter a monocoque chassis and keep your car away from an IVA test, a Q plate or worse? No. But it is happening right now, with so called high end restorers, who should know better, retro modding fifties onwards (typically) monocoques by altering key areas of bodywork that are part of the original cars structure.

This does not happen here. We could, and put the onus on you the client, but we won’t as it is the ultimate expression of a folly.

Intellectual Property (IP) for car builds.

Having owned over 130 cars, and driven many miles in everything from Aston Martins to a Volvo 240, our view is a car is a sensory experience that goes beyond copying the bodyshape.

With the above in mind, the CAD Car website does not require disclaimers saying we are nothing to do with particular car manufacturers.

All our work is individual and stated as such. If one of our cars uses a particular chassis or engine this will be mentioned as it is a fact.

All bodies are bespoke and are not copies of any production vehicle.

None of our work will have the badge of a manufacturer on it. We want your bespoke car to have your badge on it!

Our thoughts on replicas is best expressed within the book Memoirs of a Bugatti Hunter by Antoine Raffaelli. We would encourage you to buy as it is superb. The relevant section is reproduced below.