New Legislation Governing Modified Vehicles

[sammo[RL]]

Theres a bit of talk around, taht various state govts are looking at standardising how modified cars attain approval,

Theres a good write up in the current Street machine, thats basically boils down that any mod would need approval, and that each mod would be approved seperatley And that some mods must be shown to comply via Madatory testing!

 

 

Here's the SM write up

To standardise the rules governing modified vehicles across all the states, a federal body drafted VSB 14 - A national code of practice for light vehicle construction and modification.

 

NSW, Vic, SA and Qld haven't accepted VSB 14 as it stands and have drafted their own versions - VBI 59 is the NSW version of VSB 14. Around 90% of VSB 14/VSI 59 is comparable to the existing code. At their core, neither bans modifications per se, which is the line the RTA (RMS as of 1 Nov) has been feeding enthusiasts, the industry, politicians and the media. However, its the differences that present the problem.

 

It's all to do with how modifications attain approval. In the past, an RTA-certified engineer would make a determination that a mod complied with the guidelines and was incorporated in a mechanically sound manner, then issue an engineer's report attesting this. Under VSI 59, some mods must be shown to comply via mandatory testing.

 

What does that mean? A good example would be a brake upgrade on an EH Holden. Under VSI 59's current form, your authorising engineer would need to hire a race track (as 160km/h testing is required) and conduct a series of extreme tests to prove compliance - a very expensive exercise.

And that's not it for EH brake upgrades; it would be for those brakes only. Different components would require fresh testing. Testing will apply to many other areas.

 

This means attaining approval for some one-off modifications under VSI 59 would become practically impossible.

 

Change is going to happen, be in no doubt about that. The challenge therefore is not to oppose all change but to ensure the changes that do happen are logical, reasonable and workable.

 

But how? At this point it's imperative to separate the politicians from the public servants.

VSI 59 was drafted by RTA staff (public servants) who have presented it to the NSW Minister for Transport, Duncan Gay (a politician), for him to assess and pass into law.

 

Unlike the previous minister, who appeared to simply rubber-stamp all RTA proposals, Gay seems somewhat more considered in his approach, as indicated by his prompt order to deactivate 38 of the states 141 speed cameras after a safety audit found them to have no significant effect on road safety.

 

Given that the RTA appeared willing or unable to resolve the issues raised regarding VSI 59, modified car supporters have been urging the minister to take action, as he has the final say over any legislation.

 

Thanks mostly to the efforts of Alan Hay (Chairman, Wollondilly Nationals), the minister for transport, along with Peter Wells (recently appointed RMS director of regulatory services) are actually listening, which is unprecedented.

 

Now it's up to us to ensure the minister, his advisers and the RMS are well informed and appreciate the adverse effects VSI 59 would create in its current form, including the thousands of jobs it would affect.

 

Furthermore, representative groups such as the Australian Confederation of Motor Clubs (ACMC) are there to help draft the new guidelines.

 

The minister is waiting to hear the enthusiasts' and industry's response before acting and to help, ACMC, Street Machine Magazine and Mr Hay have organised the Motor Enthusiast Conference 2012 at Eastern Creek Raceway on 26th February.

 

The event aims to unite all the NSW motoring enthusiast groups and highlight the issues with the impending legislation - visit www.confederationofmotorclubs.org.au for more information.

 

In the meantime, write to your local politician and to the minister himself ([email protected]) to constructively (and politely!) alert them to your concerns. It's imperative the issue becomes politicised, as many believe that's the only way and acceptable outcome can be achieved. Make your voice heard now, before it's too late."

 

This from the Aust Confed. of Motor clubs...

 

The RMS, formerly the RTA, has officially announced that the VSCCS will

commence on the 1st of December 2011. Currently the ACMC Inc have no

information regarding the number of Engineer Signatories who have committed to the

new scheme, however the evidence suggests that the number is very low.

 

The Motor Enthusiast Conference 2012 dates have been confirmed for 26th

February at Eastern Creek Raceway. Planning is now well underway with an open

invitation for all motor enthusiasts.

Individual delegates from a range of Enthusiast Groups will be selected to attend the

formal conference held on the day. The theme of this conference will be Driving Our

Future.

The purpose of the conference is to -

· Discuss the implementation of the VSB14 (Vehicle standards, supplements

and proposed testing procedures required for registration in NSW).

· Unite all Motoring Enthusiast groups within NSW.

· Establish common interests throughout the Groups.

· Provide correct information to all members.

· Make known representation of our members organizations to government and

other authorities.

There will be representatives from the NSW parliament, RMS and other relevant

organizations in attendance.

There will be industry displays present on the day and displays of a variety of

different Motor Vehicles.

We look forward to your involvement and remind you that this is your opportunity to

have your say and support the future of the motoring enthusiast communities in NSW.

 

I doubt it will happen...but you never know..

Edited January 12, 2012 by sammo

[altezzaclub]

nah... just give up and go play Wii or X-box or any of those modern things I know nothing about!

 

See my topic on "why we need a Govt".... This is a common example of why we DON'T !!

[phil86]

I've been looking into vsb14 a fair bit ( its effing long!) as it seems ACT have already started adopting it. There's a lot of negativity toward it on here. I think it's great that all states will have the same rules/guidelines as its a joke we don't already however having to test a cars brakes at 160km/h is ridiculous I don't even know if my ke70 will go that fast lol and what's the point when our highest speed limit is 110 excluding the nullaboor or whatever which is 130 I think, what's the point in testing a cars stopping ability at 50km/hr faster than the speed limit? I agree on all states having same rules but the testing needs to be more realistic or it could kill off a lot of the aftermarket car sector which will cost jobs or have a sh!tload more illegally modified cars as its already too expensive too engineer a car without making it more expensive!

[altezzaclub]

which will cost jobs or have a sh!tload more illegally modified cars as its already too expensive too engineer a car without making it more expensive!

 

i've never seen a Govt Dept worry about unintended consequences! Of course it will cost jobs in some private sectors, but new laws always open up new jobs in the bureaucrat's sectors and some for crony capitalists. In this case there will be more people involved in checking that these regs are being followed, read "more cops, lawyers, magistrates, Counrt balffs" etc. The crony capitalists here will be the engineers who make their living from Govt regulations, and they will be pushing to make it as hard as possible to become a certifying engineer (always fight to raise the entry bar) and to limit the numbers of engineers in the market. (more Govt regs to control the number of people doing it to keep prices up) On top of that they will be working hand-in-glove with Govt bureaucras for more rules and interpretations down the line.

 

We already have thousands of illegal cars, this just raises the bar to legality and becomes just one more entry-line on the ticket they write you for a non-complying vehicle. Some people worry about that, others couldn't give a shit.

 

Overall it is one more little step by the Federal Govt to take over the power of State Govts and display their complete uselessness. The moment Canberra was allowed to tax people the State Govts became useless and should have been disbanded. We would have the same laws for everything over the whole country, for better or for worse.

 

Anyway, who is going to organsie a club run down there that day?

 

(oops sorry Irokin)

[Twinky]

Illegal modifications for the win! I mean seriously, it's almost cheaper to get the defect, scrap the shell and replace the motor into another donor car.

Laws like this are not introduced for any safety reason what so ever. So the odd dipshit will do something like replace a strut with a broomstick and die

whilst doing it but then again you can't stop people from sticking forks into power outlets. So there is always going to be someone doing something illegal

and get injured in the process. More people die on country roads as a result of inattention or fatigue, speed is only a factor because it's a highway speed limit.

Only on occasion you hear of people dying on city streets and a major contributor is illegal street racing. Most of which are P platers. So instead of tightening up

car modifications they should introduce power to weight classifications. Meaning that any modifications done to cars by P platers is illegal but modifications done by

experienced drivers remain legal. There are a tonne of better ways to handle this but by saying no to everyone more defect notices can be flung around.

 

The minorities ruin it for the majority.

[phil86]

Illegal modifications for the win! I mean seriously, it's almost cheaper to get the defect, scrap the shell and replace the motor into another donor car.

Laws like this are not introduced for any safety reason what so ever. So the odd dipshit will do something like replace a strut with a broomstick and die

whilst doing it but then again you can't stop people from sticking forks into power outlets. So there is always going to be someone doing something illegal

and get injured in the process. More people die on country roads as a result of inattention or fatigue, speed is only a factor because it's a highway speed limit.

Only on occasion you hear of people dying on city streets and a major contributor is illegal street racing. Most of which are P platers. So instead of tightening up

car modifications they should introduce power to weight classifications. Meaning that any modifications done to cars by P platers is illegal but modifications done by

experienced drivers remain legal. There are a tonne of better ways to handle this but by saying no to everyone more defect notices can be flung around.

 

The minorities ruin it for the majority.

 

+1 someone stupid ruins it for everyone, also the quality of the road is a big influence in causing accidents, which is hardly ever bought up, at least in the pot hole capital they call Sydney...

 

A cruise would be good, should organise something?

[altezzaclub]

at least in the pot hole capital they call Sydney...

 

maaate! You should see the roads around Orange and the Central West! We ahve every sort of surfacedefect you can find, from potholes to alligator cracking. The surface is so bad it throws the car around and their answer was to drop the speed limit on the road to Cargo to 80kph.

 

Add kangaroos at any time from 4pm to 8am, and trees right beside the road and of course you will kill a lot of people. That's without counting the B-trains of 30 or 40tons who roll, jack-knife, lose loads of steel, lose wheels...

 

The Govts don't really want to stop accidents, think of how many people they keep employed!

[altezzaclub]

Speaking of which... anyone want to run a book on how many cops will be checking cars in the carpark at this meeting? 10? 15? 20+?

[TOMsGPTurbo]

I don't get how wanting to improve a cars braking performance, handling, power delivery is such a bad thing; the rules should be basic, if you:

Increase power than increase braking and suspension etc

[kickn5k]

Speaking of which... anyone want to run a book on how many cops will be checking cars in the carpark at this meeting? 10? 15? 20+?

I'll take 20+ altezzaclub!! Revenue raising rats!!!

 

Vic, from what I've heard is no where near even being interested in this new legislation. At the end of the day I wonder how reliable the information from a comic book like said publication would be anyway.

 

Stu.

[towe001]

Vic, from what I've heard is no where near even being interested in this new legislation.

Thats interesting in a way cause when i was down that way in Brazil the one thing i really noticed is the amount of "bubble wrapping" the government used on their fellow Victorian public.

 

 

Like one sign that stood out, here in QLD and NSW its the sign that informs the driver that "Speed cameras are used in <enter states name>"

In victoria its "SAFETY cameras are used in Victoria"

 

 

Getting back to it, i like the idea of a uniform legislation to modifying across all states and territories as long as it doesn't get draconian in the laws. Like how it is with household electrical wiring, a very little known bylaw is that the general public is not even allowed to change a blown bulb. Heaven forbid we're not even allowed to touch the fusebox.

Go to, say, NZ and the only thing you won't be allowed to do is wire the house into the main grid.

[RO78IN]

First post in this forum and its a RANT! lol...

 

I am under no illusion about the stupid modifications that some people on our scene do, And to be fair to some, most don't even know they're stupid! Non tensile bolts to hold the caliper as a good example.

 

I agree their should be some level of oversight into these to make sure they are safe for the driver and the community at large. Something similar to a blueslip (without the stupid blueslip 'is it standard crap), essentialy a more in depth pink slip. THis would lower the 'engineers' costs to the car owner and would actually make people doing the modifications get checked - which is the purpose of this in the first place.

 

It must be said however, its USUALLY not a car malfunction that kill people, just like its not guns that kill people. Its peoples driving. Not cars, not speed, not 'unsafe roads - another rant altogether!

 

What should be done if they really are interested in saving lifes is educating people! Think about it logically + simply. people die in cars mostly due to accidents. People have accidents because someone wasnot able to adequately control their car. Its like these stupid L plate laws, 1000 hours driving in a straight line isnt going to help shit if you've just aqua plained down the highway and are now looking forwards out the passenger window.

 

Every year, the government must spend 10 Billion plus on updating roads to make them safer. When really all they need is a Large skid pan in every major RTA centre and lessons for all (with open events in the evenings i personally think). It makes safer drivers, it will keep the younger generation from doing stupid things in the street and will give every driver a chance to learn their car (because they all re-act differently).

 

Anyway, i could go on for hours and I'm getting a little off topic, but in short, there really does need to be some sort of oversight on modified vehicles (how many 13b turbos in 808's with std brakes have you seen?!?!) but like this crap, RTA look to the easy fixes first.

Regards

Matt

[philbey]

What should be done if they really are interested in saving lifes is educating people!

 

Lol, does anyone else see it?

[towe001]

[Willis]

 

GramMar** Hahaha