Currently in our scene of modified Mitsu's we're classified as Modified Production Vehicles (MPV's) as we're especially not screwing around with the chassis rails etc when modifying our cars (even in AWD conversions we dont touch the chassis rails). But people with old school hotrods who do go to the exteme of modifying chassis rails and crossmember, tubular frames, roof turret heights, steering, suspension, wheelbase/track and any other dynamics of the original production car are reclassified as an Individually Constructed Vehicle (ICV). The big stink is about these ICV's having to comply to current stringent ADR's, exhaust emissions and noise levels the first time they get re-registered after re-classification from a production car to an ICV. ie a 1920 hotrod is off the road for a number of years and was rego'd as a MPV for most its life. A lot of heavy modification takes place including some tubular chassis work, goes to get re-regod and the owner finds out that with the mods it now has it will be reclassified as an ICV. This means that when going for rego in 2010 it has to comply to 2010 production model car ADRs... or at least many of them.
The revamp for the whole National Code of Practice for Light Vehicle Modifications has been going on for years. The guidelines are at least 15 years old and have been way overdue for an update.
Id say the RTA (and other state motoring authorities) are taking a good look at whats out on our roads nowadays and then going to reclassify what exactly constitutes an MPV and an ICV. Where do you draw the line? Number of mods? type of mods? its up to them to decide with consultation with the motor industry and the public.
Remember the VSI50 raising/lowering laws that was being pushed not too long ago but died in the ass? well thats back on the agenda now and there is a push to have it in place before the end of 2010.
There's also going to be a change to the engineering process rolled out next year and those people who havent got their car engineered yet could be in for some more hurdles and hoops to jump through.
Until the RTA (who seem to be leading the other states with this) lay their cards on the table for us to make public comment, I strongly urge people to et their cars engineered ASAP now whilst the laws are still under the old system.
