I want to thank everyone who responded to my question. The discussion
group is GREAT for getting world-wide information!!!
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-alpines@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-alpines@autox.team.net]
On Behalf Of Denis STEVENS
Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 4:29 PM
To: Thomas Wiencek; Alpine, Message
Subject: RE: Engine Swaps in Countries Other than the USA
Hi, Thomas
You'll get feedback from UK and Finland, here is now situation in
France.
We're most likely in one of the most restrictive country in terms of
modifications applied to a car.
Every manufacturer has to get "Certificat des Mines" (government
certificate) before being allowed to sell the car in France meaning
1. Only few cosmetic modifications (e.g. aluminum wheels) are tolerated,
any
other one (especially engine) need a new certificate from above
mentioned
organism which is kind of Holy Graal to get ! Needless to say, there are
few
modified cars down there but owners are doing this at their own risk !
2. Recently, classic car driver had an accident leading to trouble with
his
insurance company after expertise conducted on car : TR6 simply modified
from carburettor to injection !
3. Getting a registration number for classic car is quite easy as long
as
the car has been once compiled by the Mines no matter whether its brand
is
still existing or not, you can then easily get a registration for
Delage,
Hotchkiss, Sunbeam or Aston-Martin. Situation is getting much more
tricky if
car is imported from USA or anywhere else in the world and not
recognized by
Mines : only chance is to get so called "collection registration" which
exempt you from MoT (never knew what it stands for BTW) but is very
restrictive since you can only use car near by your place unless warning
insurance and authorities 2 weeks beforehand not to mention value of the
car
decreases drastically.
Just to give you an example of situation : friend of mine imported Mazda
Miata back on 93 and never succeeded to get registration number since
Mazda
France imported car as MX5 and not Miata leading Mines to consider cas
as
different model at least for few years. My friend has been then obliged
to
sell car in Belgium at lower price; Actually, I'm quite sure Mazda
France
meant to do it in order to prevent transhipment. Since then, few Miata's
have now been imported but first to some other EU countries then to
France.
As you can see regulations are extremely tricky, wish I could have same
situation where you can almost have a registration for a V8 whellbarrow
;-)
Hope this helps for your survey and my english was accurate enough
Denis
-----Message d'origine-----
De : owner-alpines@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-alpines@autox.team.net]De la part de Thomas Wiencek
Envoyi : mardi 3 septembre 2002 18:25
@ : Alpine, Message
Objet : Engine Swaps in Countries Other than the USA
What is the legality of putting a non-stock engine into a car in other
countries? For example, does an Alpine have to have a stock engine to
pass the MOT? In the USA the only requirement is that the pollution
standards for the model year of the car be met. This means that it is
legal to put a less polluting engine into an antique car but it is not
legal to put a non-pollution control engine into a modern car. I am not
trying to start a discussion about stock versus non-stock, I am just
trying to understand the laws that other countries have about engine
swapping. Thank you.
Tom
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