[Healeys] Emissions Compliance in New Jersey

[Steve Feld]

Similar to Gmari2 I have NJ historic plates on my '59 BT7 and have never
been stopped by police in New Jersey during my pleasure drives (30-60
minutes) once or twice a week.  I drive about 1500 miles/year from March to
early December on many of the same roads and go by many local police who
seem to appreciate the Healey.  I have never heard of a member of our North
Jersey chapter of The Austin Healey Sports & Touring Club being ticketed for
being on a pleasure drive rather than going to a club meeting or event.  

 

NJ Historic "QQ" plates are available for a car more than 25 years old and
"owned as a collector's item and used solely for exhibition and educational
purposes by the owner".  "educational" purposes is not otherwise defined and
there is no specific annual mileage limit.  My pleasure drives are "road
tests" and are entirely "educational" by me, the owner, in that I just had
tuned the carbs or installed a new thermostat or readjusted the overdrive or
whatever would come to mind if stopped.  As long as you are not using the
Healey to commute or to run frequent errands past the same police, IMO
Historic plates are the way to go.   Is there a risk?  Yes, but for me the
joy of driving my Healey outweighs the risk of an anal retentive policeman
stopping me for violating the restrictions on Historic plate cars.  Besides,
I take some comfort that given my car and my age he would probably first
giving me a warning before ticketing me.   

 

Good luck with whichever way you decide to do.

 

Steve

Morristown, NJ