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The EV fact thread

You already know the answer to this question... the government is obviously not encouraging people to run 40 years old cars :D

In fact, cars aren't automatically exempt when they become 40 years old, instead you need to apply for 'historic' vehicle classification and accept the restrictions that come with that.

This is how the authorities can ensure that these are real collectors' cars, as opposed to cars bought by penny-pinching motorists looking for a jalopy that they can run on the cheap.

And, yes, there will always be some tight geezer who will happily buy a surviving 1982 Austin Metro to use as his daily runner, have it classified as 'historic' vehicle, and keep boasting at the pub how much money he's saving every day.... :D

But you knew all that.
Not sure that it is a purely UK thing , there are historic vehicle classes throughout the EU , sometimes , like in Germany , they are given ‘H’ plates so they can be recognised, and sometimes there are restrictions , like in Belgium where they can’t go more than a certain distance ( 50Km ? ) from their registered address after dark !!!

Applying for the status is just a formality , and also nothing to stop people buying cars close to the cut off date and just SORN-ing them until they become exempt .
 
That's partially because technology progressed at a slower pace at the time, and cars were kept running for longer.

Cars were designed so that their service life span corresponds with their technological life span.

And it isn't a coincidence that the pace picked up. Developing and making progress with the production of mechanical stuff is a slow and expensive process. Changes in engine design, for example, were made once in a decade, if that: cam in crank, cam in head, overhead camshaft, dual overhead camshafts - this took a hundred years.... and there wasn't a single single major breakthrough in car engine design since the early days of the previous century (bar the ****el, which didn't catch on). Yes, they made V engines and boxer engines, and even a W engine, but that's essentially just moving things around rather than a breakthrough.

Once you introduce electronics, it's a different ball game. And cars now rely heavily on electronics. Once we get rid off the redundant mechanical bits - engine and transmission - there's no reason why car tech won't develop as quick as computers or mobile phones.
Indeed , but once we have a nuclear war , it will be the 200D’s that will still run and all the electronics will be fried , apart from the Russian stuff that still uses thermionic valves .
 
Good luck with trying to get a car that is just 40 years old classified as historic, in practice they have to be 41 years old at least. The reason is typical government bureaucracy :

"You can apply to stop paying for vehicle tax from 1 April 2024 if your vehicle was built before 1 January 1984 "

So using the current year example if your vehicle was built on the 2nd Jan 84 you will have to wait until 1st April 2025 to register it as historic when it will be 41 year and 3 months old - You couldn't make it up.

And yes my bike was registered on the 4th Jan so it was 41 years and 3 months old before I could get it registered as historic. It was actually manufactured the previous Oct and it is the manufacture date that counts but the DVLA wont believe you even when you provide evidence using the serial number. They would much rather believe the impossibility that it was manufactured, then transported from Germany to the UK importer, distributed to the dealer then sold and registered all within 3 days, one of which was a bank holiday.

Bizarrely vehicles become MOT exempt on their exact 40th birthday. A bit of common sense simplicity that must have accidentally slipped through the bureaucracy net.
And , here in Scotland , they become LEZ exempt on their exact 30th birthday , hence I took mine , first registered 1st August 1994 into Glasgow city centre on the 1st August this year , and numerous times since , also into Edinburgh and Dundee - just because I can !
 
Be careful what you wish for.

Computers haven't developed that much in the last couple of decades.

Mobile phones are supposedly better with each generation - but the changes as opposed to the hype are about small increments.

And I reckon that call reliability on voice calls has dropped noticeably in the last few years - so the phones might have slightly better cameras and a better app experience but when it comes to the *phone* bit they've taken a step back.

If cars go the same way we will have vehicles that slow down and become less responsive after a few years - that glitch and that take longer to start -and where there is a lag in steering input and response - and occasional hangups.
Not only that , but the service providers turn off the infrastructure that the older phones operate on , turning them into bricks .

Your last point will be a feature of the Apple car , if ever it comes out .
 
Doesn't ring a bell, I have a vague recollection it might have been Lerwick and/or Wick but I could be wrong.
Fair enough , I just know , being local , that Largs Air Station was where a lot of Catalina Flying Boats operated from and they were primarily used for rescuing airmen who had been shot down over water . It was a Catalina out of Largs which famously spotted Bismarck and guided the RN to engage her , also on some of the signage there is mention that a certain Ludovic Kennedy was one of the pilots who flew out of there .

I imagine Lerwick would have been a good location to cover rescues across the North Sea .

My dad spent pretty much the entirety of the war fighting in France , although had a period back home after escaping the German occupation, and later being invalided home after being shot in the rear end by one of our own guys ( although he didn’t put it so politely) !
 
I knew he'd served as a Naval officer, but he wasn't ever a pilot AFAIK??
You’re right : I knew there was a well known broadcaster who flew Catalina’s out of Largs - it was Hughie Green !

The reason Kennedy came to mind is that he was involved in chasing down Bismarck , and although his ship had to turn back because of fuel shortage , it was not before Kennedy , who had the only 16mm film camera in the fleet , managed to get some footage of Bismarck being attacked . This is noted in Robert Ballard’s book ‘Discovering The Bismarck’ .
 
Fair enough , I just know , being local , that Largs Air Station was where a lot of Catalina Flying Boats operated from and they were primarily used for rescuing airmen who had been shot down over water . It was a Catalina out of Largs which famously spotted Bismarck and guided the RN to engage her , also on some of the signage there is mention that a certain Ludovic Kennedy was one of the pilots who flew out of there .

I imagine Lerwick would have been a good location to cover rescues across the North Sea .

My dad spent pretty much the entirety of the war fighting in France , although had a period back home after escaping the German occupation, and later being invalided home after being shot in the rear end by one of our own guys ( although he didn’t put it so politely) !

Some interstellar reading:

 
The automatic 40 year MOT exemption and the £nil historic taxation class are two completely seperate and independent things that have no bearing on each other. MOT exemptions are managed by the DVSA and the historic taxation class by the DVLA.
Which of the two can require authenticity approved by the likes of an owners club?
 
I knew he'd served as a Naval officer, but he wasn't ever a pilot AFAIK??
Ludo was a private flyer - there was a story about him hiring a plane while still at Eton for a day trip to France in the 1930's - but his military career was straightforward Royal Navy. I think his family were all RN.
 
Which of the two can require authenticity approved by the likes of an owners club?

In respect of the Road fund tax, the DVLA will accept a dating certificate if they recognise the issuer but that was going to cost more than a years tax so it was a pointless exercise. I did have evidence in the form of production dates for my serial number but that wasn't accepted even though the information was produced by BMW.

The MOT exemption is self declared in that you fill in a form V112 and hand it in at the post office in leu of an MOT certificate. That only needs doing once.
 
Ludo was a private flyer - there was a story about him hiring a plane while still at Eton for a day trip to France in the 1930's - but his military career was straightforward Royal Navy. I think his family were all RN.
His father was a retired RN captain who went back in at the start of WWII . he was captain of the HMS Rawalpindi which caught sight of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau , reporting their positions to the Admiralty as they tried to break out into the Atlantic .

Instead of running for cover , Capt. Kennedy engaged the two more powerful ships and alas was sunk , along with most of his crew , due to the German ships superior firepower .
 
Some interstellar reading:

That is a good website . I live less than 10 miles from Largs and have visited the Vikingar Centre ( which was the workshops for the air station ) as well as having seen the memorial , which is just across the prom from the slip , now used by the RNLI . If you go into the centre there is , or at least was when I last visited , 10 years ago , a wall covered with information about the air centre , and books for sale in the souvenir shop . I was also aware of the other two slips as the Cumbrae Ferry uses them , but didn't realise there were so many sunken flying boats in the area .

There is a Catalina which is a regular visitor to the Scottish Airshow in Ayr , and I recall filming it , along with Vulcan XH-588 , and the two Lancasters when they visited in 2014 .

The video is quite long , but lots to see , with Catalina near the start , Vulcan halfway through and the two Lancasters at the end .

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Doesn't ring a bell, I have a vague recollection it might have been Lerwick and/or Wick but I could be wrong.
I know , because we ( Scottish Fire and Rescue Service ) have a training centre at Portlethen , just north of Stonehaven , which used to be part of the Chain Home Link radar system that stretched all the way from the Shetland and Orkney islands , down the East Coast of mainland Britain to serve as an early warning system to detect German aircraft attacking over the North Sea .

While I'm aware of various bays and inlets within the Shetlands , and of the airfield at Sumburgh , and think they have one of the few extant Geman Bombers which crashed somewhere near there but was left largely intact because the place is so remote , and you can still go and view it ; I'd have thought the natural harbour at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys , much as it was heavily used by the Royal Navy , would have made a better base for flying boats .
 
Which of the two can require authenticity approved by the likes of an owners club?
Date of first registration is usually the date used for mot exemption, at exactly 40 years old, and the historic tax class, on the 1st of April (start of financial year) following the date of first registration.. An owners club may be able to provide a date when the vehicle was manufactured if the owner wants to try their luck to get an earlier start date but i have no idea what the legitimate process for that is. Used for imported classics possibly?
 
Useful for 40 year old EVs though ;)
 

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