Registering a rebuild with an older engine will become almost impossible DfT – Road Vehicles Improving Air Quality and Safety proposals These proposals are not good news for MGV8 enthusiasts with a V8 conversion in progress, in the planning stage or in mind as a project they would like to carry out. They include revised emissions and safety standards for specialist and converted vehicles - see page 16, 4.10 to 4.13 where it is proposed that all vehicles going through an Independent Vehicle Approval (IVA) test from July 2018 will have to conform to "new car" emissions limits. This is where our concerns are. DfT document Classic Car Weekly is out on the stands at newsagents every Wednesday and carries many topical items of interest to classic car enthusiasts together with product reviews and features. This news item is in CCW edition out today. Well worth buying a copy and judging for yourself. Posted: 180221 Registering or re-registering a vehicle that has undergone alterations including installing an older engine will become almost impossible because the DfT is proposing that such vehicles, typically classic cars, will have to pass current emissions regulations regardless of the engine's age. Note, those emission regulations are the current regulations for engines produced today and installed by manufacturers in new cars. That will catch new or rebuilt MGBV8 conversions using replacement Rover V8 engines which are unable to meet current engine emission regulations. This is not good news for MGV8 enthusiasts with a V8 conversion in progress, in the planning stage or in mind as a project they would like to carry out. So far as we can tell these DfT proposals are not retrospective but if an existing car with a V8 conversion needed to be re-registered for any reason then it could become an issue. We await further clarification on this and the DfT "substantial change" guidance released recently, probably in the next newsletter from the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC). The draft DfT regulations include new penalties for supplying a vehicle with a defeat device, a new laboratory test procedure for measuring fuel consumption, revised emissions and safety standards for specialist and converted vehicles and stricter end of series derogations. It seems to be a post VW scandal response. The FBHVC encourages people to respond to an online Government consultation before the early closing date of 2nd March 2018. Consultation & NSRA info