Motor Enthusiast's Conference

[The Metalsmith]

Hi kids,
             On Sun the 28th Feb I sneaked into a paid government conference between the NSW Minister for Transport, Mr Duncan Gay, multiple RMS (formerly RTA) representitives and 100 or so of the nations elite car freaks, held at Eastern Creek. A fair dinkum who's who of car builders and business owners. The idea was to get together with government reps and discuss proposed changes to the laws affecting NSW/Australian street machiners and all the companies and businesses directly involved with street machining ie, aftermarket parts suppliers, customising shops, custom painters etc.

Stats were bigger than I'd imagined. The aftermarket car industry generates more than 600 million dollars for the nation per year and employs more than 800 thousand people either directly or indirectly. The proposed laws would effectively put these people out of a job in the long term.

Once the Minister had basically pissed in our pockets, telling us what we wanted to hear over the 30 mins he was there, he left and let his RMS reps do the talking, who, thank goodness, knew their poo. The street machiners, bless 'em, didn't hold back during the following question time. Multiple subjects were covered. I'd thought I might've been the minority kit car freak in attendance but no. The Cobra car club had reps there as well as the GT40 club, Clubman club and a few others. And a lot of questions directly involving kit cars and there wellbeing/longevity on the nations roads were posed and answered.

To make a long story short, I got the impression the kit car freaks are in good hands and are in almost the same basket as the hot rodders, who are seemingly untouchable. The proposed laws were quashed and RMS work groups were set up to investigate/communicate/solve outstanding issues not only with the laws both existing and proposed, but the way they are being enforced ie, Police, RMS engineers etc.

After about 5 hours I left feeling that something had definately been achieved and that kit cars will be around for a fair bit longer...


     Simon

[Agroeureka]

Hi

 Do you have any details or handouts you could post I had to stop my 1935 Buick project because of the proposed rule changes o and my heart thing.

Andrew

Ps the rules for hot rods (club rego )were to be as I understand it to be wiped out.

[CyCo]

Good to hear. Lets hope that the MoT , Mr Gay, listens to his RMS lackies. One of the guys I work with is also a car nut (rebuilding a big block 'vette, at least when he gets the money to commence the rebuild), and this has been a regular discussion of ours for months. We also said the industry was worth hundreds of millions, and would mean the loss of hundreds if not thousands of jobs. I had pictured a mass protest at Parliament House of cars and bikes of all descriptions parked on the lush green lawns.

As an aside, don't forget the 4x4 mob. A lot of their cars wouldn't be able to tackle this wide brown land of ours with aftermarket kit to help them along.

[The Metalsmith]

Hi guys,
             Andrew, there's nothing written down anywhere at the moment. The formation of the RMS has placed the review of rules and regulations on the "to do" list, so don't hold your breath. From what the officials were saying though I don't expect it will be too long before alterations to the rule book will start filtering though.

Cyc-baby, even though there were a few 4WD enthusiast's in attendance, they weren't taken too seriously by the street machiners because the legalities of whether you can fit a bull bar to a specific 4WD or not, grew old pretty quick. There might be acceptance but I don't think there's much respect there!

On the other hand, the guy who asked how a pimply faced probationary cop could defect a fully engineered and registered Street Machine magazine cover car got a standing ovation. So did the guy who asked how his trailered car could be defected if it wasn't actually touching the road. And again when another mentioned some luxury imported cars (Mazerati/Lamborgini), without needing to comply to ADR's, make more exhaust noise from factory than the rules allow for all other cars. Some questions just had you cheering.

But like the 70 year old ex-RTA engineer and hot rodder who sat next to me whispered in my ear: "I've heard all this before many times. Lets see if anything actually changes this time around".


     Simon   

[CyCo]

Oh, I understand how hot rodders/street machiners and the 4x4 guys rail at each other. But it's not just where you can/can't have a roo bar, the sheer size of the aftermarket community just for the 4x4 scene is huge. To simply ignore them to to push them to one side isn't good enough for what the RMS want to do. We all need to stand strong together. And don't forget, just like the street machine scene has it's cars that aren't driven on the roads and trailered everywhere, same with the 4x4 guys, especially when you look at some of the rock crawlers! Those are some mad machines!!

I know I'm preaching to the converted. Just saying, is all.

And I can under stand what the 70 year old RTA guy was saying. I wonder how many attempted/proposed changes he's seen over the years. Or rather, how many have actually been implemented.

[ireek]

Hi here is a copy of a video taken in Newcastle. 

http://www.youtube.com/

Anthony

[CyCo]

You just linked to YouTube itself Anthony.

But a quick look give me the following videos.

Mr MoT himself, Duncan Gay.

Peter Wells.

Alan Hay, Patron of the ACMA.

Q&A at the Motor Enthusiast's Conference. This one is unedited and 1 hour 17 minutes long.

I haven't watched them yet, I'm too tired atm, but looks like I have a few videos to watch over the weekend.

[The Metalsmith]

Nice find Cyc-baby,
                           The're all from the conference I attended. A lot of boring stuff to wade through to get to the good Q and A. Might be a good way to help you sleep!

     Simon

[ireek]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwk9Y-d6RC4&list=UUtjnYCDQ-g3Vm1UkQhOE1kg&index=1&feature=plcp