The editor’s Blowin’ Smoke – 1-Jan-2010

Nothing like coming back from two months on the road and being greeted with something of a controversy.

While going through a massive amount of e-mail a few caught my eye. You’ll see one of those e-mails in the CHRC Mailbag feature on the next page but that was just one of the letters.

The rumour circulating is that members of the B.C. Ministry of Transportation’s Commercial Vehicle and Safety Enforcement branch attended Deuce Day in Victoria and didn’t like what they saw, which was a lot of hot rods which were in violation of Ministry of Transportation regulations. Mainly, that meant “fenderless” cars. Photos were taken and license numbers written down and a crackdown is in the offing.

Instead of just accepting these e-mails verbatim, I gave Mike Woods in Victoria, B.C. a call.

Woods is the manager of Vehicle Inspections for the province and as such is the guy in charge of enforcing MOT regulations. He’s also the first public official I’ve ever phoned in my more than a decade in the journalism game who didn’t immediately pass me off to a “media relations” flak. That’s cool.

Woods confirms that officials did attend Deuce Day and that photos were taken which revealed “pretty obvious lack of standards,” on some vehicles.

“We will be contacting people,” he said. “We don’t see it as a big problem.”

While violations of code 7.06 — which requires vehicles to have mud guards or mud flaps — were the most noticeable, Woods says improper mounting of lights was, among others, also a problem.

Now, he didn’t mention anything about a “witch hunt” but he didn’t really have to.

Hot rods are obviously on the radar, and though he admits the Ministry’s primary interest is in commercial vehicles the hot rod “issue” pops up every once in a while.

Woods says what often happens is people who comply get frustrated when they see non-compliant vehicles and the first thing they do is phone the MOT or write letters to the Minister. But he says tattletales aren’t the only reason the MOT is interested in hot rods. While he’s vague on the details, an accident “sometime in the last two to three years” involving a fenderless hot rod on the Coquihalla Highway twigged officials that non-compliant vehicles are somehow passing inspection and getting insurance.

The obvious response to this might be “so go after the licensed inspection stations and leave hot rodders alone.”

Of course, that’s a bit shortsighted. Woods agrees that going after the facilities that pass non-compliant vehicles could be one way to go. “Bottom line, if a vehicle doesn’t have fenders, it shouldn’t pass inspection,” he says. He also says issuing a strong mandate to the RCMP to enforce violations could be another way to go.

But none of these agencies really have the manpower or resources to go after a few fenderless hot rods and that’s why many hot rodders get away with insuring and driving vehicles that technically are non-compliant.

I got the impression Woods would rather see hot rodders police themselves and I couldn’t agree more.

“We’ll work with any association or group,” says Woods. “What we would rather do is look at the solutions together so larger groups don’t dictate what happens.”

I’ll admit I’m not a big fan of government interference, but laws are laws and if you don’t like them, lobby to get them changed. Violating those laws or regulations is usually the worst method of changing a bureaucrat’s mind. They deal in eventualities and legalities not what we gearheads like to call “common sense.”

Common sense tells us that the vast majority of hot rods are driven less than a few thousand kilometers a year and usually in the best road conditions. But it only takes one incident to start the legislation ball rolling and then, in the end, small groups usually lose.

Despite the thousands of hot rodders in this province we are the minority, but we do have a voice.

The Speciality Vehicles Association of B.C. has been fighting our battles and supporting our causes for almost 30 years and yet how many gearheads are members or even know anything about what they do? They have a successful track record dealing with ICBC and MOT — collector plates and modified collector plate exemption for vehicles up to 1958 — but they can’t do it alone.

This strictly volunteer organization is always looking for new members and support so go to www.sva.bc.ca and find out what they’re all about, then join.

Well, I don’t blame you if you thought the next issue of CHRC was never going to hit the newsstands. We’re a little late, but hopefully the wait will be worth it.

Our massive road trip this summer left little time to work on the magazine but make sure to read us from cover to cover to find out what we did while we were away. Coverage of that trip will spill over to the Nov./Dec issue so don’t miss that one either.

You’ll notice another new feature in this issue, CHRC’s Bone Stock Parking Lot. It will feature all-stock or mostly stock classic cars and muscle cars each issue. Check it out on page 68. As always, send us photos of your cars and projects.

Talk to you next issue.