Factory Five’s 33 Hot Rod. This car debuted in Ford’s 2008 SEMA booth and captured Best in Show – Hot Rod. Photo courtesy Factory Five.
Don’t swear off everyone in government just yet.
Amidst what normally seems like a sea of ineptitude when it comes to matters regarding automotive enthusiasts, there might actually be an advocate for our hobby in Washington, after all.
A new bill, known as H.R.2675 and titled the Low Volume Vehicle Manufacturers Act of 2015 proposes removing restrictions that prevent replica car makers from delivering turn-key cars to customers without meeting the same motor vehicle safety standards are large-scale automakers.
Specifically, the bill tasks the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency with amending their rules to accommodate low-volume makers who fabricate replicas based on models that went out of production at least 25 years ago. The proposed law also would place an upper limit on those makers of 500 cars produced or imported into the U.S. per year. The law would require the drivetrains to meet current Clean Air Act standards, according to one of the bill’s sponsors.
The makers who would join the program would have to document their sales and register reports annually with NHTSA and the EPA. How to implement the bill, should it become law, would be up to the federal agencies tasked with exempting the low-volume makers.
Amazingly, the bill carries bipartisan support, with co-sponsors Markwayne Mullin (R) of Oklahoma and Gene Green (D) of Texas as the signatories on the filing. Our friends at SEMA are on top of this bill , obviously doing their part to support it.
Rep. Mullin’s press release notes that the projected increase from the average 800 kit cars sold per year (which skirt federal safety standards based on final assembly being handled by the retail buyer) could be as many as 500 turn-key cars per year.
Representative Green says, “While the market for these vehicles has been historically small, the enthusiasm hobbyists have for these cars shouldn’t be stymied by regulations that are clearly designed for large scale manufacturers.” We say, it’s about time!
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