worried about Registering my 1976 Spitfire.

Mc-BigE

I have a 1976 Triumph Spitfire 1500 which I imported from UK, and on the V5 document it says year of first Registration in Uk is 1st sep 1981 and on the top right hand corner it says "Imported Vehicle- previously Registered or used overseas. Declared Manufactured 1976"
So my question is do I have to wait until September for car to be declared 30 years old? Or if I get it registered before then is it considered 29 years old i.e.
Higher road tax, Nct. and more important no vintage plates?

Regarding vintage plates, can I just go to the normal VRO office for them?

camarobill

wait ontill its 30 years old,dont even ask at the vrt office;)

Mc-BigE

I'm not sure whether it’s already 30 years old because there's no month given just the year of manufacture, so it could be 1 Jan 1976 or 31 Dec 1976

dubtom

On my form from the dvla the same was stated, first registered in 88 but in pen it said manufactored in 72. The girl in the vrt put it down as January.Once it's states the year I think they'll give you the benifit of the doubt.

Blue850

Being a Triumph, can't you get a Heritage Cert in the UK which should tell you the date the car was assembled?

PaulK_CCI

dubtom wrote:

On my form from the dvla the same was stated, first registered in 88 but in pen it said manufactored in 72. The girl in the vrt put it down as January.Once it's states the year I think they'll give you the benifit of the doubt.

Unfortunately they don't generally give you the benefit of the doubt. It is up to you as the owner to prove to them that the car is over 30 years old, and if you can't, they will have to assume otherwise!

I had similar cases where only the month was given, and they claimed that they would have to assume up to the 31th of that month, so it was always safer to wait with registering until the following month!

So if only the year is stated, they will have to assume that theoretically, if you cannot prove contrary, the car could have been FIRST REGISTERED in December of that year, making it liable for VRT !!! So you'd better tread very carefully.

By the way, it clearly states in the VRT rules and guidelines that it is NOT the date of manufacture that counts BUT THE DATE OF FIRST REGISTRATION. So the Heritage certificate will tell you when the car was built, but not when it was first registered...

Of course it all depends on who you are going to get at the VRT office, but once you've made your move and have presented the car, there is no turning back :-)

green-blood

I'm with Paul, they will accept its 7 but they will date it sept 76 because of the re-reg.

dont even enquire at the VRT until September.

corktina

it all depends how much neck you have....it worked for me:cool:
...you should be able to get the date of assembly from a Uk club if you give them chassis number.....

Mc-BigE

Well, I couldn't wait any longer so I took the plunge and went to my local VRO office and I explained the situation. i.e. didn't know day/month of manufacture,
The women at the counter just filled it in as 1/1/76 ! so no complaints from me:D


Attached photo, she was fully restored over 4 years in the UK
Paint job/body prep. cost over 3K sterling alone! engine rebuilt and runs on unleaded, wheels/tyre are all new! drives like a 3 year old car not 30!

Very happy so far!

Dades

Mc-BigE wrote:

Well, I couldn't wait any longer so I took the plunge

Good for you! Congrats on the good experience (Who Dares Wins)...

The car looks really tip top. What areas shall we expect to see you zooming around this summer?

Mc-BigE

The Atheist wrote:

Good for you! Congrats on the good experience (Who Dares Wins)...

The car looks really tip top. What areas shall we expect to see you zooming around this summer?

I'm in the Cork area, so anywhere from west Cork/kerry area over to youghal or even further east!

Have car will travel!

Dades

Mc-BigE wrote:

I'm in the Cork area, so anywhere from west Cork/kerry area over to youghal or even further east!

Send us a postcard then.

Silvera

She looks very smart!

Did you go for a 'ZV' or 'year' reg ?

Mc-BigE

Silvera wrote:

She looks very smart!

Did you go for a 'ZV' or 'year' reg ?

ZV but it now has 5 numbers after ZV instead of the old 4,

looks a bit strange, but better than 76-x-xxxxxx:)

Traumadoc

Why do some zv registrations have 4 numbers and others have 5 I got mine in march this year with 4 ( in Dublin)

Mc-BigE

Traumadoc wrote:

Why do some zv registrations have 4 numbers and others have 5 I got mine in march this year with 4 ( in Dublin)

I was told that the VRO office have just changed to a 5 number reg for ZV plates, i dont know exactly when, but obviously after march!

Blue850

Apparently they were running out of 4 digit numbers as the first 2 numbers represented the county the car is registered in.

Citroen Guru

I took my Volvo PV 544 to Customs in Bantry yeterday and I've gone for a 64 C. Computer is broken down so I'll get the number in the post next week. Hoping for 64 C 807 as I already have 64 C 806 on my Hanomag truck. Got no plates at all at the moment as the original plates had to go back to Finland.

Gar81

I bought an English reg mk2 Harrier which was completly rebuilt in 2003 using a 1300 '76 shell and engine bored out to 1800, but i have two log books one is 1980 and one 1976 i also bought an irish logbook for a 1300 1977 wat do i do, do i ring it wit irish logbook!, use the 1300 english logbook and clear it even though the harrier came out in 1980 or do i do the honest thing, and end up wit 80 DL **** instead of vintage plates, i know i cant wait till 2010

Henry Ford III

I thought 1700cc was tops for a crossflow? 711m block?

Log book wise I have no idea.

Silvera

Traumadoc wrote:

Why do some zv registrations have 4 numbers and others have 5 I got mine in march this year with 4 ( in Dublin)

Each county is issued with a batch of ZV numbers.
The first allotment were issued in 1992 and began to run out in recent times.
The new batch for Dublin still includes 4 digit numbers (until they run out of course!), and 5 digit numbers for all other counties.

I don't know why they didn't -
1 - reserve low numbers e.g. ZV 1 to ZV 999 for very old cars (the new long numbers look really out of place on say, a 1920's car)

2 - issue reverse-format ZV numbers when the 4-digit allocation began to run out i.e. xxxx ZV

Still I suppose ZV plates look more the part than a 'year' reg on a vintage car!

corktina

Gar81 wrote:

I bought an English reg mk2 Harrier which was completly rebuilt in 2003 using a 1300 '76 shell and engine bored out to 1800, but i have two log books one is 1980 and one 1976 i also bought an irish logbook for a 1300 1977 wat do i do, do i ring it wit irish logbook!, use the 1300 english logbook and clear it even though the harrier came out in 1980 or do i do the honest thing, and end up wit 80 DL **** instead of vintage plates, i know i cant wait till 2010

well if it was re-shelled using a 76 shell, you should (indeed MUST according to the law,as far as I know.).... use that logbook ....the only problem being it will look like fake to Harrier buffs........you could always re-register it AGAIN in 2010 using the 1980 book.....(not quite cricket but better than ringing it with the irish number, a practise Im not happy with as your insurance will be on a long-scrapped car and therefore void if you have an accident and they find out...) sounds like a nice car...any photos?.

Silvera

I agree, if the shell is a '76 then thats the year of the car for reg purposes.