So...what if we couldnt import cars from england...?

carchaeologist

Just a thought from walking around at shows and seeing what is out there,hypothetically speaking if there was nowhere like england to import cars from,what would the Classic scene be like in this country? There sure wouldnt be very much around of all types of classics including commercials and tractors. Also there wouldnt be much of a scene to preserve the few irish cars left then either. It seems like 80% of what you see at a show is on a ZV or age plate.. Anyone any views on this?

manta mad

yer dead on !!!
loads of zv plates around & theirs not much left of the old irish regs .
only the plates :rolleyes:

Tigger

i've had the same bike since 95 its a 92 and its immaculate i also have a 89 since 93 which is undergoing a full restoration
same car since 99 its a 96 and immaculate i'm too young to have kept my 78 beemer from current so its a zv cos an irish one would be hard to find

Max_Damage

Most vehicles would probably come from America or Oz then (as them seem to do after the UK).

I don't like ZV plates. I always went with the philosophy of either having the original pre-'87 plate or just having a 72-D etc. plate. None of this pseudo pre-'87 plate jazz.

carchaeologist

Max_Damage wrote: »

I don't like ZV plates. I always went with the philosophy of either having the original pre-'87 plate or just having a 72-D etc. plate. None of this pseudo pre-'87 plate jazz.

I didnt intend this to be another plate debate thread so ill just say this,age related vintage plates are fine if done properly,which they arent nowadays. Though to be fair when the original ZVs were introduced there was much less classics being imported compared to now. But the five digit system should not have been introduced imo. There was unused marks that could have been issued.

theirs not much left of the old irish regs .
only the plates

Yes,also true to a point,but there is alot of genuine cars there too. And the dodgy stuff is often easy to spot. The best is when you see minter cars with battered plates on.

Abelloid

If there was a 'no import' rule we'd probably be out with metal detectors and shovels, Ireland has a long history of burying stuff.

Thinkingaboutit

Someone round the corner from me scrapped a green 1985 Toyota Carina II hatchback, because his (grown up) children thought it was embarrassing:mad:. It was in fairly good condition and was just left at the scrapyard. It was Irish registered. My father had the same car except a saloon that was lost to the first scrappage scheme, he was very sad to see it go those few years ago. I notice that most old shape VW Beetles have an original Irish registration, very strange.

Max_Damage

JustinOval wrote: »

If there was a 'no import' rule we'd probably be out with metal detectors and shovels, Ireland has a long history of burying stuff.

We (my cousin and myself) buried a Vauxhall Victor estate about 7 years ago that was sitting in his field for years. It was well rotten though!

carchaeologist

JustinOval wrote: »

If there was a 'no import' rule we'd probably be out with metal detectors and shovels, Ireland has a long history of burying stuff.

Indeed,a friend of mine bought a house recently and when clearing and levelling the garden they found two cars buried in it. Nothing classic,fairly modern stuff.

ep71

there would probably be a far highervalue put on original irish classics! myself and my father were connecting up to a new sewerage scheme at the end of our driveway and found the remains of a beetle that he buried in 1979:D

trevorbrady

if there were no imports allowed we'd be an awful lot more enthusiastic about restoring old Irish cars. It's too easy to just write a cheque for an import up front. It takes a real enthusiast to roll up their sleeves and restore an old Irish car. While having the option of importing has ensured the hobby has been booming over the last few years an original Irish registered car always appeals to me more.

I've done both: I imported a van from the US and I've restored Irish heaps. While the US van was definitely the "fast-track" to having something on the road and it is a very appealing option, restoring a car yourself (or even having someone restore a car for you) is far more satisfying.

You know that another one has been saved instead of passed over for an import.

Tigger

Thinkingaboutit wrote: »

Someone round the corner from me scrapped a green 1985 Toyota Carina II hatchback, because his (grown up) children thought it was embarrassing:mad:. It was in fairly good condition and was just left at the scrapyard. It was Irish registered. My father had the same car except a saloon that was lost to the first scrappage scheme, he was very sad to see it go those few years ago. I notice that most old shape VW Beetles have an original Irish registration, very strange.

they're mostly lying

carchaeologist

Tigger wrote: »

they're mostly lying

About the beetles?

spooky donkey

JustinOval wrote: »

If there was a 'no import' rule we'd probably be out with metal detectors and shovels, Ireland has a long history of burying stuff.

no metal detectors are ilegal in this country now.

I think if we could not import cars you would see more kit cars at shows also.

Bitten & Hisses

carchaeologist wrote: »

Indeed,a friend of mine bought a house recently and when clearing and levelling the garden they found two cars buried in it. Nothing classic,fairly modern stuff.

I buried a 1985 one of these (And believe me, there wasn't much more to the commander than its stripes!) a couple of years ago. It was dog rough, having been a parts car in 1997 and being on its side in a field since then.

atlantean

carchaeologist wrote: »

hypothetically speaking if there was nowhere like england to import cars from,what would the Classic scene be like in this country?

When I thought about this Cuba sprang to mind! There they still have the cars that they had in the 50's, not as classics but as daily runners! They have had to make do with what they had! I wonder if we would not import cars would we have held onto our old cars?

2.8trooper

as a collector its a fact of having to go to the uk for some models especially the ones i am interested in,ireland didnt seem to get the cooking models the uk got then and to a piont now,i dont have a problem seeing imported classics at a show i would rather see them there than never see them at all! then theres the way we treated our cars back in the day they were driven till they died and then left to rot in a field what hope has a restorer got with an irish classic thats been in a field the last 15 or 20 years.in the uk people tended to look after there motors a lot more one i got had bulbs wrapped up in cotton wool in matcboxes hidden in the boot,all its petrol stops and oil changes wriiten down in a notebook in the dash,i feel thats why they lasted longer they got care and attention down the years.if they werent in the uk i would be going to malta rhd and sunny climate although they are tired driven till the engines blow and then they shoehorn a modern deisel in and they still use them to this day.in short zv regs or 72 d etc do not bother me one bit its nice to see old irish regs but if they arent out there what do you do????

68deville

i have to agree with you,i was at a classic car meeting lately and the majority of original irish regs tended to be high end or prestige/sports
which had a fair effect on their survival.I also noticed a gud few cars
still were on UK plates and they didnt arrive on the ferry that morning either!!