How much of the car needs to be kept intact to keep it registered as a Corvette? Here's two scenarios I am wondering about. Lets say you have a 1970 Corvette as the base (I just want a number to work with):


(1) Ferrari Daytona Spyder Rebody -- the chassis and birdcage are kept, but I believe the entirety of the body is ditched. Would this still be a 1970 Corvette?

(2) Tubular Chassis Swap -- you want to go with one of the tubular chassis being made, which allow the use of C4 or even C5 running gear under a mid-year body. This is almost the exact opposite of the rebody (keep the body, ditch the chassis). Is this still a 1970 Corvette?

Any help here is greatly appreciated. I only recently was informed about title issues with kitcars (usually the full chassis & body types - like a Cobra or Spyder). Essentially, I'm wondering what the edge of customizing a production car is where the state will want me to re-title it as a new (2002 or more likely 2003 car).

 

Well this is an interesting questing that should get some debate.

IHMO, and I repeat IHMO, if you change alot of things on the car, it won't be a vette any more, maybe "was a vette" but not a vette anymore, if you change the body, you still can say it's a vette with a different body, or custom or whatever. If you change the chassis.....hmmmm, and keep the body and every thing else, I think so you can call it a '70 vette, there are alot of people that change or mod their chassis for improved performance.

I think if you use other cars chassis, and stuff, and put a vette body on it you can call it a vette alright, A REPLICA.

My .02 :cheers:

Paul

 

There is always the old story about the old road racing vette. You know the body has the VIN, the frame has the VIN, and so does the motor. Lets say this VIN is 12345. On this road racing car over the years all three of these got seperated due to accidents, modifications and upgrades. Years later someone who has the frame decides to build a Vette from parts. So the take the old 12345 frame, add body parts to create a body, drops in a crate engine and away they go. At the same time someone who has body 12345 decides they want to build a Vette. So the find a frame and slip it under their body, adds an engine, and away they go. (Won't go into engine 12345 here). So who has Vette 12345? Is the one with the 12345 frame the real car or is the one with the 12345 body the real thing?

tom...

 

I think for title purposes the VIN tag on the body is gonna fly. A re-body is going to mean a kit car.

Hans

 

I agree with Hans - VIN tag on birdcage is the one.
.. but the rebody mentioned above KEEPS the birdcage - thus the VIN tag.
:seeya

 

What prompted this post was some web-searches on kitcar related forums. These forums were for cars that people build on custom chassis, not donor cars. Essentially, many of them play a little "legal game" when it comes time to register their custom built cars. Basically, in most states one is supposed to register a completely custom built vehicle as the year in which the car was completed. So, if you finished a Cobra replica this year, it should be recorde as a 2002 Cobra replica or 2002 Custom roadster or something like that. In states that require smog and safety inspections, this poses a problem for many replcas of vintage racers. Option 2 in just a handful of states is to register it as a "specially constructed vehicle", which is exempt from such inspections, HOWEVER cannot be driven more than 5,000 miles a year -- many don't like such state imposed restrictions (even though few Cobras ever see that much mileage a year).

Without going into details, what often goes on is that loopholes (or sometimes just ignorance on part of someone at the DMV) are used to register the car as a '63 - '65 vehicle. The advantage here is that, in most (if not all) states, '72 and older cars are exempt from the forementioned emissions/safety testing.

When this happens, there have been several cases of the car being stripped of its title down the road. The three most common are (1) the person used a title service to get the year they wanted, and the state will not accept it (2) The person moves from a state that doesn't enforce emissions to one that does (3) The car is brought in for annual checkup and some inspector w/a bug up his butt decides he's gonna tighten up enforcement that day. (Often, once a "vintage car" title is had, the DMV guys fully realize your car is not a '55 Porsche or '65 Shelby, they just don't want to deal w/the hassle).

Of course, the other type of kitcar is the "rebody". And for purposes of this forum, I've selected the Ferrari Daytona Spyder replicas, such as were made by Tom McBurnie for the Miami Vice Show. As I understand it, the state SHOULD let one keep the car registered as a Corvette, and thus if the car is a '72 or older model, would be exempt from testings, as well as being 100% legal (not tapdancing around the DOT & DMV).

I was wondering if there were any instances were a Corvette became so customized and altered that the state would force the owner to re-title the car. Ferrari Daytona & Viper rebodies aside, I know there have been some EXTREME customs done on C3's (as with most cars), and also the tubular frames I mentioned (I think they're used more on C2's though).

I'm actually cobbling up my own body, so even if I wanted to do the legal wrangling that full-chassis kitcar owners do, I couldn't...it's not a copy of anything. This is the reason for the post I made along side this one: Where are all the "C3 heaps"?

 

I researched it in Florida for the Pro Touring car in progess (or process). It can get complicated involving three different inspection, especially when the frame is involved. After 6 months of talking with them, the lady said to just make sure I get it registered. No one in their office wanted to come out for the inspections. You will also get a title that says "car made from parts" or somesuch language. That was two years ago. I'm sure the regs have changed little if any.

Good luck.
Spike

 

Now that you mentioned this, I remember once seeing a title saying something like "custom base" can't remenber what car was though, it was probably a kit, it lookd like in between a Cobra and a Caterham

Paul