Wow mark, you are in bad place at the moment aren't you?? This information has been in the public domain for quite some time now, so it's not something that VOSA have just implemented. Unfortunately, what has now caused this "problem" is the apathy shown towards the ruling by the great majority of people. Prior to the laws being implemented, almost everyone, aftermarket manufacturers included, said "it won't happen/can't happen"! Consequently, no one did anything to stop the laws coming into being. It's the old "head in the sand" syndrome isn't it? Now unfortunately, they are law & the EU government want us to implement them to stop "unsafe/illegal" vehicles being on the road.
ACE was set up to try & enlighten people as to what was happening that could/would affect the car modifiers/aftermarket suppliers. They've really had an uphill battle trying to get this information across, as people simply do not want to believe it could happen. Even now, people are convinced it won't affect them & have the "come & get me copper" attitude. When it was common knowledge that US tyres might not be able to be imported due to the aromatic oils in them, people were saying "I'll import my own to get around it". It is now illegal to import the majority of US brand tyres & if caught doing so, you face a very heavy fine of £1000's of pounds. Northhants tyres, who are probably the largest importer of US tyres has now come forward to say that they're having difficulty buying/importing/supplying certain brands of US tyres. If only more had been done at the discussion stages, then it might not have come into law, who knows??
"Hot Rodding is all about being individual" may be true in essence, but Europe have had it bad for a great many years now, even in the US they're having problems in certain states getting modified cars on the road. We've had it soft for a very long time, but now we need to think of what we're building & make it comply. Just because you have to comply to certain rules, doesn't mean that you can't build stuff in a certain way/style. It's been proven that you can build a rod, kit car or modified car to comply with BIVA without it looking like a dogs dinner. Some of the cars built to comply with the regs look just like any other to all intents & purposes.
Mark, you don't have to be racing in historic racing to have good brakes & suspension. A lot of the aftermarket stuff that you see advertised, such as A arms & big disc conversions are no better than uprated stock stuff, it just costs a shed load more. As I said in my previous post, my friend Jannes, torched his Baer brakes after just a few laps & they ended up in a smouldering heap. Just because it's aftermarket doesn't make it "right". With brakes the thing that ultimately stops you is the friction between the tyre & the tarmac. Prior to that it's how good your brake pads are at gripping the brake rotor. If you fit aftermarket pads, or even go to something like Carbotech produce (race brake lining manufacturers), your pads will grip the rotors ferociously & bring the car to a standstill very very quickly. The other thing that gives good braking is good tyres. US tyres are absolutely crap IMHO & are like driving on banana skins. Fit some good European tyres like Yokohama onto your car & it'll handle & stop extremely well. As for suspension A arms, unless you're trying to get a full race set up in your car, you can adjust the stock ones to work very well & in most cases if the car's set up properly with a "tuned" suspension/brake package it'll out perform most drivers on the road ie the driver will "bottle out" before the car does.
In the US they all have this pro touring crap fitted to their cars with 800hp engines & what do they do with them?? They drive (sorry "race") around cones in a car park!! they don't even get out of 2nd gear most of the time. If you've followed the saga of Steven Rupps Bad Penny Camaro, you'll see that he's had no end of aftermarket parts fitted to his car, swapped them out for something else allegedly better & then swapped it out again 'cos it didn't live up to the hype. Why keep swapping stuff out?? because it didn't do what it said on the box.!!!
I feel that all this aftermarket stuff like A arms, huge brakes, coil over rear ends etc etc etc, are just "bling" items for people that want to show off what they've got, so that others will think their car is great. I don't subscribe to that philosophy at all. I may have upset a few of you on here with those comments, sorry if it has, but it's how I feel. If you'd been in a car with properly set up OEM style equipment, you wouldn't want to waste your money on aftermarket stuff. Mark, I'll have to take you out in my "old school" '69 to show you what I mean
I'm getting off my soap box now & gonna go for a run in a car that has old suspension & brakes. Oh, that'd be my "legal" car then
(all the above very much tongue in cheek)
cheers....Nige