i happen to agree with 1200rallycar.
The road laws are in place to protect the general public, however the law cant make people behave maturely. Accidents do happen, but defecting a sports car or modified car is in my mind a bit stupid. Its bad driving and immaturity that hurt people not larger wheels, or lowering and loud exhausts.
I have one more cent to add:
WHAT THE HELL ARE THE POLICE DOING MAKING THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO DEFECT VEHICLES AND RENDERING THEM UNROADWORTHY UNTIL THEYRE TAKEN TO THE LOCAL DMV? Theyre not mechanics or engineers, sure they have a little book that has lots of facts about rules and regulations, but why do they have the right to deem your car unworthy?
Before u start defending them, i have a better idea. Lets give the right to inspect the vehicle, but only be able to make an appointment to see the DMV. Then we let the proper authorities deal with it. Too may times i have seen friends defected for absolutely nothing because the cops are a little defect happy.
im not saying this always happens, but should the police really be the once to make these judgements?

yep, i know people who have been defected for stuff which is perfectly legal

I've got to disagree with you 1200rallycar. Being a member of a sporting car club and CAMS you should be more aware of your responsibilities on public roads - especially as a rally driver! Testing your race car should be done on racetracks/practice days/private property. It has no place on the street. And street 'testing' has no value anyway - unless you are a complete psychopath (in which case you shouldn't have a licence) you simply cannot push 100% on the street so you will not get any useful feedback. If your road car is attracting too much unwanted attention, that too is your choice.

Back in the day I use to practice doing "donuts" "figure 8's" and the like in the empty parking lot of the supermarket I worked at. Believe it or not this helped me recover from a few unintensional slides in the rain on the street.
I've told some of my younger friends that if they are going to f***-around with their car, to AT LEAST do it alone and where no one else is around.
Regarding fast cars and first time drivers, I know about 6-7 people who bought or were given Mustang 5.0's, and all of them crashed at one time or another. "oh a deer jumped out..", "black ice", "the gaurd rail jump out in front of me"...yea right.

L18, for rally your car MUST be roadworthy cause the races are technically on public roads, and i used my rallycar as my road car for the last year so had no choice, if rego wasnt so bloody expensive....

cant be bothered arguing so im gonna leave it to later

i dont push 100%, probably havent even done that in the bush yet

problem is

too much brain, not enough sack

My 1200 was my first car ,bought it in may
1982 for 1800 dollars US. It has been
stolen once-- rear ended once-- and in
1993 the left front spindle broke on the freeway
launching the tire through the fender. I have
auto crossed in it -and done mountain runs
in it- the last one blew up
the engine, but never wrecked it racing.
Now it is getting a CA18DET just to modernize it a little :)

my other cars
86 Mustang 5.0
01 Lexus IS300
and another 1200 :)

p.s. never wrecked the mustang either
Akmost did once but that is for another time..

I'm in Las Vegas NV USA , also known as sin city. No you would think things are quite liberal here but actually it is quite the opposite . We are a conservative rural state. I too incured the wrath of the local police. I was driving down the road breaking in the GX motor and well the numbers and roll cage were to much for a police woman and she had to pull us over and hassle us.
Now with that said I do not test on the road. I do drive spirted (about 40%) but nothing that could land me in jail or risk other folks on the road.
As far as making your car competitive well most newbies couldn't win regardless of the car - has to do with track time not talent.When I took my 1200 to Drivers School I had $1800 U.S. in it , doesn't get much cheaper. Now mind you it had a bone stock engine and I battled for last place on race day but it was fun.
Poeple always say I'd like to go race but I couldn't in a car that slow. Well I tell them my motto about running slow cars "it's faster than a set of bleachers"
Now of course my mind set is differant - when I road raced bikes I ran the 125 GP class which is not exactly popular in the states so I learned to ignore what people think.
Any race car is still way more fun then you could ever have driving on the street , so just get your car race legal then worry about it being competitive later!!

Tom Grossmann
PS we call the car the Pokey , due to it's accelration and it being the same color as Gumby's side kick

ok, well a week after I posted that you should know you're own limits when driving, I found my 1600's limits and now it is no longer, and I won't be walking for at least 6 weeks.
Don't I feel stupid!!!