Car Enthusiasts Against lowering and raising vehicle laws !

With Strict new laws being implemented by the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority affecting the raising and lowering of suspension on any light motor vehicle, we the Enthusiasts are majorly affected with seemingly nothing that we can do to stop our passion and livelihood in some cases to be destroyed by misinformed state government figures. 

We have a passion, a passion for cars and trucks. The Majority of Vehicle enthusiasts are not young P plater "hoons" as the media portray, but in fact people of all ages and backgrounds who share something in common which is the modification of their most prized possession, their cars.

These new laws that Mr Michael Daley (NSW roads minister) has introduced, affect all aspects of vehicle modifiers state wide.

No statistics have been shown to the public of raised or lowered motor vehicles being the cause of accidents or even increasing the likelihood of an accident!

These laws have been brought in to which seems to be a scare tactic to the rest of the nation who use their cars and the road just for getting from A to B , the government  are trying to make your average joe think that our modified vehicles  put his life and his families lives at risk, not to mention the media showing cars doing burnouts and street racing , all of a sudden the nation thinks because our vehicle is modified that we are out street racing and doing illegal activity on our roads. Now the fact is some people choose to engage in acts of stupidity and that is their choice, but enough is enough because we wish to have a modified vehicle we should not be portrayed under the same stereotype as law breaking citizens.

We need to band together, we need to show the public, the government and any governing body that our vehicles' can be modified and can be safe!
One major spanner in the works is the wording in "VSI 50" found at "http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/registration/downloads/vsi/vsi_50_raising-and-lowering-vehicles_17-july-2009.pdf"  "Chassis rails must not be notched or cut to lower a vehicles ride height." now it has been a law for a long time for regular cars that are a monocoque body cannot be tubbed or notched because it potentially can weaken that car and in an accident it could be for the worse. Now with full chassis vehicles such as minitrucks (utes) and hot rods / customs,  notches have been allowed if done correctly and certified by an RTA approved automotive mechanical engineer.
Now the RTA are telling us they will be banned across the board which is going to affect many businesses and individuals alike !

Another thing written in "VSI 50" is "Drop axles/spindles must not be used to lower a vehicles ride height." Now there is no reason for these to be made illegal they are in fact a great way to lower your vehicle, they maintain factory suspension geometry and in most cases  lower the vehicle by 2 inches which is now the  limit under the new legislation.

Obviously the lowering of vehicles is more so affecting us but also raising too, there are many thousands of 4x4 enthusiasts in this country. They go off the road they need to raise their suspension, and have larger than factory tyres. These new laws are now going to stop this from being possible if they wish to drive on the road and let%u2019s face it if done correctly and in some cases  engineered then they are very safe for our roads and it is not likely that all 4 wheel drive owners that modify their off road designed vehicles are going to have another large vehicle that  can tow their vehicle to where they wish to go offroad.

Now these new laws as a whole have been released on the  17th of July 2009 and have been proposed to  take effect on July 31st 2009. That is 2 weeks from release date. Now 2 weeks is not satisfactory, I myself know of at least 50-100 vehicles being built within workshops and in home garages, a lot are under instruction of engineers before they are finished and inspected. Now these vehicles apparently unless they are completed, engineered and  registered by the 31st of July 2009  will no longer be able to be registered in NSW, this means  potentially millions of dollars of motor vehicles that  will never see our roads because of laws that are not fair nor needed.

Now the RTA has told me on the phone that they do not know anything more than what they read on VSI 50, so if they don%u2019t know, we don't know then who knows?

There is much more detail this can go in but we will leave it at this at this point.

Please sign this petition if you wish to see a review on these new laws that affect a large part of the automotive industry and community.