Hello,
Quite a while since I've been on here, as I sold the Renault based trike I built a few years ago. This is a bit of an odd request, and its to try and save the trike from being crushed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (thats a sentence I never thought I'd type).
I'm not quite sure how it got there exactly, but a chap called Manny rang me up on Thursday night to tell me that the car had been imported into the US and that the EPA were going to crush it, as they couldn't reconcile the VIN number the car currently has with the donor engine date of 1986. When I built the car and put it through the MSVA test I was issued with a new VIN that I duly stamped onto the new chassis, but the EPA apparently won't accept the story associated with changing the VIN's. The background issue is that any vehicle less than 25 years old has to be "federalised" (or perhaps should that be federalized) and without a VIN they recognise as dating from 1986 the RundownRaces Special gets crushed.
Manny rang to ask me if I had the old V5 for the donor Renault 4, or failing that had I got the old VIN number written down somewhere. Unfortunately I had neither. Yesterday I sent off a form V888 to the DVLA requesting the VIN for the original Renault 4 (C682LRN), but apparently this can take 2 to 4 weeks and I might not get the VIN anyway.
My request for help is this - as an absolute last resort if the DVLA won't release the old VIN, or if the EPA won't wait, does anyone have any VIN details for a 1986 vintage Renault 4 they have either written off/scrapped that they would let me send to save the car.
I hope you can believe I'm not involved in any kind of 'ringing' operation here, and after talking to him I'm fairly sure Manny isn't either, its just an attempt to save something I spent quite a while building
Thanks in anticipation of someone being a Renault good Samaritan,
Andrew
Quite a while since I've been on here, as I sold the Renault based trike I built a few years ago. This is a bit of an odd request, and its to try and save the trike from being crushed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (thats a sentence I never thought I'd type).
I'm not quite sure how it got there exactly, but a chap called Manny rang me up on Thursday night to tell me that the car had been imported into the US and that the EPA were going to crush it, as they couldn't reconcile the VIN number the car currently has with the donor engine date of 1986. When I built the car and put it through the MSVA test I was issued with a new VIN that I duly stamped onto the new chassis, but the EPA apparently won't accept the story associated with changing the VIN's. The background issue is that any vehicle less than 25 years old has to be "federalised" (or perhaps should that be federalized) and without a VIN they recognise as dating from 1986 the RundownRaces Special gets crushed.
Manny rang to ask me if I had the old V5 for the donor Renault 4, or failing that had I got the old VIN number written down somewhere. Unfortunately I had neither. Yesterday I sent off a form V888 to the DVLA requesting the VIN for the original Renault 4 (C682LRN), but apparently this can take 2 to 4 weeks and I might not get the VIN anyway.
My request for help is this - as an absolute last resort if the DVLA won't release the old VIN, or if the EPA won't wait, does anyone have any VIN details for a 1986 vintage Renault 4 they have either written off/scrapped that they would let me send to save the car.
I hope you can believe I'm not involved in any kind of 'ringing' operation here, and after talking to him I'm fairly sure Manny isn't either, its just an attempt to save something I spent quite a while building
Thanks in anticipation of someone being a Renault good Samaritan,
Andrew