More on legalities of modding…

[Allen Brand]

Eric:

I just finished watching the video you posted (a while back now) about how all your cars were illegal due to federal restrictions on automotive repair. I thought I’d check in with you to see if you had any new information or insights into this problem? I’d recently submitted a letter to my congressman about the RPM Act that (somewhat) addresses this problem, and then during research I discovered more information that — if true — made more depressed. Perhaps not a shock that it’s all politicized, but disappointing nonetheless.
I’ve got two ’91 turbo MR2’s as project cars…one is very custom, and the other mostly stock. Given the ages of these cars, they are similar in vintage to your Acura Vigor. I’ve begun the rebuild on the mostly factory MR2, and am rebuilding the car from the ground up, starting with engine and tranny. My research on the topic led me to a similar place that your research led you to. Disappointing is an understatement…
I have heard more than once that the laws in question barring modification is actually attempts by the industry to prevent ‘right-to-repair’ options for customers/tinkerers. It also seems to me that having such laws on the books is an unenforceable legislation, since there would be potentially millions of people who would be ‘criminalized’ and dragging us all into prisons or confiscating rides would seem to me to be untenable. I’ve also heard rumors (as rumors go) about the growing divide between pro-clean Earth promoters and the ‘rolling coal’ morons who made it worse for everyone. How does a shop navigate these issues? I mean…do you have to be concerned about the feds raiding your shop, will they just one day get in their heads to start enforcing these laws without any forethought (as they are apt to do)? It’d be interesting to hear some of your perspective on this.

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