Registration

[thomson]

I am told that some dealers were doing the holden conversion , if that is the case you should be able to put a holden powered truck on normal club plates ??? Does any body have paper work that would that would support that idea. some clubs are very picky on what they allow.

[101RRS]

They may have been doing conversions as a "service function" but not to new vehicles so you are looking at a point that is not probably relevant.

Under most State rules period modifications are allowed for historic registration and the Holden conversion should be allowed - however as you have found Clubs can ad their own additional rules and may consider a Holden engine inappropriate. You are bound by their rules so if a club does not allow Holden engines find another Club.

Garry

[thomson]

They may have been doing conversions as a "service function" but not to new vehicles so you are looking at a point that is not probably relevant.

Under most State rules period modifications are allowed for historic registration and the Holden conversion should be allowed - however as you have found Clubs can ad their own additional rules and may consider a Holden engine inappropriate. You are bound by their rules so if a club does not allow Holden engines find another Club.

Garry
All; N S W clubs are required to follow the rules , some clubs bend the rules , but if the **** hits the fan YOU are liable . N S W requires an engineering cert , if the car was engineered and you have the paperwork ( the R T A does not keep that paper work ) for that cert , you are OK , but even though that car has been registered for many years with that mod , if you do not have the engineering cert and you try to go to the historic system , you have to go to the to have that car engineered and go on to the modified system , but if we could prove that this mod was done buy the factory , this would change I know different states have different rules , but I am only concerned with N S W.

[gromit]

All; N S W clubs are required to follow the rules , some clubs bend the rules , but if the **** hits the fan YOU are liable . N S W requires an engineering cert , if the car was engineered and you have the paperwork ( the R T A does not keep that paper work ) for that cert , you are OK , but even though that car has been registered for many years with that mod , if you do not have the engineering cert and you try to go to the historic system , you have to go to the to have that car engineered and go on to the modified system , but if we could prove that this mod was done buy the factory , this would change I know different states have different rules , but I am only concerned with N S W.

The modification wasn't done by the factory/dealer. It was usually later in the vehicles life when the original motor wore out and it was cheaper to fit a Holden motor.
There were some very well engineered conversions and some dubious home brewed ones with cross members removed or cut, I've even seen a piece of angle iron welded between the front dumb irons.

I can't comment on the NSW system for historic rego but as it was a period modification and as long as it isn't a significant increase in power then I would have thought that it would be possible to get historic rego. Maybe try and find other people in NSW who have a Holden powered Land Rover and see how they got it registered.

Best of luck,


Colin

[101RRS]

All; N S W clubs are required to follow the rules , some clubs bend the rules , but if the **** hits the fan YOU are liable . N S W requires an engineering cert , if the car was engineered and you have the paperwork ( the R T A does not keep that paper work ) for that cert , you are OK , but even though that car has been registered for many years with that mod , if you do not have the engineering cert and you try to go to the historic system , you have to go to the to have that car engineered and go on to the modified system , but if we could prove that this mod was done buy the factory , this would change I know different states have different rules , but I am only concerned with N S W.

The Holden conversion was considered a "standard modification" not sure of the correct term so as long as an approved kit was used no engineering was required as the kit had been engineered - it was given type approval. All that had to be done was the engine number sighted and details amended - different now but not back then. So was a period modification.

Unfortunately many clubs and officials dont remember this.

Now if you do the conversion now different but if it was a vehicle converted back in the late 60s/70s/80s and the RMS records have this change in engine number and type then engineering is not required - and this applies to NSW. I did it in 1979 with a series 1 and a 161.

So if your Club does not know this then enlighten them or change clubs.

Garry

[JDNSW]

The standardised system of requiring engineering certificates for modifications to vehicles is relatively new, 1990s I think in NSW (maybe 1980s), meaning most of these Holden conversions long preceded this - I suspect they started in the 1950s, and their heyday was probably 1970s.

Very little legislation is retrospective, but I suspect the heritage registration legislation simply does not mention this sort of thing, and hence there is scope for different opinions. It is quite possible that it does actually prohibit heritage registration of Holden engined Landrovers (unintentionally), and if it does, it raises the question as to what else does it prohibit, such as non-standard mirrors! But it would almost certainly take a court case to decide this. (And you probably don't want to go there!)