Air Care...OMG

[xlr8tr]

In the lovely socialist province of BC apparently I must pass an air care inspection before insurance will renew... any other BC cobra guys had any experience with this? The trip should be worth a laugh at a minimum! I'm not feeling the love that a dual carb crappy idle 460 will pass, but I guess stranger things have happened.

[Xack]

........

[SoTxButler]

Sounds like it is time to MOVE to Texas. No air-care here!!!!

[Sawdust]

xlr8tr
That sucks! Is this something new? Makes me glad I'm living in Ontario.

Stu.

[SunDude]

Mark, in Ontario "kit cars" are exempt from provincial Drive Clean requirements. Are there any similar exemptions under the B.C. program for kit cars or hot rods or the like which your car could fit into?

What would it take for your Cobra to qualify for vintage or collector car plates?

Or you could always argue that it qualifies as a hybrid. An Anglo-American hybrid that is, in the original 1960s sense. ;-)

FROM THE AIR CARE WEBSITE:

What vehicles are exempt from AirCare?
The following exemptions are in effect during 2012:

* 2006 and newer model year vehicles (see note below)
* Vehicles with vintage plates
* Motorcycles, snowmobiles, amphibious vehicles and ATVs
* Farm fleet and agricultural vehicles
* Motor homes with a net vehicle weight over 3500 kg.
* Vehicles with collector plates* (except new applications for collector status)
* Electric vehicles
* Hybrid vehicles

Please Note: 2005 model year vehicles will require AirCare inspection for licence renewals after December 31, 2011.

* Collector vehicles are required to pass an AirCare inspection as a one-time condition of application for collector's designation.

[xlr8tr]

Yah, I think I'm screwed, cant see a way around it. Aircare has been in place for years here, big money grab now (what are the odds of a newer car failing...). I have a '56 T Bird thats exempt as it has collector plates, but kit cars cant qualify for collector status, has to be pretty much stock original.

Should be funny though, the car is set up with totally fixed driving position for me (6'7"), and they drive it on the rollers! Maybe I'll bring a baby seat

The hybrid comment is funny- I slapped hybrid logos i bought off ebay on my wife's Ford Flex so she could park free at one of the hotel chains (they had a deal for hybrids), and all the valet guys were talking, thinking they were so smart, "wow, I didn't know the Flex came as a hybrid!" so our answer was when in a US hotel "its a Canadian only model", and when in Canada "we imported it from the US, its a US only model". The hotel unfortunately cancelled the deal, so I think we have the only "Hybrid" Flex in existence