Neil,

As I mentioned above, the State of California will normally require that the car meet the smog requirements for the year that the car is registered as. In your case, the car would l likely need to meet the smog requirements for a 2003 vehicle with the same motor if you decide to register it as a SPCN and smog the motor.

SB100 is definitely the way to go if you can get one.

Just me, but make sure the "authorized agent" is someone that comes with references.

She is, I just used her to register a Dune Buggy I bought in Wisconsin, and the person that referred her has used her for years and he buys and sells cars all the time to fix and flip.....he says he hasn't been to the DMV in years, she does all the paperwork, walks it thru and its done, which was my experience with the Dune Buggy just now. That said, only time will tell how good she really is with a TOUGH job. Looks like I will be actually buying the Cobra next Saturday and driving it from Vegas to LA on Sunday.....I am already salivating!

Neil

Check out this thread on the SB100 process.
http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/bay-area-cobra-club/101739-sb100-conference-mustang-ranch.html

Congrats on the car Neil! My .02c...just make sure the person doesn't cut any corners. You should be clear on the entire process and understand how the transaction is being presented to the DMV. In the end, it's your signature on the dotted line.

SB100 Update
 

Hi All, cutting to the chase, ALL 500 SB100 Certs are gone! What I am told by my DMV consultant is that the only way to go forward now is to have car actually pass smog, issue is not emissions, but what they compare the car to....apparently I need to take car to a smog "referee" (just a few scattered in LA area), who looks at car and decides what "year" he will assign to the engine, then he puts sticker on car, then you take to smog station and they use that assigned code/year to enter into system to run test....risk of course is that he/she assigns a code/year that requires more equipment than car has....of maybe I get lucky. If so, then car gets registered like any other car, and gets smoged every 2 years (unless I can snag a SB100 on Jan 1 2011!

Other option is to forget about CA for now and register under my name and my brother, who lives in NV (where its registered now with smog exemption), and try to get SB100 next Jan....for now that is my plan, unless that creates insurance issue....I checked with Allstate and they say no problem, I just emailed the famous "Robbin" that got such high praise on an insurance Thread, will see what he (she?) says.

I will keep all posted.....by the way, anyone know of a REASONABLE transport co to get car from Vegas to LA?

Thanks, Neil

Neil,

Did you already close the deal on the car? Is the car such a great deal that you can't pass it up? There are a lot of cars for sale out there and many already have an SB100 cert. Just thinking out loud.

There is also no real way to register a specially constructed vehicle except under the SB-100 smog exemption. You may have run into information about "year of engine" registration, but these loopholes have largely expired. The vehicle will be judged as the year of build, and will have to meet smog regs for that year (sometimes the referees are kind in assigning an equivalent vehicle that is easy to match). But you will have to have 2005 or 2007 or whatever year the vehicle was built smog gear if you don't have an exemption.

I can see it being a very valid approach, especially with the donor-type cars like the FFR, to take a fully smogged driveline from a Mustang and transplant it intact.

Neil,

One other (last ditch effort) option is to go to a different DMV office and have them make the call to Sacramento to confirm that all SB100's have in fact been issued.

Last year, there was report that some SB100's were still available in January. One of the CC members walked into an office and was told that all of the numbers had been issued. That wasn't the case and some additional pushing and calls found that some numbers were still available.

Absolutely. Trust no one. There were 100 numbers available per someone else on this Forum right after the 4th of January. I can't remember who, but someone got their number in July of last year (2009), maybe even later than that. Hard to believe all numbers are gone.

Trust --but Verify - Ronald Reagan.

I would get a DMV sup to call DMV Sac.

Not a lot of point in finding out there's numbers left if you aren't standing there, papers in hand, ready to grab one. I know, Catch-a-twenny-two.

All good advise, and yes, no point in finding out if there may in fact be numbers left unless I am ready to go, and to get ready to go, I have to own car....catch 22 indeed! The car is a 2003 built with NO donor car, all 100% new parts (seller has a complete book of build he has shown, and is giving me)....car is about the best build I have ever seen at a fair price....2003 Ford Factory Racing GT-40 Crate motor with a Kenne Bell dual screw polished supercharger and all the bells and whistles to boot, 1st class build all the way.....luckily I have the NV registration through my brother to fall back on, and all I have to do is get thru this year, next year I can be standing in line bright and early that first day of Jan with all papers in hand ready for my SB100!

I want to say to all of you that I am brand new to this site (since a car was not on my radar till recently), and ALL of you have been incredibly helpful and concerned, a real pleasure to meet all of you and I don't even have a car yet....will definitely look forward to meeting as many of you as I can in the future.....I will easy to spot, I'll be the one with the NV plates!

Neil

The CT Council of Car Clubs Feb hardcopy newsletter included a reprint/summary of " SEMA and CA Agencies "

Not knowing whether the info is redundant and/or out of date, the SEMA version:

" SEMA and California Agencies Solve Titling Dilemma for Hobbyist Vehicles "

" SEMA, working on behalf of California enthusiasts of specialty vehicles (street rods, custom vehicles, kit cars and replicas) and in cooperation with the Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Automotive Repair, Air Resources Board and Attorney General’s office has resolved a complex and threatening issue to this market segment and the industry it serves......"

SEMA Link:

http://www.semasan.com/main/main.aspx?id=62654

CT Council of Car Clubs

http://www.ctccc.net/

Neil,

If you try to pass smog here I am pretty sure they will register it as a 2010 car and you will have to meet those specs. Use Gunners advice and see if there are any SB-100 numbers left. Also maybe PM him and ask which DMV in Sacramento is the best to go to. I know ours up here won't even try to find out anything and all of the people around here that got SB-100 numbers went to Sacramento or Carmichael and spent the weekend before they opened. Sad that the DMVs are so different.

Ron

No SB100, 10 months to go, now what?
 

So for those of us without a brother in Nevada...

First Question: People talk about starting the process now and getting multiple temporary operating permits until the following January. Have any of you actually done that? If so, what story did you use for reapplying three or four times over the rest of the year?

Second Question: the DMV site on SPCNS says (and I quote) "In addition, fees deposited in one year cannot be held over for the next year's allocation of certificates." If those "fees" include the license fee or use tax, that'a lot of money and a deal killer? IOW, it seems like this is designed to force you to wait until the following January just to get started. What say you?

1. Brake & light inspection, CHP VIN assignment, BAR referee, installation of engine & tranny, etc.

2. You do NOT have to pay use/sales tax again.

So how far ahead of January did you first apply, and how many times were you able to renew your TOP?

awatkins,

The length of the TOP issued will all depend on the DMV office that you visit and rep that you helps you. It seems like some offices are being extremely tight to the point of only giving out one day tops, while other people get TOPs for 60+ days.

The strategy that I took, was to start the process in June and hope that I could drive my car through the summer. I was lucky enough to get a sufficient number of TOPs to get me through from June to December.

Pretty easy to do. Visit the DMV and pay your fees. They'll indicate the requirements that you need to meet (BAR, CHP, Brake/Light, etc.) on the top of your temp registration. The only thing you can really do is the CHP and Brake/Light. Don't do anything. Drive your car until the TOP runs out. I'll be damned, business travel has prevented you from meeting any of the requirements. Go back to DMV to get another TOP. Chip away at the requirements SLOWLY and keep getting TOPs.

So you never actually got to the point where DMV said "I'm sorry, I'm not giving you any more TOPs?"

Some people have run into that. Just go visit another office.

During the process I probably had about 5 TOPs. I noticed that they only pulled up the record on their system once when I went in for my TOPs, and they only wrote the date/length of the first TOP on my paperwork. So, they don't really keep track of all of the TOPs that are issued.

Talk to some fellow Cobra owners in your area to find out which DMV office is the most knowledgeable about the SB100 process.