After 2 years I finally have a car that I could technically drive - I live in a quiet rural village, and am thinking hypothetically of taking it up the road and back at low speed to just check everything is working as it should.

Would you be opening yourself up to heavy prosecution/car crushed if caught?

James

[Edited on 22/3/08 by cloudy]

yup leaving yourself wide open to criticism / prosecution if you do go ahead and this thread remains on here

yes unless you offer the copper a spin! but thats if you get caught. is quite risky but depends on where you live.

got any new pics btw?

Rob

Yes, driving a car on the road without tax,insurance etc is against the law and you will be prosecuted. I did this to shake down my "Frog Eye Sprite" after a full rebuild and got a £170 fine and three points and that was years ago. Don't risk it you might even run into someone or they may run into you.

I'm only talking hypothetically here, I will take it to an airfield for it's first test drive - just wondering how the law stands on it....

James

Agreed don't do it! Murphy's law will get you!

Dave B.

In a word yes!

No MOT, no registration, no insurance, no tax...

If you manage to drive it without getting caught there is likely to be someone to grass you up...

As a cautionary tale, when I unloaded my car off the trailer after taking it to get the engine set up and a test "MOT" to check for anything obvious I couldn;t resist and went for a blast round the block (300 yards round the blcok)... Quiet estate in town, get on with the neigbours etc. etc. Turned back onto the road infront of my house and there were 2 policeman walking past my drive end - never seen them here before!!

Luckily they didn't notice/turned a blind eye, but I never tried that again!

Mark

OK I get the idea - I got the impression it was quite common to check things over in this manner. Obviously not!

James

i think we've all one it though

if there more sheep and cows than people where you live then you might get away with it. i used to drive cars on the roads where i used to live when was 14-17 . looking back it was very silly, but it was a very rural village, would never get away with it now though!

rob

I think a lot of us have taken our unregistered uninsured un taxed un mot'd cars for a spin on a "private test track/airfield/road" but never on a "public highway"

Beings as you've asked the question, the answer has to be no don't do it.

But we all do things we should'nt from time to time
and accept the consequences should there be any

Be careful.

Nah, it is!!!
But still, don't do it!

And another thing to consider mate, an area of "private" land as you call it, can almost always be considered public in the eyes of the law for the context that you are talking about!
Steve
ps you have U2U!

quote:

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Originally posted by cloudy
OK I get the idea - I got the impression it was quite common to check things over in this manner. Obviously not!

James

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There is the cover of darkness available!

I live is a not so quiet village and allegedly put 100 miles on my car before SVA

quote:

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Originally posted by worX

ps you have U2U!

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I went for a little pootle up and down the private lane that my garage is on. Didn't get done by the fuzz but the people who lived next to it weren't so impressed Can't blame them in retrospect!!! 8k in a narrow alleyway!! Sounded nice to me though... Of course if you book it in for an MOT (but then find they can't get your car up onto the ramp so they have to cancel it) you can legally drive to and from the MOT....

Of course everyone's done it.


Of course nobody will openly condone such behaviour.

remember and video it

Yes got to agree with it, do not drive it on a public highway. Trailered ours to my private place of work and did 15 miles in 3 great hours as part of a shakedown and was hard to keep to the speed limit in the place. What it did do is showed a few bits we had to sort for the SVA soon.Mind you if I has hit any of the cars there would have been touble.

I played it safe and just leathered it the 10meter length of my drive

http://www.digital-car.co.uk/wr4/mk2/video/seconddrive.wmv


James