Do you guys register your "race" only cars? Should I?

So you're pulled over for a routine traffic stop, an your race car is on the trailer. How do you prove ownership. I'm curious, would I even have to since it's on the trailer.

 

Its never come up in my experience. I have been told you might want to have libility insurance on it as if it leaves the trailer and causes damage your auto policy won't help you.

 

What's a routine traffic stop?
Write yourself a bill of sale from Jack Mehoff for the day your towing it just in case it was used in a robbery last week. ?

 

My bro had a pu fly off a trailer and the state cop didn't say a thing.

 

Trailer brake light goes out, an you're towing your race car that simply isn't registered. That's what I was trying to get at.

 

how bout the ***le?

Now mind you I work for a county in FL and really cant speak for Cali. so this is my knoledge of FL law and nothing else (disclaimer)

The problem I see with just registering your car (in Fl and possibly Cali) is that to register a car you have to have insurance, if you never plan on driving the car on the street then you would insure the car to put tags on it and then pull the insurance....HOWEVER in FL the state gets notified by the insurance Co.s when the coverage is dropped of lapses with current registration in place...The state can then suspend your licence for financial responsibility (or the lack thereof).

SO As it's your car, and not street legal I wouldnt register it. your not required to carry registration on a trailered car anyway so I'd go with a ***le OR if your not too keen on carrying your ***le around burn a copy OR of you dont wanna do that a notarized proof of ownership with all your data, the cars data and the fact that it's in your name.

Personally, I'd go with the ***le in your name route.

Personal experience: I stopped a truck/trailer hauling a m***arratti road race car for no plates on the trailer (seems you dont need plates on a trailer in NC) He provided proof of ownership from NC for the car and trailer and he went on his way after I looked up NC state law with nary a citation... (and an apology for holding him up in his travels)

Look, for the most part we aint ****s, if its yours be able to prove its yours....it's the smart thing to do even if you dont get stopped.

Heck I'd still put theft coverage on it through a specialty ins co.

 

How is a race car on a trailer any different than a tractor on a trailer?

 

I really wouldn't have a ***le w/ a fibergl*** 27 'T roadster.

 

Thats a warning or ticket for the trailer lights. If you happen to think of it you could grab the ***le (that way you can race for ***les too) but they can type in the vin and see its not stolen.

 

In the early days of Trans-Am, I had an open trailer for the Camaro. The VIN on the dash panel was not there. Just an open slot. When stopped in the New York on I-90 the trooper asked about that. He wasn't investigating, he just wanted to see an interesting car.
I told him that due to all the mods and the removal of NTSB safety equipment, my home state, M***achusetts, told me to fix the car so it could never be registered anywhere. Made sense to him. Although, he did ask if I knew about the "bald tires". (smiling) Plus, how do you register a NHRA Super Stock? If the wheels are not on the road, if it's on a trailer, the law better have probable cause or...NOT A LAWYER HERE....I think they'd have a tough time doing anything.
Maybe I'm wrong?

 

I hesitated starting this thread, but I thank ya'll for the info. I would hate to invest, and have it taken away.

 

I think if you go to the dmv they can give it a number a put a sticker on the door jam. I've had to have that done in nv but that was for old cars that had old unreadable vins.

 

That's money I would rather not pay them, if I don't have to!

 

Thats true but like plym 46 said if you dont have libility and it causes alot of damage you could be lossing your house. They wont insur without some way to identify it...?
Maybe a closed trailer?

 

I will do that, for sure. Makes a lot of sense!

 

hope its not to spendy. I think the feds have a 50% tax on everything now.

 

Hahaha..

 

For the entire decade that I was drag racing it I had my GTO on a non-op and uninsured, it never went anywhere unless it was going to the track on my car trailer.

Never got pulled over, but always had my non-op and trailer registration handy in the glovebox of my truck.

Just having the last expired registration with your name on it for the non-op car on the trailer is plenty good enough to prove that it's your car.

 

I won't have that with a fibergl*** body..

 

I had a buddy who got h***led by the town he lived in for his racecar being in his driveway because the town dosn't allow any unregistered vehicles. He got an OHRV sticker for it and told them to piss off... For those that don't know, it stands for "off highway recreational vehicle" and it's what they use to register snowmobiles, quads, etc. Here in NH if a car is on a trailer it dosn't have to be registered (the trailer does though) but if it's being towed with a tow dolley or anything that allows 2 of the wheels to touch the ground then it does have to be registered.

 

This to me is kind of an interesting subject. Looking through want ads there are quite a few race cars out there with no ***les. I saw a vette (OT) on ebad recently that said no vin, bill of sale only. Maybe on a 1930's car that could have sat in a field for 40 years it sounds plausible. But on a vette, if you were to get stopped, how do ya explain that? It's not a position I would personally put myself in.

 

I have been pulling race cars around California for almost 40 years without any registration. Talked to CHP many times and that never came up. Flat towing or on a dolly and you need plates. On the trailer it's like any other private property. I stand corrected. 50 years

 

Maybe a little different but interesting.
I had a friend get pulled over driving a truck that was registered in one state and pulling a trailer registered in a different state. My friend owned the truck and the guy he was driving for owned the trailer.
The cop thought that maybe the enclosed trailer was stolen untill my friend pointed out that his name and race car number was painted all over the trailer. Cop was able to grasp the concept and let him go!

 

One point i didn't see mentioned is that some of our race cars are expensive, more than we'd like to admit. if we register them then we'll get a personal property tax bill. Point made?

 

***le only is what I do.

I nothing else, carry a photocopy of the the bill of sale you received when you bought it.

 

up here in Quebec everything has to be registered even off road with plates you get insurance. when we raced on the ice the cops would park on the bank and pull you over to check they couldn't stop you on the lake as it was federal.the registration would say something like stock car #21 color yellow or purple dragster. and you had a plate bolted to the car in plain sight.

 

all the tracks i have raced at required you to prove ownership.

 

i was talking to some guys last year that got pulled over and a ticket for not having comercial plates on there truck.they told him that since he was racing and there could be money{purse}involved then he had to have puco #s and everything on his truck.i cant see how the cop could call it a "business"but he did get a ticket.

 

Obviously those cops have no concept of what racing is all about. The last year I owned my Nascar Pro-Stock circle track car we had 7 sponsors, finished 3rd in points, and after all was said & done it COST me $8000 to race that season. Got some nice chrome plated plastic trophys out of it though..

 

I wondered about this same thing. In my case when pulling my digger. No bill of sale, no ***le - obviously NOT a street machine, but in reality I don't have a s**** of paper proving it's mine. Although I could produce a couple receipts for 4130 tubing! ;-)

This also crossed my mind with my trailer as well when I was getting it registered. Since again it was a homebuilt I had no paperwork proving it was mine. Again I could produce receipts for box tubing and axles and such. I wondered this because in Ohio it is VERY easy to register a trailer. I can see how someone who could steal one and register it in there name without difficulty. How would YOU (meaning us) prove it was origionally ours?? In my case I decided a few hidden serial numbers would come in handy if I ever found myself in this situation as well as a slew of construction photos would pretty much have me golden, but I still could see a huge PITA arising until it got sorted out.

My buddy did all the right things when building his Hot Rod and was then denied a ***le - so he decided rather than fight the system any longer he'd just make the car a full time drag car.

There's ALOT of stuff that when push came to shove - could we really prove it was ours?? Makes a fella wonder sometimes.