Kit cars have been a crowd favorite for many years now; these usually race car replicas or classic muscle cars (the Cobra kit car is a famous example), although the genre has branched out considerably over the past years. In addition, technological improvements in manufacturing and product design have created incredibly advanced products that are much cheaper to produce than before.
Register Your Replica Car or Kit Car Now!
Register Your Replica Car or Kit Car Now!
But there lies one small problem: many states make the registration process for replica cars inordinately more difficult than it should ever be. But Dirt Legal has anticipated this from the beginning and has cracked the proverbial code, so you don't have to! Let's explore how to register a kit car or replica vehicle from top to bottom, starting with what sort of vehicles we are talking about here.
What Is A Replica Car?
According to kitcarlist.com, there are around 750 manufacturers of kit cars in the world. On their condensed list on the main page, we see an array of supercars, rare cars, and otherwise fantastic machines, including Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and plenty more.
A replica car, or "kit car," is a clone body that is often outwardly identical to a classic car or supercar, but it is made to ride on a donor vehicle chassis. So that Bugatti look-alike might be riding on a '90s Camaro frame, being pushed by a small-block Chevy engine.
le, the Factory Five Mk4 is a clone kit identical to the naked eye to Ford's 427 Cobra from the old days. What is not identical, of course, is the price. An original Shelby 427 Cobra will start at about one million dollars, assuming you could find it. Factory Five's base kit (minus the donor car) is $14,990, and the price only bumps up to $20,990 for the complete kit, again, sans donor. The donor will be pretty easy to come by since it is just a 1987-2004 Mustang GT, which is not exactly uncommon. You can see why kit cars have appeal.
According to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, a custom vehicle or replica has “been altered from the manufacturer’s original design or has a body constructed from materials not original to the vehicle.”
As you can see in the table above, the State of Texas categorizes these cars similarly.
Reconstructed, Replicas, and Street Rods
Virginia has a similar definition on its DMV page concerning non-standard vehicles. There is a lot of crossover in how the DMV views these vehicles between reconstructed, replicas, or specially constructed vehicles from state to state.
So, a replica vehicle generally uses a donor vehicle for drivetrain, suspension, and frame but depends on a body kit obtained from a third party. This wreaks bureaucratic confusion because the donor package will not be consistent with the body in manufacturing origin. Furthermore, to throw another curveball at it, the components of the donor may very well not match each other. That’s right, friends. How so? Well, let’s find out!
Reconstructed
According to the Texas definition of a reconstructed vehicle "a vehicle that has been permanently altered from original construction by removing, adding, or substituting major components," this could include tens of thousands of vehicles. You substitute significant components every time you add a suspension lift to a truck. Of course, I don't think this is what they are looking at, but you can see how easily it can become a slippery slope.
California, never to be outdone, outlines the entire process of registering a modified vehicle to a T. They go the extra mile and even assign an acronym for "specially constructed or modified vehicles (SPCNS)." The bottom line? You can register a specially constructed vehicle or a kit car in California, but they will make sure you pay for it. Go figure.
Replicas
If we go back to the Factory Five Mk4 Roadster, we know it uses a Mustang GT as a donor, a cheap and readily available car. For this exercise, let's call it a 2001 donor. The 5.2L V-8 was a standard option that year, but you have a decent budget, and you want your Mk4 replica car to scoot. So, you visit Summit Racing and lay eyes on the Ford Performance Parts 5.2L crate engine, rated at 760 horsepower. Yes, you read that right.
Now, this engine sells for $27,295.99, and it is also not going to match up with the VIN on the frame of your humble donor ‘Stang. But pushing that much horsepower on a stock 4R70W transmission will get it smelling like burnt toast, so you will need a street/strip transmission, which will run you close to another three grand. Remember this for later.
Also, the aftermarket racing transmission will not match the VIN stamped on the donor. To you and me, who cares? To the local DMV? Unmitigated disaster.
Street Rod/Hot Rod
Hot rods are nearly as old as the motorized automobile itself. Tinkerers have been tweaking cars to squeeze out horsepower for years, but this category is speaking of far more elaborate modifications than that. A street rod is similar to a kit car replica, building from the ground up using a base vehicle (or two) for the foundation. It might be a ‘32 Ford Roadster or a ‘46 Chevrolet pickup in its original form, but with an aftermarket engine and transmission combination.
Going back to Texas's big state, the definition is difficult to decipher: “the vehicle has been modified to not conform with the manufacturer's specifications, and the modifications adhere to jurisdiction-specific criteria.” I like my definition better.
California
California is just terrible on all regulatory fronts. Whether it's CARB’s attack on dirt bikes or their latest victims, gas-powered generators, and other landscaping equipment, despite this outright lunacy, California remains the premier force to be reckoned with in the US when it comes to vehicle laws. Despite being a horrible place to do business, you cannot discount its incredible economic impact.
California's take on SPCNS is equally lousy as their dirt bike take. I know this sounds crazy, but it's almost like California has structured their vehicle registration process not on environmental quality but…money.
It is not so much the awful process itself; it’s pretty simple. Per the California DMV website:
"To register a specially constructed vehicle (including a commercial kit vehicle), you will need:
A completed Application for Title or Registration (REG 343) form.
A vehicle verification by an authorized DMV employee.
Bring your vehicle to a DMV office for verification.
A completed Statement of Construction (REG 5036) form.
Bills of sale and receipts for major parts (the engine, frame, transmission, and body).
If the vehicle is a trailer constructed from a purchased kit, please present the Manufacturer’s Certificate of Origin or a receipt or invoice identifying the kit purchased.
Official Brake and Light Adjustment Certificates.
A weight certificate from a California Certified Public Weighmaster if the vehicle is a pickup or truck.
A smog certification.
Registration fees.
Visit a DMV office to begin the application process.
Note: A SPCNS vehicle does not refer to a vehicle that has been repaired or restored using replacement parts or to a vehicle modified from its original design."
Ok, that looks like a lot to unpack, but it isn't really. If you read between the lines, they are just about making sure that you provide an itemized list of parts and their correlating values. Why? To assess the cumulative value of the vehicle!
Without looking, tell us how much that transmission cost in our earlier example! What about the engine? That's the sort of thing California will ask you about.
Also, this paragraph is significant: "If you change or alter your vehicle's body and spend more than $2,000 or more on the alterations, or if your alterations place the vehicle in a different weight classification, you must report these alterations to DMV."
Two grand in alterations? That is nothing! A new crate engine is far more than that! Suppose you have a stock or mildly lifted Jeep Wrangler but installed a small-block Chevy. In that case, you technically have to re-register the vehicle! How absurd.
New York
NY is a little different. They view replica cars as homemade motor vehicles, different from reconstruction or alteration.
I will not go into what exactly is required in NY since it is laid out in that link. But once again, the machine at work in NY is all about ensuring the value of the parts cumulates into a collective value that they want.
What do you notice? Three steps in the process include making sure you are paying up.
If you think this is about anything other than the enrichment of the state, please advise because it sure doesn't seem to be. But we will surely help you out on this front by offering you a Vermont title and registration for your kit car. We'll get to that in a moment.
Texas
Texas does not precisely fit the mold of the other two megastates, but it is still not as easy as Vermont to register kit cars or race car replicas.
Texas still has a reasonably high tax rate for auto registration, which is a crucial reason we recommend our South Dakota registration service for Texans looking to save a little off the top and get out of vehicle inspections altogether.
The Dirt Legal Process
We understand your bottom line: you have a replica car and want to get it titled, tagged, and registered.
Our goal is to register your kit car as quickly as possible with as little hassle as possible. We handle the rest as long as you have a VIN and a bill of sale, title, or Manufacturer’s Certificate of Origin.
How It Works:
Provide proof of ownership. This is non-negotiable; you must have proof of ownership of your kit car. If you bought a car as a donor for your project (wrecked or not), the bill of sale or title would be acceptable.
Simply pick the product and hit check out. This will trigger an email confirmation with the receipt and order number.
As soon as you check out, you will be prompted to fill out vehicle information. You're golden as long as you have a VIN and proof of ownership.
Wait for a document to drop at your physical mailbox. We will send you a checklist of physical documents that we need copies of to handle the conversion on your behalf.
Send it! Fill it out, put it in the pre-paid envelope with your documents, and send it back to us. We'll handle it from there, and we will register your kit car and issue you new paperwork and a license plate in a matter of weeks.
It is that easy. You pick the service, check out, and fill out the documents. That’s it.
Replica cars are still a very fashionable and popular way for the average guy or gal to get into the exotic car scene at average guy prices. Since a lot of the cost is sweat equity, you will be getting the car for the cost of a donor, the kit, and whatever performance parts you want to push you along. But there is no sense in spending more sweat than you need to on registering your kit car!
Your home state may be a lot less friendly than Vermont in registering kit cars (or hot rods, for that matter), especially if it is one of the states we mentioned here. We are here to help you navigate registering your replica or kit car without you having to run into any pitfalls or make mistakes along the way! You send us the documents, pay the registration fee, and wait for your tag and title. That's it! So what are you waiting for? Get started today!
Making a kit car street legal means ensuring that all the necessary safety equipment is added to your car. While each state requires different things, some items are required regardless of where you are.