Latest News l Campaign Updates l Press Releases
Campaign Updates
This is where you can find the latest about our campaign and how we are pushing hard to protect the future of historic and classic vehicles.
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Progress on synthetic fuels
Tuesday saw the achievement of a significant milestone in the progress towards future fuels for the Historic and Classic vehicles sector. CKL Developments, Jaguar racing specialists, a Founding Partner member of the Historic and Classic Vehicles Alliance (HCVA) ran a customer’s racing E-Type Jaguar at Goodwood using specialist fuel from Sustain by Coryton.
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Vehicle Tampering Offences Debate
After the petition gained over 115,000 signatures it was scheduled for debate. James Sunderland MP quoted the HCVA on the size of the classic sector and the concerns we that have before proposing that, should the government go ahead with the bill, specific exemptions are made for the historic and classic sector.
HCVA Board Member and Founding Partner Guy Lachlan represented the HCVA at the Transport Select Committee meeting held on 2nd March 2022, chaired by Huw Merriman MP.
Having been asked by the Committee to submit a report on the need for the future availability of fuels (from fossil to synthetic), the HCVA responded quickly and Guy agreed to represent our interests in the discussion. As the owner of Classic Oils, Guy has extensive technical knowledge and also crucially key experience in dealing with the workings of Select Committees.
Garry Wilson, HCVA CEO adds "Guy did an outstanding job of representing the HCVA and therefore the whole historic and classic vehicles sector. Several of the MPs attending the meeting spoke with Guy afterwards and all are supportive of ensuring the ongoing supply of fuels for historic and classic vehicles into the future"
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Department of Transport Response
21st DECember 2021
The Government has responded as the petition has now surpassed 100,000 signatures. Parliament will now consider this for debate.
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Do not implement proposed new offences for vehicle "tampering"
2oTH DECember 2021
This petition is gaining significant traction, with close to 100,000 signatures - the threshold required for it to be considered for debate in Parliament.
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Future of transport regulatory review: modernising vehicle standards
23rd November 2021
The Government is trying to understand how it should respond to the massive changes in transport that are happening and will continue to happen as vehicles electrify and get more connected. The HCVA has written a response that describes how we feel that historic and classic vehicles should be excluded, and that the proposal to modifications that the document calls ‘tampering’, would damage our industry.
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HCVA Instant Offset has launched
11TH November 2021
Correctly calculate and mitigate the carbon cost of driving your classic in just three steps. A typical classic car can completely offset their carbon emissions from as little as £30! HCVA Instant Offset in conjunction with NET-HERO is the first premium carbon offset platform for motorists to become environmentally responsible. You can offset your automotive carbon footprint in 3 steps from 2 pence per mile.
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DVLA & classic car groups join forces to solve registration problems
15TH OCTOBER 2021
Guy Lachlan, Director HCVA said “This is a significant step to the sector supporting our vehicle licensing body to help them to support the sector, a win-win”. “We look forward to working with the DVLA, the RAC, the AOVC and the FBHVC on the critical actions”.
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NET-HERO has launched
14th october 2021
NET-HERO is the first premium carbon offset platform for motorists to become environmentally responsible. You can offset your automotive carbon footprint in 3 steps from 2 pence per mile.
Discover how easy it is at https://net-hero.org
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HCVA at the Kop Hill Climb Festival
25th-26th September 2021
We were delighted to attend this terrific event and to meet owners and we received a great deal of very positive support - including from local MP Greg Smith who made a point of coming to speak with us about our campaigning work. He is very aware of the impact of the issues we are highlighting and looks to be a great ally moving forward. See his Twitter here
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Introducing Garry Wilson - the new HCVA CEO
The newly appointed leader of the Historic and Classic Vehicles Alliance today urges the industry and enthusiasts to embrace the challenge of the green agenda.
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HCVA at the Goodwood Revival
17th-19th September 2021
A fantastic event as ever - with the perfect mix of historic racing, a wide range of entertainment and of course pretty much everyone in era-appropriate attire. There was a great deal of interest in our work and campaigns and also it was gratifying to hear that so many people were aware of us and strongly supported what we are aiming to achieve.
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HCVA at the Concours of Elegance 2021
3-5 SEPTEMBER 2021
For three days only, the gardens at Hampton Court Palace will be home to over 300 of the finest and rarest motor cars ever to be seen - and the HCVA team will be there. Come and meet us and discover how you can help to protect the future of classic and historic vehicles.
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HCVA at Salon Privé 2021 at Blenheim Palace
1-5 SEPTEMBER 2021
We really enjoyed the Salon Privé 2021 held at Blenheim Palace and our team were on hand to spread the word. Once again we were gratified by the levels of support and it was also splendid to meet with some of our Advocates, including John Fitzpatrick and (pictured with Henry & Guy) racing legend Derek Bell.
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DVLA and Historic Registrations
Less than three months from launch, HCVA is already engaging with government and acting on an issue that has affected many HCVA members as well as historic vehicle specialists and enthusiasts across the board: apparently unfair, slow or incorrect issuing of original or age-related registrations.
The DVLA works incredibly hard across a wide remit and devotes a disproportionate amount of funds and resource to this relatively small subject. HCVA has a plan to ease the pressure on DVLA and dramatically improve the service to individuals. As part of this plan, we will soon be rolling out an application procedure for HCVA members on our website.
Please contact us now if you are dealing with applications for Historic or age-related registrations, or if you have been contacted by DVLA with questions over your vehicle’s entitlement to its Historic registration.
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UK-EU Border issues
Bringing cars into the UK for repair and restoration work at our dedicated specialists inevitably became a whole lot more difficult from January 1 this year.
Thanks to our experts led by Jeremy at CARS UK, HCVA is working on a proposal to government that could massively improve the situation: watch this space.
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Memberships
You can now see HCVA’s Founding Partners and Trade Members on our website. Both lists are growing constantly – if your business isn’t on there yet – or if the businesses that you’re a customer of aren’t on there yet – why not?
Please encourage all to join up.
Affiliations
HCVA is actively building affiliations with existing organisations whose aims and interests overlap with and complement ours. It’s vital that the historic vehicle movement campaigns with one voice and we’re delighted to announce shared objectives with several organisations already, including…
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Fuels
We have been campaigning in the Press to raise awareness of the whole picture regarding fuels.
Biofuels are the topic of the moment with the rollout of E10 petrol in the UK and its implications for the Historic vehicle industry. The short answer on E10 is that most classics will run on it without noticeable problems, but all require careful monitoring of its longer-term effects and some will need urgent modification to avoid serious problems. Better to stick with E5 higher octane fuels such as Tesco’s Momentum 99, Esso Synergy Supreme +99 and Shell V-Power as examples to ensure E5 continues to be available for as long as possible – the more we use it, the more likely it is to be there for the long term.
Biofuels reduce CO2 emissions but have negatives in the environmental impacts of production as well as increased fuel consumption.
Great potential lies in eFuels: synthetic, chemically-constructed fuels made by extracting hydrogen from water and combining it with CO2 captured from the atmosphere or from industrial processes. Electricity is required to extract the hydrogen but if naturally generated, eFuels can make any vehicle effectively carbon neutral as they only put back in the atmosphere CO2 that has already been taken from it.
Volume production of eFuels could be the dream solution for world CO2 control, as it can be formulated to suit all vehicles from ships to cars to aircraft and used in existing vehicles worldwide, with no need to build billions of new vehicles (electric or otherwise).
Advocates
We’re thrilled to have the support of well-known and highly-respected advocates from the motoring world:
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Gordon Murray CBE
Gordon Murray CBE was first on board, providing invaluable quotes for our launch: this insightful designer and Professor has so much knowledge to share of the future, and respect for the past. He says:
“It has always been important to support individuals, companies and organisations that preserve our Automotive Heritage. The restoration and preservation of classic cars keeps our rich history and heritage in the automotive sector alive for future generations."
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Alex Brundle
British endurance racing star, historic racer and broadcaster, says:
“Our unbelievable prowess in overland transport, stands on the foundation of over 130 years of automotive development and discovery. What I have learned in historic motorsport has amazed and educated me. We have an incredible opportunity to protect, enjoy and be informed by these treasured vehicles, while proving their value to an ever new generation of enthusiasts.”
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Dario Franchitti MBE
Three times Indy 500 winner and four times IndyCar Championship winner, a Scottish-born racer turned commentator for historic events like Goodwood and currently in Formula E, with a strong sense of heritage, typified by having collected almost every race helmet he ever wore.
Dario is also a passionate car collector and is “delighted to join as an advocate”.
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Derek Bell MBE
Derek needs no introduction: five times Le Mans winner, thrice Daytona 24hrs winner, twice World Sports Car Champion. Derek says:
“We rush through our racing career at great speed and the future never seems the focus, survival is the aim and success is the satisfaction we achieve – only as we slow down, do we think of preserving our past."
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Doug Nye
Doug Nye is a world renowned and hugely respected authority on competition cars, consultant to museums and race meetings worldwide and a prolific author who has been writing about motorsport for nearly 60 years.
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Helen Stanley
Helen Stanley, Car Customiser, Artist and full-time Petrol Head, co-hosts TV shows Goblin Works Garage, Motor Pickers and World’s Greatest Cars.
Helen is highly motivated to protect and spread the word about the fantastic world of classics and also introduce them to an important younger audience.
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John Fitzpatrick
John Fitzpatrick won the British Saloon Car Championship in 1966 and raced into the 1980s, enjoying particular success with Porsche including many championships in Europe and USA.
He is still a very passionate enthusiast, who attends events both locally and across the globe and was one of the first advocates to sign up to support us.
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Richard Hammond
Well known journalist, television presenter and writer. He is best known for co-hosting the BBC Two car programme Top Gear.
In 2016, he began presenting The Grand Tour television series. In November 2016, Richard, with Clarkson and May, launched the automotive social media website DriveTribe. He most recently launched his new restoration show on the Disney channel.
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CEO Recruitment
Our existing team are putting our own businesses on hold to dedicate time to the vital cause of running the HCVA and campaigning for us all – so with the HCVA established and the team beyond full stretch, we’re well down the line of recruiting a dedicated, full-time CEO to give their all for the cause. We’re delighted to report that last month’s recruitment campaign brought in candidates of the very highest order and we hope to have an outstanding CEO in post in time for the next newsletter.
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The HCVA at E-Type 60 Celebrations
We were delighted to attend the very successful E-Type 60 event, organised by the E-Type Club.
Legendary racer John Fitzpatrick joined as an advocate at Shelsley Walsh on June 12, along with a high proportion of the industry stands present, and more joined at the London Classic Car Show at Syon Park last weekend.