Cobra makers, rejoice! You no longer have to meet federal safety standards to sell ready-to-drive replicars to customers! In addition to all that stuff about rebuilding highway bridges and paving over potholes, a provision of the recently passed federal highway bill exempts low-volume carmakers from crash-test standards.

Crucially, the legislation frees small builders from expensive finite element analysis and high-speed scientific crash testing. Just create the shape you want—so long as it is “intended to resemble the body of another motor vehicle that was manufactured not less than 25 years before the manufacture of the replica motor vehicle,” according to the law’s language. Just slap an engine in it and voila, you’re a low-volume automaker.

Various legislators have pushed for something like this for years, including former U.S. Rep. John Campbell of Orange County, California. In June, Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) and Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) introduced the Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act of 2015, legislation the Specialty Equipment Market Association points out it had pursued since 2011. The act received strong bipartisan support and was inserted into the highway bill, later passed into law.

Specifically, the law allows small-volume automakers to construct up to 325 replica cars a year subject to federal regulatory oversight, SEMA said in a statement. “The U.S. has just one system for regulating automobiles, which was established in the 1960s and designed for companies that mass-produce millions of vehicles. The law recognizes the challenges faced by companies that produce a small number of custom cars.”

Not all those challenges are covered in the new bill. The vehicles must meet today’s emissions standards, and although companies are permitted to install engines from other EPA-certified vehicles to help achieve that, only GM crate motors fit the bill when it comes to new products. That’s sure to change, though, as other automakers move to meet the emerging market’s demands.

According to SEMA, the measure establishes a separate regulatory structure within the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for replica car manufacturers. The companies are required to register with NHTSA and EPA and submit annual reports on the vehicles they produce.

“With this new law, Congress has demonstrated that it understands the importance of enabling U.S. companies to produce classic-themed vehicles that are virtually impossible to build under the current one-size-fits-all regulatory framework,” said SEMA president and CEO Chris Kersting. “This program will create auto-sector jobs and meet consumer demand for cars that help preserve our American heritage.”

So start building!

DeLorean Motor Company

Here’s What’s Next

1. John Z’s dream lives on, thanks to a warehouse packed with “literally millions” of original parts—enough stock to build 300-350 brand-new cars from the wheels up, says DeLorean Motor Co. vice president James Espey.

Build ’em he will, and with emissions-compliant modern powertrains to boot—after he concludes negotiations with an undisclosed OEM, not even the EPA will be able to stop him! Espey is optimistic this is just the beginning—that legislation may expand beyond replicas, a common hope among others in the business. “If things go well, and everybody does things right, I certainly hope (opportunities for non-replica niche carmakers) will expand.” If so, he says, don’t write off a future clean-sheet neo-DeLorean design ...

Shelby GTR500CR Classic Recreation's

2. Classic Recreation’s Jason Engel has already tussled with regulators over his built-to-order, Shelby-licensed GT500CRs—that’s why his essentially all-new, hopped-up Mustangs are technically sold as vintage re-bodies. He couldn’t be happier to have a (mostly) unambiguous legal arena in which to operate.

To hear Engel tell it, the law won’t just open up lucrative overseas markets and unleash a torrent of innovation, it will increase choice. He can still supply traditionalists carbureted motors in re-bodied Mustangs; others can get a brand-new motor in a brand-new Dynacorn-bodied replica—CR’s continuation Shelby Mustangs can now be had with EcoBoost V6 or I4 engines, proving you can look forward and backward at the same time.

Superformance

3. Reduced delivery time, increased employment and a better-engineered, better-constructed product are a few of the new law’s benefits, Superformance’s Lance Stander tells us. Plus, he’ll be able to sell Daytona Coupes and Corvette Grand Sports overseas: “We’ve had a lot of inquiries from China, Japan, the UAE … they needed something that had a federal VIN and had received approval in the U.S.”

It’s not all about replicating the past, Stander says; the law clears the way for inventiveness. Is the world ready for an ABS-equipped hybrid Cobra? There’s only one way to find out.

Icon

4. Icon’s Jonathan Ward doesn’t want to live in the past, even if his hand-crafted, extra-tasty über-SUVs start out as vintage Ford Broncos or Toyota FJs. “I hope and pray that it evolves over time,” he says of the law, envisioning a day when small-scale automakers can move beyond replicas. This isn’t unheard-of—we can look to countries like the U.K., where low-volume producers of all-new, clean-sheet designs face fewer regulatory hurdles (seemingly without rending the fabric of society), for examples of how it can work.

In the meantime, he’ll capitalize on the new rules, scaling up and improving every aspect of his operation—from R&D to build quality. Not that there was anything wrong with his trucks in the first place.

Factory Five

5. Dave Smith will happily sell you a ready-to-rock Factory Five Cobra, ’33 hot rod or Shelby Coupe tribute under the terms of the new law, but if he’d had his way, he’d be legally permitted to offer you a turnkey version of his modern, all-American GTM Supercar as well.

Sadly, its replica-only focus, which Smith characterizes as “a loss” for manufacturers and enthusiasts, precludes that possibility—which is why he represents yet another knowledgeable stakeholder calling for an eventual broadening of the legislation’s reach to include all niche automakers. We’ll gladly sign that petition.

Race Car Replicas

6. Fran Hall of Race Car Replicas takes a more measured view of the law’s impact—in part because he offers something a little different than the other manufacturers here. Someone buying an RCR40 (his high-end GT40 “homage car”), for example, “wants to evoke all of the emotion, not just the look” of the original. So good luck trying to drop a fuel-injected, emissions-compliant small-block where a Weber-carbureted Ford V8 belongs. Further, he warns of potentially devastating liability burdens, noting that a turnkey replica is different beast than an engineless kit car that a buyer theoretically completes at home. It’s a sobering notion—and one about which we hope, with all due respect, that Hall is sorely mistaken.

Graham Kozak contributed to this report.

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