Why it makes sense to own a 40-year-old supercar in London
As you may or may not have heard, recently the ULEZ or Ultra-Low Emission Zone in London was expanded, but there’s a caveat, owning a 40-year-old classic means you’re exempt from Clean Air Zone restrictions.
What is ULEZ?
It’s a large area of London that falls within the North and South Circular Roads, those being the A406 and A205. Those roads aren’t included in the zone, but anything inside of them is.
Owning a classic and ULEZ.
Since the ULEZ was created in 2019, an exemption was granted to classic vehicles; with this ULEZ expansion, it could make a lot of financial sense to own a classic in London.
As long as your car is 40+ years old and registered under the historic vehicles tax class, you won’t need to pay the ULEZ fee.
This works the same way as the MOT exemption, so it’s on a rolling basis.
Classics that aren’t yet 40+ years old will still be stung by the ULEZ. The easiest way to know is if your car was built after 2006 for petrol or 2015 for diesel, you should be fine. Anything older than that (and not yet 40+ years), you’ll have to pay.
TFL have an easy tool to check to > see if ULEZ applies to your vehicle.
Clean Air Zone restrictions are not just in London!
All major towns and cities are in the process of rolling out their own ULEZ programs, so all drivers are affected when travelling in UK's conurbations, for example:
- Bath
- Birmingham
- Bradford
- Bristol
- Greater Manchester
- Liverpool
- Newcastle
- Portsmouth
All the above have known plans with almost every other area including Scotland and Northern Ireland soon to be announced.
Owning a classic and ULEZ.
Since the ULEZ was created in 2019, an exemption was granted to classic vehicles; with this ULEZ expansion, it could make a lot of financial sense to own a classic in London.
As long as your car is 40+ years old and registered under the historic vehicles tax class, you won’t need to pay the ULEZ fee.
This works the same way as the MOT exemption, so it’s on a rolling basis.
Classics that aren’t yet 40+ years old will still be stung by the ULEZ. The easiest way to know is if your car was built after 2006 for petrol or 2015 for diesel, you should be fine. Anything older than that (and not yet 40+ years), you’ll have to pay.
TFL have an easy tool to check to > see if ULEZ applies to your vehicle.
Clean Air Zone restrictions are not just in London!
All major towns and cities are in the process of rolling out their own ULEZ programs, so all drivers are affected when traveling in UKs conurbations, for example:
- Bath
- Birmingham
- Bradford
- Bristol
- Greater Manchester
- Liverpool
- Newcastle
- Portsmouth
All the above have known plans with almost every other areas including Scotland and Northern Ireland soon to be announced.
The ultimate city daily
Classics aren’t always as practical as you’d like them to be; they’re often not as reliable as something modern, they might not handle as well or keep you warm in the winter. That’s why many owners don’t daily them, but when you get into the realms of ‘classics reimagined’, that all changes.
Take our current Porsche 911 restomod for example.
A 1973 911T which was imported from the U.S but subtly updated to make it the classiest of daily drivers.
It has been outfitted with HID high beams for safe night driving, a ‘proper’ heater, and there’s even Bluetooth rigged up behind the dash. But, of course, everything else inside has been kept as is, so you’d never know it has these modern enhancements.
But it doesn’t stop there; you need reliability. That’s why the engine has been completely rebuilt; it now produces around 175hp in a car that weighs roughly a ton whilst a custom exhaust finishes off the soundtrack.
Not only does this restomod show that a classic can be practical, but adding modern refinements and sympathetically re-engineering with contemporary parts and creature comforts can turn a 50-year-old car into something to enjoy every day.
Style and class all while avoiding the ULEZ charge, the ultimate city daily.