This page is intended to summarise what I have found out about the legal aspects of building, registering and taxing a beach buggy in the UK. As with the information on the other pages of this web site, the information presented here is just the results of my own research in books and on the web. I am not a lawyer and until the buggy is finished, and I actually go through some of these processes, I won't know whether what I've written here is right or not. Believe it at your own risk!
This page contains the following sections:
To qualify for road tax exemption, by being classed as a 'Historic Vehicle', a car must have been manufactured before 1st January 1973 (the date of first registration, or import, is not relevant, it is only the date of manufacture that counts).
To prove the date of manufacture of an aircooled Volkswagen, to the satisfaction of the DVLA, you need to obtain a certificate from the 'Stiftung AutoMuseum Volkswagen'.
The certificate currently costs €25 and you will need to provide the chassis number of your vehicle.
You can do this, either by writing to them at the following address...
Stiftung AutoMuseum Volkswagen
Dieselstraße 35
38446 Wolfsburg
Deutschland
Or, much more easily, by visiting the following web site (which is in German!) http://automuseum.volkswagen.de/urkunden.html
If, like me, you can't read German, then click here to see the same page translated (adequately) into English.