TheHaflinger.com

I just took my Pathfinder for its annual roadworthyness certificate (pink slip), part of which includes a brake test. The car needs to travel at least 30km/h at which point the tester slams on the brakes and an instument judges the time to come to a complete stop. In the case of my haffy, she went from 36 km/h to a complete stop in 1.5 seconds. That even impressed the test mechanic! It was comical to see the rear wheels nearly lift off the ground. But she stopped fairly straight.

I had the brakes completely replaced (cylinders, lines, hoses, master etc) back in 2007, and she has not needed any adjusting since. So not so bad after all...

Rick

One of the advantages of living the ACT is not having to do annual inspections .

I have just changed my Haffie over to Historic Rego - $100 a year instead of $1000 - some restrictions but I can still use once a week for a maintenance drive. Coffee and shopping runs are no longer an option though.

The Haffie like my other drum braked vehicles actually has decent stopping power but all of them have a mind of their own on which direction they want to go under heavy braking - left, right, left and then right who knows. I have a disk brake kit to go on my 101 and it would be nice if some sort of kit was available for the Haffie. I have seen some pics of one with disk brakes on the front but cannot find them so don't know what they came off - probably some small front wheel drive Fiat.

Garry

Yes, the annual inspection regime is pretty tough, but does ensure we keep on top of the mechanicals. I chose not to go down the club plate rego path as its far to restrictive for me. But rego works out to be more like $700 with compulsary insurance. My army Haffy is on club plates, but the lower hub gearing (max 55km/h) means Im less likely to use that one on roads with that one anyway.

Im also surprised there is not a disc brake kit available, but Im not sure Id opt for it anyway as the brakes on both my roadworthy haffys are very good.

garrycol wrote:I have just changed my Haffie over to Historic Rego - $100 a year instead of $1000 - some restrictions but I can still use once a week for a maintenance drive. Coffee and shopping runs are no longer an option though.

With AUS1,000 being ~GBP 600, that IS a lot of money! In the UK the cost of running a classic car is about GBP 120 for insurance (agreed value, with perhaps 3k-7k miles a year allowed), ~GBP 50 for the annual MOT safety check (no longer required for pre 1960 vehicles) and ~GBP 165 for road tax (free if pre 1970). So my 1962 Haf costs less than GBP 200 / AUS 340 a year, with no meaningful usage restrictions.

Just thought I would correct Julian's post on a point. Not Tax is payable on a vehicle that was built prior to (and including) 1972, although you still have to apply for the Road Fund license disc which then display "Nil" in the amount section!
There is also talk of a change to make vehicles built in 1973 to be exempt next year (roll on that day, mine would qualify then!) but, until it actually happens I am not holding me breath. I currently pay GBP 145 a year to tax Lurch for the road (along with insurance and once a year MOT test (Roadworthy test).

John