Jim Kelly posted:
...For many years, replica owners have used the VW VIN as proof to DMV that the car is actually a 19-- VW, since the manufacturers in CA registered them that way for many years. ...
And there's the meat of it.
Most of us with a VS or JPS just accepted it as a fait accompli that our cars were registered as VW's . (Wow, I told my eighth grade English teacher I'd never use the term 'fait accompli' for the rest of my life, and here, just 57 years later, I'm proven wrong.)
The registration as a VW was already done for us when we bought our cars from the builder. We could have then gone through the SPCN process to make our cars legal, but... well, maybe next year. In the meantime, as long as I send my registration check off to the state every year, for some reason, they don't seem to mind.
Technically, as far as DMV is concerned, I didn't buy a new 2013 Vintage Speedster from VS, I bought a used VW. Kirk was not a new car manufacturer. To be one, his cars would have had to pass all current regs for new cars - smog, crash worthiness, etc. And a new VS would have weighed about 4000 pounds, made about six hp, and cost about $100,000.