Personally, I think this legislation is a good idea. With pre 1960 vehicles becoming MOT exempt from november, I think there is going to be a large increase in "Historic" vehicles on the road, on which the only part that actually qualifies as being historic is the VIN plate. I think this will actually do quite a lot to protect the genuine historic vehicles. Otherwise many of them will be just stripped of their ID's and either broken for parts or just left to rot. There is nothing in this legislation that prevents you from modifying your vehicle, but it just means that it will lose it's historic status if you do so. there is also a lot of scaremongering going on about what modifications will cause a vehicle to lose it's historical status. Your vehicles status will not be affected if you use 2nd hand parts that are identical to the parts originally fitted, or even if you use new parts that are exact copies of the original parts. What you won't be able to do anymore is stick a series body and ID onto a coil sprung chassis and running gear and claim it as MOT & tax exempt. Which may also have the knock on effect of reducing theft of classic vehicles in order to steal their ID, and also of reducing the amount of ringing going on.