Did you grow up watching the Fast and the Furious movies? Did you spend most of your free time as a kid playing Need for Speed games? Well if you did, you definitely have the bug to modify your car to make it more personal. You may want to increase its performance or make it look prettier. But recent regulation changes forbid you to, or do they?
In 2019, the Supreme Court of India announced that changing the car from its Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) specifications. That means getting things like an aftermarket exhaust, aftermarket wheels, aftermarket suspension, and a sick paint job seem out of bounds.
But fret not, there are still ways to make your car special than the rest. Under the new regulations by the Supreme Court, owners can change the wheels of their car if they fall under the OEM specifications. For example, if your car runs on 15-inch wheels, you can get aftermarket wheels in the same size. Alternatively, if the OEM provides 16-inch wheels on a different trim level for your car, you can easily upsize your vehicle.
You can also wrap your vehicle as it does not hamper the original paint of the car. Similarly, if you wish to repaint your car in a new colour, you would need to get prior permission from the road transport office (RTO).
Oh and you can also change the suspension of your car, provided it doesn’t change the ride height of the car drastically. It means that you can alter the suspension for an improved ride quality but you can neither slam the car to the ground nor add a lift kit. The regulations also let you change your headlights for better visibility and also give you the ability to add a light bar. Do note, your new lightbar shouldn’t be parallel to the headlights.
Lastly, you can also swap the engine of your car with a new one. But just like changing the colour of your car, you would need the RTO’s permission to do so.
[Featured Image Credit: Unsplash/ Oscar Sutton]
Satvik Khare