The Federazzjoni Maltija Vetturi Antiki is holding a Vintage Motors Festival on Saturday to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
Around 60 classic and vintage vehicles will be on show from 9.30 a.m. at the Lower Barracca in Valletta. A time trial starts at 10.30 a.m. Participants will cover around 120 kilometres all over Malta with a half-way break at the Sliema Ferries between 1 and 3 p.m., finishing in Bay Square in Buġibba just before 6 p.m. Vehicles will be on display until 8 p.m.
On May 4, 1998, three local clubs - the Historic Motorcycle Club Malta, the Old Motors Club and the Military Vehicles Collectors Club - got together to form the Federazzjoni Maltija Vetturi Antiki (FMVA). The Maltese Federation of Antique Vehicles' goals were to further the interests of classic vehicle enthusiasts in Malta and to collectively lobby the authorities for favourable concessions.
The three clubs have around 400 members who between them own hundreds of cars, motorcycles and military vehicles.
The oldest motorcycle in Malta is a 1903 Minerva; the oldest car is a 1904 Cadillac, both in very good working condition.
On their part, the military vehicles enthusiasts keep alive the old warhorses and even artillary pieces that were so vital to the defence of our islands during World War II. The clubs regularly organise rallies and shows.
Over the past years the FMVA has emphasised that the classic vehicle scene in Malta is beneficial to the economy, enriches our culture and merits support. The first breakthrough came about in 2003 when the government announced a special concession whereby owners of genuine classic vehicles manufactured before 1971 had their road licence fee halved.
This concession has now been amended to cover 30-year-old vehicles. The FMVA also managed to negotiate much lower first registration fees for classic vehicles newly imported into Malta.
However, the FMVA, headed by Charles A. Zahra as chairman, Albert Pisani, secretary and Stephen Zerafa, PRO, believes that one of the most important developments over the past decade has been a change in attitude and mentality by the authorites towards the federation.
In a very important development that came about in 2003, federation members were appointed to the government board that verifies and certifies vehicles as genuine classics.
The FMVA has also given its input on the 'end-of-life' legislation of 2002 that deals with how vehicles are scrapped and destroyed. This has helped rescue some potential classics that would have been irretrievably lost, to be eventually restored to their former glory.
Another recent milestone announced in the last Budget was the re-registration of 'undocumented' vehicles that have had their papers or number plates lost over the course of many decades - not necessarily the fault of the person rescuing a rusty find. The FMVA spokesman stressed that this has been one of the most important developments in the local classic vehicles scene. Until recently, enthusiasts who had rescued vehicles from scrapyards, fields, quarries, or barns, were reluctant to restore them for fear of not being able to register them.
The federation believes more needs to be done to ensure that the classic vehicle movement continues to flourish in Malta.
"We need, for example, to ensure that measures such as emissions-based taxes, welcome as they may be, do not affect us in a negative way," said Mr Zerafa.
He added that according to research carried out by the Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens, historic vehicles in Europe do only around 0.07 per cent of the total mileage driven by modern vehicles, so their greenhouse contribution is negligible.
Yet, the activity generated by the classic vehicle scene is worth over €16 billion annually. "So we should try to attract some of this activity to Malta by offering international rallies such as the Grand Prix de Malte held recently, better film and restoration facilities, a transport museum and others".