No title?

[quan3165]

How many of you have titles for your race/track cars? Should I have any reservations about buying a built car with no title other than the fact that I can never drive it on the street?

[MikeP99Z]

I'd say only 50% of the cars out there have titles. Mostly those who turned a personal street car into a race car.

[Pranav]

I had always wondered about this. I possess the original title and a bill of sale (signed by some guy off the street to Bryan L before he sold it to Mitch) for my chassis with VIN #s intact. Can anyone ever lay claim to my chassis?

[edrock96GT]

I have my title, but I did what Mike said. Mine used to be my daily driver up until 2007.

[BryanL]

I wouldn't worry much about it. Sure, I would rather have the title. I have the one for my race car but I have never titled it and neither did the previous owner.

[Wade]

I used to be a huge stickler about this, but it was MUCH harder to find a racecar with a title. The long and short of it is that having a title means paying taxes on the resale, and many people just don't care to do that on a car that is old enough to be stripped into a race car. Keep you documentation of sale, keep PDF's of the ad where you buy the car, etc.

[Trublu]

If I understand correctly, if you really wanted a title just take the BoS to the county and apply for a new title. There is a process which exists to gain a title when one does not exist particularly for vehicles assembled from various bits n pieces. They will need the body VIN, Engine serial number, gearbox serial number and rear end serial number to support the application.

As Wade says though, you need to weigh up the hassle versus benefit.

[AllZWay]

I have a title for mine just by chance, but I never transferred it to my name. I wouldn't really care.

Locally you can dispose of a race car at the local iron recycler without a title, but you can't get rid of street car without it.

[Fbody383]

Because gubmit never gets enough in "revenues" you will either pay sales tax based on 'black book' (which you can find if you have the VIN) or based on an appraisal. The appraisal will run $250-$300 to get a tax bill of $250-$300 to save the 'black book' tax value of $500-$600.

If it will never be driven on the road again, do you really need a title?

[quan3165]

I may drive one on the road for testing on country roads by my house and I might be crazy enough to drive one to the track. I wouldn't care about inspection so long as it has current tags on it (I can register in a state with no state inspection).

Will it be harder to sell once I'm done with it with no title?

[Casey_SS]

Depends on what you mean by "done with it"....by my definition, yes, it will be harder to sell :)

[ShadowBolt]

Bill of sale is all you need. That is all you have to have to sell an airplane (I never had a title to the plane I used to own) so I don't see why that would not be good enough for a race car.

[GlennCMC70]

Use the missing title as a negotiation tool. Once you own the car, apply for a lost title. It take like 30 days and then they send you one.
http://www.dmv.org/tx-texas/replacing-a-lost-title.php
Once you have it, the car my be worth more to anyone else if you decide to sell.
I've had titles to all my racecars just by luck. None of them have been transfered to me.

[nasa-rm]

Use the missing title as a negotiation tool.

Let's just get my ex car to Texas!!!! I want it in RM or TX. The price is already what I sold it to Greg for ($8k) and he's had the tranny rebuilt, new clutch, brand new torsen, had a new roof put on it, fresh hood and painted it. Fresh belts and ready to go. It's a certified Liebbe beater. Crap load of parts including a spare trans and bottom end. Fresh set of RA1 rains on 2nd set of wheels.

I got it from a mechanic in CO, no title, cash sale. It did come up fairly clean on Carfax.....

[Rob Liebbe]

It's a certified Liebbe beater.

That's worth an extra thousand right there!