While the UFA is the governing body for the sale of sports cars in the UK, it is a relatively new addition to the world of stock car racing. The governing body, or rather the set of governing clubs that it is associated with, was formed in Birmingham in 1963. Though it is not formally recognized by the IATA, it is deemed by many to be superior to the IATA and other international sportbooks. The main difference between the UFA and its American Counterparts, or ABA, is that the UFA does not have a monopoly on sports cars. On the other hand, ABA sports cars are often directly imported from the manufacturer into the UK market, where they are then sold under the name of a licensed vehicle.
The main driving force behind the formation of the UFA was the need for a car that could be called a stock car and be classified by some as a class separate from road vehicles. By doing this, it hoped to remove a lot of barriers that existed around the stock car market. The first vehicles to be classified as stock were developed by Lotus. Though they never achieved much success, it did help the sportbooks in terms of selling cars to collectors. As such, the UFA and ABA are now commonly associated with the Lotus brand of car.
There are many different types of vehicles that are included in the list of vehicles that are allowed for use by British sports book makers. For instance, there are cars like Jaguar E Class, Rolls Royce Phantom, BMW convertible, Austin Martin Vanquish, Ford Fiesta, Aston Martin V8 and so forth. Though all these cars may be considered as sports cars by the various publishers, it should be noted that only those who are directly imported into the UK by authorized Lotus dealers are allowed to be placed on the lists of sanctioned vehicles by UK sportbooks.
Some sportbooks are of the opinion that the definition of what a stock car in the United Kingdom is has to do with its likelihood of being driven on the street by millions of ordinary citizens. To them, a car that is classified as a “stock car” is one that can be modified so as to make it meet the needs of any collector. Needless to say, this would include anything that could be altered or customized, such as increasing the tire size, changing the engine or suspension. Many sportsbooks consider the modification of the cars to be an illegal attempt by third parties to take advantage of the bookmakers. Therefore, all these cars are either banned or strictly prohibited from being placed on UFA lists.
Another problem faced by many sportsbooks when it comes to sourcing their own lists of banned cars is the sheer volume of cars that are classified under UFA. There are at least a hundred cars that are added to the UFA list every month. Therefore, when the sportsbooks have to sift through the list to find out which cars are banned, they often end up muddling up the criteria. For instance, a car might be listed as having been written off by a third party and subsequently repaired. On the other hand, another car might be omitted altogether, simply because it was written off by a police officer, who deemed it too damaged for collection.
The problems faced by sportsbooks in sourcing their own list of banned cars has forced some sportsbooks to fall back on making their own list of legal cars for sale on their own. This has led to problems of its own, as the sportsbooks are trying to ensure that their clients’ cars are perfectly honest. Consequently, the number of fake cars on the UFA list has increased to the extent that sportsbooks are having trouble removing them altogether. In addition to the legality issues faced by sportsbooks in sourcing their own lists of banned and legal cars, there is also the issue of fees charged by UFA. In most cases, sportsbooks are faced with a hefty fee when they decide to add a car to their collection; some sportsbooks have even resorted to making the fee a part of the commission they receive from renting out the cars to their clients.