Just got back in from work and had some stuff e mailed to me from my VOSA contact and also spoke to the CPS.

Basically its as Coxy says, except the non endorsable offence comes under regulation 100 of the Road Traffic Act, and is slightly different in that it states that no danger is caused or is likely to be caused to any person in or on the vehicle or on a road. S40A just states a danger of injury to any person.

To VOSA and the CPS I described what Mike had stated ie a flame occured when accelerating hard and only changing gear, and I assumed that the flame wasn't very big and was very brief. I also assumed that this did not happen under normal driving conditions.

Both asked what danger this flame caused. I assumed that as this flame was relatively small and brief, that a) there was no risk of Mikes car going up in flames and b) no reason to assume that any following cars would catch fire.

The CPS stated to me that under the above circumstances you could not summons for this as under s40A the danger has to be more than a distant possibility. They also stated that unless you had an admission of guilt then it was probably not within the public interest to proceed anyway.

If the flame was continuous or happening frequently when driving under normal conditions then you probably would have good reason to proceed.

Anyway Mike, I wouldn't worry, your hardly likely to be driving hard with the Plod behind you so I can't imagine that you'd be captured for this. If a member of the public did complain its your word against theres and even if it were inspected then one thing a Police vehicle examiner can't do is take it out for a drive and floor it in an attempt to re create the flames !

Newton Abbot traffic centre shuts at 2 am now so go for a blast in the early hours, after this time you'll be lucky to see an Exeter or Plymouth traffic car around south Devon mate. I was in a pursuit last year and the nearest traffic car to Brixham was Barnstable.

Cheers

Steve