Re: importing non conforming car

["Gary Holman" <Garyhjd@domain.elided>]

>Brian said,

>   Gotta be a way around that too.  The few times I was at SIR there was a
guy
> with a Lotus Elise.  There are probably a few people here that know more
> about that car than I do, but the story I got was that it's a
nonconforming
> vehicle that is used almost exclusively on the track.  He just gets a 3
day
> trip permit on Friday, drives the car to the track on the weekend, then
puts
> the car back in the garage when the trip permit expires.  If it was
> compliant, I would imagine he would have registered it, and obviously it
> wasn't crushed.  Anybody know how that car found its way here?

I had a chance to meet and talk to the guy with the lotus at the Seattle all
British Field Meet.  He and I talked about how he got the car around customs
and DOT to get it into the country.  He imported the car as a kit car.  I
always wondered if this would work for getting a car into the country.  He
brought the chassis in without an interior or an engine.  He then had the
interior shipped in with the engine and had it all labeled as lawn mower
parts.  Obviously no one looked at the box, it had seats in it and also an
engine with lotus cam covers.  Once in the country he reassembled
everything, wrote the MPH on the speedometer instead of KPH and then just
uses three day trip permits.  I don't know why he couldn't jack the car up,
to meet headlight and bumper req's, get it licensed and titled and then
lower the car with proper plates and all.  As we've all seen with the
lowered Japanese cars no one checks for bumper and light height once the car
is on the road.

Hope this helps,

Gary Holman
Tacoma, WA

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