Only five years until Godzilla comes stateside!

(image from random interwebs page)

The fed says that a car lapses into 'collector' status at 25y/o, that is, it no-longer has to meet NTSA crash or EPA emissions requirements. In five years, the early Nissan R32 GTR [and the GTS models too, but who cares about them? :D ]models will fall into this catagory, and be legally drivable on American roads.

Naturally, an import enthusiast, this has me incredibly excited. I do wonder though; on Wikipedia, an article mentions that no-longer can one buy and ship over a gray-market automobile as a 'private import'. So does this mean it would be illegal for me to fly to Japan, buy a Skyline, and have is shipped over and register it? (in 5 yrs) Would I have to buy it through a Nissan dealership?

Just wondering if anyone knows, or if anyone else is excited. It might be 25 years old when we can get them, but its more like everyone else is catching-up to the ATTESA-ETS, so it's not as outdated as one first thinks. Plus its RHD, which automatically makes it cool anyway.

You can have it now if you have relatives in Canada. I know a couple of people who have sent Ford Falcons of the same vintage to Canada. (Aussie right hand drive, not the old US Ford Falcons)

Yep, in Canuckistan (not my coining) the limit's 15 years. Though, because recent statistics have shown that 25% of all auto accidents in Canada involve RHD gray-market cars, they're going to bump it up to 20 years and start restricting stuff.

There is a way that I know of to get cars into the U.S. and it's legal. It doesn't even have to comply with the whole 25 year law thing. It works like this: buy a car WITHOUT the engine and transmission. It doesn't count as a running vehicle(because of no engine) therefore you don't have to worry about emissions, crash ratings, and the like. Next, get the engine and transmission separate from the car and put them together yourself or have a shop do it. By doing it this way you can register the car as a "kit car" thereby negating having to do smog tests and such because you put the car together yourself like you would a kit car. In fact, a company called Kaizo Industries does just that and they've been importing R34s and S15s through that one loophole in the system. I'm an import guy too and I know how the po-pos love to harass us import guys but there are ways to beat the system and still be able to enjoy the benefits.

Edit: In case you were wondering kit cars are exempt from doing smog tests. Gotta thank the other car enthusiasts for that.:D

Read about them. The article didn't say anything about S-15s though. But $50,000 is waay too much for me. And even then, it's $30,000 for a R32. I'd much rather say, find a used R-32 in five years and bring it over here.

Also, I just remembered, it was a feature car in Modified Mag, someone took a 1996 Mitsubishi Mirage (Lancer in Japan) and got a wrecked Evo VI, and transferred all the parts to the Mirage. Thing is, he began with a coupe, so he ended with a 2-door Evo VI that was road legal in 49 states!*

*Again, CARB can go suck Richard Simmons's balls.

Yeah I've heard about those types of swaps. They also do Mitsubishi Galants as well; converting from front to all-wheel drive and using the Evo engine. Real sleepers there. Heck there's one around where I live that has something like 400 horses and looks completely stock except for the wheels. And don't even get me started with what the Subie boys and Honda and Nissan gearheads are brewing.

i will be so happy to be driving one of those in black around my buddies
oh, the glory

You're not going to put a "Night Kids" sticker on it will you?

@sv51macross: Your thread title was misleading. I thought this had something to do with the atomic-breathing 100meter+ tall monster that wreaked havoc.

same :(, hmmm thought he was taller XD

Well, for some reason the forums won't let me upload a heading image.

Im working on a 1978 Porsche 928 if you are interested in that?

here is some pics of the rebuild i did all this in 2 days..
i should have took a pic of the car fully assembled when i got it..
but anyways.


Im planning on Repainting the Exterior completely a light red.
and i am rebuilding the motor right now. putting all new seals and borring out the cylinders and upgrading the pistons to a lighter stronger aloy.

=3

Way cool Sarge! Take better care of it than Jeremy did (Top Gear Cheap Car Challenge:
1500# Porsches)

A Porche V8...that must sound like heaven when revved. How tough is it to get parts for it? (You in America or Europe?)

Im in the United states and i saw that episode i felt bad when it broke down.. v_v
and i am just replacing all the seals and pistons i already ordered the pistons. and im ordering it over the net on www.RockAuto.com and www.Partsgeek.com both have almost everything for that car...

heres my part list..
http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carcode,1263338
not many expensive parts.. but it all adds up..

what are you planning to do to that car if you can get it?

also i put on a magnaflow xpipe straight exhaust... its gonna sound sick..

I never imagined another usage of the term "Godzilla" other than the monster that ToHo Co. created, lol. "Godzilla = car" never crossed my mind.

Godzilla is Australian-coined (and world-wide colloquial) name for the R32, R33, and R34 Skyline GTRs, mainly because of the absolute pwnage they ecexuted against thier competition in just about every racing class they were entered in. The R32 was actually a homoglated race car, so it had to have all the tech bits they wanted in the race cars they were going to field. So in went the revolutionary ATESSA-ETS 4wd system, 4-wheel steering, and an engine that was so incredibly overbuilt that the stock internals can take 500hp and all the abuse you can throw at it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyline_GTR



Aside from polyurethane (or heim-joint) bushings in the control arms/stabilizer endlinks and the 11"-wide wheels/tires Nismo intended, I'd try and keep it as cherry as possible.

Restoring a car will be like that. The exhuast sounds fun, going to go to any track-days with it?

[edit] Wait...if the previous owner hand't already, I'd swap the Nissan-OE disks to Brembo units. Nissan actually drilled the disks, as opposed to how drilled rotors should be made, during the casting process(like Brembo). Physical drilling introduces stress fractures, and there have been several documented cases of the front disks on R32 GTRs shattering under abuse.

Im looking into it.. but not track days i dont think it could handle all that stress and i dont want it looking like Jermey car afterwords.. v_v

but i definitely will bring it to the local import car shows when im done with it...