bonzelite

sure, you can have an "RI" import anything under the sun for the right price. it can be done. i'm telling you. money talks big time. but you're not going to drive the intact car legally on US roads until the R32 is 25 years old. then she's scott-free.

until then, it's pieces only. how you get them here is entirely anyones' game. good luck.

HellBent

To dispell the myths:

1) There is no such thing as a ban on Nissan Skyline GTRs:

- Currently only R33s can be imported, because it has been demonstrated (via petition) that they can be made to meet FMVSS through proprietary modification (i.e. crash testing done via MOTOREX).
- R32s and R34s could technically be imported once crash testing and a petition for elgibility is drafted and submitted.
**note: the petition information and crash testing details are online at NHTSA, however, the proprietary information on chasis modification is not. There are even people who tried to reverse engineer the modifications from Motorex cars and were unsuccessful in convincing the NHTSA. No post Motorex imported Skylines have been legalized.

2) R33s can only be imported for limited years due to the requirement to meet OBDII emissions compliance standards. R33s and R34s did not come from the factory with OBDII emissions controlls. A system could be tailored to fix the OBDII problem (such as using a Nissan 300ZX twin turbo computer), but the new engine and computer would have to be tested at a federally sanctioned test facility (big $$$).

3) importing sklines under the "Kit car" method is illegal as stated in black and white in the Clean Air Act. See the EPA kit car policy webpage below:
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/imports/kitcar.htm

Is it possible to someday legally import a Skyline GTR? In a word yes. But not until someone submits a new petition with valid crash test and modification data that will appease the NHTSA as well as OBDII solutions that will please CARB and the EPA.

The problem lies in the cost and time it will take. In the end it will be hard if not impossible to recoup the money spent on getting the cars through legally. Basically, there is little or no money to be made and thus little interest from business or venture capitalists. Besides no one wants to pay the Motorex prices, and costs have only increased.

-AL

r33gtrnmd

kit-car is only illegal if your trying to "circumvent" the clean air act.

HellBent

Importing a Skyline via the "Kit car" method is circumventing the clean air act. The Clean Air Act is a Federal Code, therefore it trumps state or local laws.

-AL

Real GTR

Bringing it in as a kit is illegal period.

http://forums2.freshalloy.com/showthread.php?t=154395

The Dot has already started a major investigation into it and has started going after illegal cars.

r33gtrnmd

illegal only if the kit car maker supplies both engine and chasis and fyi the 1995 r33 gtr DOES pass emissions in MD. no obd-2 required. i dont care about CARB. MD only checks gas cap and emissions from the tailpipe. thank you power fc for spitting out so much clean air for emissions and so little for the next two years.

shadz

It doesn't matter what your state checks. State laws CAN NOT bypass federal regulations. Just because a state doesn't check it, doesn't make it legal. No matter how you slice it, the federal law will always win out, regardless of what your state says. Now if you have proof of a state law, LEGALLY, overriding a federal regulation from DOT, NHTSA, EPA, CARB, or any other agency governing the use of motor vehicles in the US, please provide it.

P.S.: If you actually read the entire Kit Car regulation, it states that no car can be claimed as a kit car that was manufatcured as a full car outside the US, and just not released stateside for sale. If the car was pre-existing, it DOES NOT fall into the Kit Car rule!!

evilutionate

Did you read all of the posts and subsequent attachments in what you linked to above? It is very controversial, and I am not sure that it backs up what you are trying to say... sure maybe a post or two, but for every post or two that say no there is 50 more arguing posts against it, linking facts and evidence and such... dont care either way just that I spent about 1.5hrs reading through all of that crap, some good stuff.

HellBent

Your statement is inaccurate.

There were a lot of posts both pro and con. However, no one refutes the black and white Federal Codes (Clean Air Act) that state the "Kit car" method of importation is Illegalas it is blatant circumvention of the law.

As you mentioned, please read the links to the EPA and NHTSA websites. It's all there in black and white. Importing a Skyline as a "kit car" is Illegal.

-AL

Real GTR

Yeah I read them looks like you didn't. Are u so blind by your want for a GT-R that you can understand the issue.

It can be controversial all it wants and people can dispute it all they want, tell things get changed in the actual law it's illegal.


You have a Detective who has taken 2 cars and works with the DOT saying it's illegal. You have written hard copy papers that are saying it's illegal. What part of that isn't backing up my story.

What more do you need?

Do you need Hsu holding 2 forms of ID pissing on a GT-R singing "**** on you"
with the DOT, NHTSA and the EPA in the back ground.