Importing a JDM car or mine from the UK into California

[yeager]

Heya, I was hoping someone may give me some advice.

I built an S13 drift car in the UK 2 years ago and competed in many events as part of my team, Team D:MON (www.teamdmon.com). Since March this year I moved to California and terribly miss my car and drifting in general.

So I need to solve the problem of not having a drift car here in the US. I currently live in Los Gatos and have seen very few people of my taste

So,

1. Does anybody know if I can import and register a JDM drift car from Japan into California without too much hassle?
2. If this is not possible, I want to import my highly modified S13 instead. Anyone know where I need to start researching the costs and requirements for this?

For reference, someone else has been looking after my car in the UK. Here's some shots from her in action this weekend... god how much I miss her!!

[FD3S_pilot]

unless u have connections,importing any car in California is goin to be $$$ to make it street legel. Cali been known to be smog and emission nazis

Best bet is to build another s13 drift car here in the US and get used to drifting on the other side of the road lol. I kno it wouldn't be the same..but you should ship all the parts from ur old car,back in the UK, to CA and used it on ur new car thats already here.

Loving the pink....

[97kouki]

Nice car..I dont really think it would be too much of a hassle aslong as you do currently own it and you only register it as a track car..For off-road usage only. Because if you import a jdm vehicle into the states for use as a regular daily driven car..You must change parts on it and pay high registration fees and everything else. I know if you only bring it over for use only on the track and such it is much cheaper and you dont have to change any parts..I dont even think you actually have to register it because it would not be driven on regular roads. However, I am not an expert on it. Your best source of information would be your local DMV..Call them or go there and explain the situation and they should be able to explain all the details in depth. Good Luck.

[Tuner]

Race vehicles can stay in the states for 1 year with no penalties. Look for a customs broker in the UK and ask them about bringing your car over.


Here's one:

http://www.pbb.com/en/services/custo...age/index.html

[tyndago]

I know a thing or two about importing cars.

http://tyndago.googlepages.com/gt-rlegalization


The easy answer is there is no easy answer.

[markshatchi86]

importing a built race for for race purposes is not that hard.

[tyndago]

importing a built race for for race purposes is not that hard.

Have you imported any race cars ?

I just did it late last year/earlier this year with our backup R34 N1 World Challenge car. Our car was a Super Taikyu car from Japan. We had a second car here in the US. We had series information, We had a professional racing license for our driver. We had letters of intent from the series.

The DOT was no real problem, but the EPA gave us a little bit of a hard time. They told us that the pictures of our race car looked "too commerical". They also told us that the car we showed them in the photos was "not the one we were bringing in".

After monkeying back and forth with them for a while, they let us import it as a permanent race car.

Heres a funny article about importing a Ferrari F50 as a race car.

http://www.ferraris-online.com/Artic...00107_SS.shtml

[yeager]

Thanks for the responses, i'm considering selling the car Even if I do import it into CA as a race car I have no ability to trailor it around and have no idea what race track I could store her at near San Jose that would even let me go drift it...

*sigh* What a horrible end to building such a fun car...

[FD3S_pilot]

Thanks for the responses, i'm considering selling the car Even if I do import it into CA as a race car I have no ability to trailor it around and have no idea what race track I could store her at near San Jose that would even let me go drift it...

*sigh* What a horrible end to building such a fun car...

Strip the car of all the parts,coilovers,suspension,engine and ship parts over here. Find another s13 here in the states and use the parts from your old car to make a another drift car. Then you're good to go drifting in the events held here state side.

[Ghost of Duluth]

It's too bad that you live in Cali. I never really understood how California got to be the car capitol of the US when it's so hard to do anything out there. Emissions nazis, crazy cops giving tickets for mods....i'll never understand it.
I don't own a single car with a cat on it. I have no emissions tests that I have to adhere to and where I live I get no hassle and I live right outside of Atlanta. If I drove my Z car in Cali I would be locked up. No signals, no wipers, no corner lights, none of that stuff.

I guess the southeast is the Wild West of Automobiles for the current time. If you get it in country, good luck passing cutoms in Cali with a full vehicle. You'd have to bring it in with no eng and trans. Bring the eng and trans in seperate then re-assemble it. Then follow Marty's advice on the race car laws.

Either way, good luck. You would probably have less hassle, not much more money and be on the track faster by just building another car here and selling that one.