digdug18 wrote:
kanaric wrote:
You could probably get a Familia GTR imported for the price of a WRX or Celica Alltrac. It would have the parts availability of the alltrac anyways, lol.
Familia GTR has a BPT, built in maps in the ECU for up to 18PSI and a turbo capable of flowing that, weighs 2800lbs or possibly less, and is a homologated rally car.
I saw multiple sold and they were all under $6000, fairly minty.
IMO if you are looking at rare cars like the Celica Alltrac or VR-4 Galant you might as well look at JDM imports. It will end up costing you the same, including shipping and fees. Next year Pulsar GTIRs become available as well. I've seen far many more GTIRs and Familia GTRs for sale in Japan than i've seen Celica Alltracs and Galant VR4s for sale here then there you also have the fact that those two cars were also sold over there as well and you could get a one with less than 100,000KMs and no mods for LESS than what it would cost you to buy here.
I've said it in another post as well. Buying pre-ban enthusaist cars from import marques is pointless in the US market. Import them. You will get 1/2 the mileage, options of never modded cars, far more examples, and cars that were never sold here that competes with what you are looking for. And the price you pay will be the same IF NOT LESS and that is including the fees and shipping.
I'm looking for something that I can drive on the roads as well. this isn't really an option with imports unless they are already left hand drive, because of the crash testing. I've looked into it extensively, had a meeting with an importer in MD, one of 5 or so in the US.
Their have been skylines imported that were RHD, but they had to be crash tested first, to find that they needed to insert a door bar to make them legal for US roads. Importing a LHD car is easier, because it wouldn't have to be crash tested. But still a hassle.
So, NO!
25 year old car is exempt from all of this. Going to be driving a RHD smog-free Skyline within a month. They are not crash tested either. None of that matters for 25 years old and older cars. It used to be it didn't matter at all in the 80s thats why you see Euro spec Mercs from that time over here and that's why the law was passed, rich people were importing the faster foreign models.
In short everything here is wrong, they are both DOT and EPA exempt. What you say applies only if you want a recent vehicle.
Knurled wrote:
kanaric wrote:
You could probably get a Familia GTR imported for the price of a WRX or Celica Alltrac. It would have the parts availability of the alltrac anyways, lol.
Yes, but Toyota transmissions are not made out of glass like the Mazda units.
That's not really fair. Subaru transmissions are glass. Mazda engineers had to work hard to develop a material more fragile than glass.
one with less than 100,000KMs and no mods for LESS than what it would cost you to buy here.
I've heard far too many stories of people driving with the speedo cable disconnected/VSS unplugged to keep the odometer down, to really believe in the "100k" thing.
And then there is the concept of shady dealers here or there. It's extremely common for auction cars brought to Ohio from a certain state just slightly to the north that begins with M, to have had warning lights removed from the instrument cluster, or broken out with a chisel in the case of LEDs. Who is to say that the instrument cluster wasn't pulled from some other car (they come with front cuts, right?) and installed?
Not that I put much stock in odometer readings, anyway, but it doesn't make sense to me to put that much faith in a number like that, especially when it can be expected that someone isn't going to go through the hassle of trying to find the car's history.
The Familia GTR has maps in the ECU up to 18 psi on the stock turbo and it's built to take more than that. It's a rally homologation, the drivetrain is strong and overbuilt. The turbo on it is good for ~300awhp iirc. The Pulsar GTIR is similar but has a weaker trans. However by weaker trans I mean stronger than a WRX transmission... like the WRX don't drop the clutch and launch it all the time and you will be fine. The GTR? Do what you like.
The 100k thing is a thing because tolls in Japan are insane expensive (upwards of $60) and all the cars are like this. They are not all disconnected cars. I had a friend who lived there tell me it cost $100s to travel just from tolls alone. He would budget $2000 to drive, and for lodging, half the distance of San Francisco to LA in that country.
Auctions in Ohio and auctions in Japan are two completely different animals, starting with the purposes and reasons for them. In Japan the older a car gets the more tax you have to pay on it, as a result the people just dump the car because nobody wants to buy a car that old due to the tax. They dump it on an auction that sells to overseas or locally to people who don't mind the tax. The cars in Japan are also far more thoroughly inspected than they are in the US regularly. Read any site talking about Japanese imports, issues like what you are saying are extremely rare. Importing cars like this is EXTREMELY popular in Europe due to the quality of Japanese used cars and the fact there are very limited import laws there. "Classic" or older cars are almost unseen in Japan because of this.
The thing you are talking about is more like an "americans are shiny happy people" issue.
The only issue you might have with a Japanese import of an older car is you may have a car that's been sitting for a while. In which case the auction sheet says so as the cars are inspected and all the faults are listed.
You are talking about risks with buying a Japanese car that will be an enthusiast vehicle in far better condition than a more expensive S13 or AE86, will have aside from some extremely unlikely fraud 10s of thousands less mileage or 100k+ less, for $1000s less than a S13 or WRX etc for a rare enthusiast turbo car (Probably like $2000-$4000), and what you could probably turn over for a profit. The risk is small if you do your research and listen to your importer. The importers want you to import cars from them, they don't care what you buy so they will help you find what's right. If you have a bad experience they will put you and others off and they lose money.
I bought a R32 Skyline for $4000+$2000 import fees. It has 80k miles, zero rust, no mods aside from wear item replacement, near perfect interior aside from shifter boot, and the only blemishing are rock chips on the front end. Find me a similar ~220hp turbo (with incredible potential) RWD manual import for that price stateside that also has aftermarket and parts availability. Not to mention this car is only 2800lbs and has double wishbone suspension. Hell lets say without aftermarket and parts. I tried for MONTHS the only time I came close the sales fell through (MR2 Turbo both times) and they had almost double mileage, some rust, and mods. Only option I could find around this price is Z31 and the cars are nowhere near the quality of what i got. Z32 are heavy and are a nightmare to work on, which i don't need and GL finding one without 150k+ miles without all kinds of issues at this price range ($6k or less).
We are talking about a Familia GTR here which is probably on the upper tier of interesting AWD Turbo cars as well. Then you can look at the Pulsar GTIR and Lancia Delta Integrale 8v/16v which you can also get. You won't find a comparable car to these in the US. Nothing like the R32, Pulsar GTR, Familia GTR, or Delta Integrale was sold in the US. These are all ~2800lbs or less turbo cars with almost unlimited tuning potential. The closet at least with AWD is maybe DSM or Alltrac Celica of which the DSM is the light beer equivalent and the Alltrac comes with probably a 400-500lb weight penalty over a Familia's 2600lb mass. To get anything really close you would have to build a RSTI. Do you want a ~300whp (after bolt ons and boost controller) AWD 2600lbs Mazda 323?
If you don't want to go through the hassle, of which there is almost none, of importing "just" a Mazda get one of these.
I definately would go and import this Mazda below, but I prefer the Pulsar GTIR and am waiting for that for Nissan #2 (1990 is the first date of that car)
And Pulsar GTIR for good measure:
These came with ITB SR20 with GT28RS turbo.... droool.
worse case scenario if you blow up a stock trans just get a forester xt trans or a 6spd if you want bulletproof reliability.
Or JDM GC/GF STI 5 speed. I see those swaps commonly as well, idk if they bolt in better or not to a "RSTI" swap.
