How easy would it be to import an R33

"Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man" (jordaneer1)
02/18/2015 at 17:01 • Filed to: None

couldn't you in theory have a registered importer do it because Motorex crash-tested them and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is available for public viewing, granted it doesn't say what is needed for to change the engine to make it EPA legal, but couldn't that be recertified fairly easily or at least less expensively than the crash testing

R34 for your time

P.S. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (second answer down) has absolutely no idea what he is talking about, and 107 people agree with him!!

the US police force cars can't keep up with it? quite a load of bull, Crown Vics can't keep up with aventador, a gallardo, or a veyron, and they are all road legal.

DISCUSSION (32)

IDROVEAPICKUPTRUCK > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:08

If it were possible someone would have done it. It's not happening.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > IDROVEAPICKUPTRUCK
02/18/2015 at 17:10

my question is if its already been federalized, why can't someone who is more honest than motorex and is willing to have inspections done continue to federalize them.

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:11

By the time you figured out what changes would need to be done to make the car legal, made those modifications, filled out all the paperwork, got an inspection by someone with the authority to sign off on it, and were able to legally drive the car, you'd probably be able to legal import them anyways. Doing this would cost way more time and money than it's worth. If you want one that badly, the show and display law would be your best bet.

Sam > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:12

Difficult and expensive. You may as well wait until 2020.

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:13

Probably because there's not a high enough demand weighed against the costs to make a viable business case.

Blondude > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:16

Kinja'd!!!

107 out of 107 people think this is helpful because THERE'S NO WAY TO MARK IT AS UNHELPFUL.

Sn210 > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:17

I loled at almost all of these answers

Kinja'd!!!

Conan > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:20

Not easy.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > Blondude
02/18/2015 at 17:21

true, but still, im amazed that 107 people would click that they thought it was helpful (granted a lot of people on the internet are quite stupid).

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > Sn210
02/18/2015 at 17:21

yeah, its funny reading some of them.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > Sam
02/18/2015 at 17:22

I think the same thing, I won't be out of college until then anyway, granted, I would rather have an R34, but thats only a few years later.

jariten1781 > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:24

The Motorex cars had changes to make them legal. I imagine the federalization was contingent on those changes being done exactly (ie not approximately or equivalently). Example in your document: "We are silk screening our own custom faces to meet this FMVSS". There's probably not any Motorex silk screened gauge faces out there for you to swap in. Also stuff like the shock padding that was added couldn't just be any old foam, it would need to be exact. Good luck finding that.

I doubt it would be possible to prove sufficiently that you did this and so it is in reality a practical impossibility to bring one in that way.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow
02/18/2015 at 17:25

that was my whole question, because motorex already did that, and the information is no longer confidential, (granted this is a totally in theory question, not a for real, because I'm not currently in a position to buy an imported car.

Garrett Davis > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:26

Read these: http://jalopnik.com/here-are-the-f…

http://jalopnik.com/here-s-how-peo…

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > jariten1781
02/18/2015 at 17:27

see, I understand that with the foam and the gauge faces, I was just wondering because its now open information, and they've already been crash-tested, at that point it would make sense to move to canada, or just wait.

Sn210 > Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow
02/18/2015 at 17:27

even show and display wouldn't work. Production numbers have to be less than 500

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > Garrett Davis
02/18/2015 at 17:29

I has read them, thats why i was wondering if in theory the R33's could be brought into compliance because they already have been crash-tested and a few were modified.

Chris_K_F drives an FR-Slow > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:30

In terms of bringing it up to code it seems like you'd just have to make the modifications they did, which shouldn't be too difficult if you are decent at fabrication. However, I still think you will run into a ridiculous amount of red-tape and have even more trouble trying to get someone to actually sign off on it. I'd say your best options are to import something within the 25 year limit, wait for the R33 to be legally importable, or buy an S14 and do a conversion.

Garrett Davis > Sn210
02/18/2015 at 17:31

Ok now I have to go back and read those.

Tohru > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:32

paging Dogapult to the white courtesy phone please. Dogapult, white courtesy phone.

Garrett Davis > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:43

Read this part again:

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Since we're on the subject of shady import practices, it's time to discuss the famed Japanese car importer MotoRex, who was able to legally import the R33 Skyline GT-R for a few years in the early 2000s. Since the MotoRex saga is covered in detail many other places on the Web, I'm going to provide only a brief overview here.

Here's what happened: in the early 2000s, a company called MotoRex actually went through the process of federalizing the R33 Nissan Skyline GT-R, which was made from 1995 to 1998. They crash-tested it, installed additional safety protections, slapped on the correct reflectors and gauges and went through the whole song and dance, doing whatever they had to do, until they got the government to agree their converted R33 GT-R was importable.

Where MotoRex ran into trouble was, they started importing R32s and R34s and telling the government these were R33s. Worse, they stopped performing all the R33 conversions they told the government they would perform, meaning even many of the R33s they brought in didn't meet government standards. Eventually, the customs people got wind of this, they showed up at MotoRex, and they shut the whole thing down.

But there was a problem: MotoRex had already imported dozens of cars and sold them to customers. Would the government seize these vehicles? Buy them back? Crush them? In the end, they decided on a surprisingly fair solution: the U.S. government wrote a letter to every single MotoRex car owner, whether he was driving fully certified R33 or a completely un-certified R34, and confirmed that their cars were legal, since they had been "duped" by an importer who claimed to be performing services it wasn't.

To this day, these Skylines are completely legal in the eyes of the federal government. The result is that owning a GT-R with a "MotoRex letter" is currently the only way to legally have an R33 or R34 Skyline GT-R in the United States – unless it was one of the few limited-edition models exempted under the Show and Display exception.

You would need to be a certified dealer of these vehicles and modify them under consent of the government in order to have or distribute them here legally. You can't just bring one over and modify it to government standards yourself, they have to be regulated and approved by the government and you can't just be a citizen, but a licensed corporation with the approval to do so.

In other words, you would have to do what MotorRex did all over again, except actually continue to follow the rules.

Party-vi > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:43

Not easy. While the NHTSA has determined that the R33 Model Nissan GTS and GTR ("Skyline") passenger cars manufactured between January 1, 1996 and June 30, 1998 are eligible for importation, it must be imported by a Registered Importer, and modifications must be made to the car for it to meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards by the Registered Importer. The R33s were crash tested by JK Technologies in Baltimore, MD, who then also developed the process for federalizing the R33 GT-R and GT-S. A confidentiality grant was issued to Motorex after their request for the federalization process, and since Motorex is dead JK Tech has a proprietary claim to the federalization process, so they are the only ones that know how to do it and will have the government accept how they have done it.

Any other Registered Importer can import an R33, but they must submit a FMVSS conformity package to the NHTSA before the NHTSA releases the conformance bond on the R33.

TL;DR: JK Technologies is the only company that knows 100% how to federalize an R33. You have two options -

Import an R33 through a Registered Importer and have JK Technologies Federalize it for a fee.

Find another Registered Importer that will crash test and emissions test multiple R33s to submit an acceptable conformity package to the NHTSA in order to federalize them.

CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:44

now they can with the wild packs of 3.5 Ecoboosts.

Party-vi > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 17:52

The information is confidential - JK Technologies has proprietary claim to the federalization process for the R33. You can contact JK Technologies to import and federalize an R33.

thatguy1 > Sn210
02/18/2015 at 18:05

Kinja'd!!!

They had me at "skyline for my first car"

Ferrero1911 > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/18/2015 at 18:15

Because JK Technologies is busy bringing in much more expensive cars and doesn't want the hassle of dealing with skylines again. Party-iv is completely correct, they are the only ones that know how to do it. I suspect if you call them and ask them they would laugh at you and hang up.

Sn210 > thatguy1
02/18/2015 at 18:16

even if they were legal here, could you imagine the insurance for a 16 y/o kid?!

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > Party-vi
02/18/2015 at 20:06

okay, that makes perfect sense, I had thought that JK had just crash tested them, and motorex paid them to do that, and then since motorex had gone out of business, then its no longer really of any use to be held in a confidentiality agreement, I didn't know they still had it under intellectual property or whatever.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > Sn210
02/18/2015 at 20:09

there is one R34 on the show and display list

Kinja'd!!!

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > Garrett Davis
02/18/2015 at 20:11

easiest solution in my eyes is to move to canada.

gergey - Wishes vette was Datsun > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
02/19/2015 at 02:15

Just move to Canada. But honestly, they're pretty boring.

Dsscats > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
10/19/2015 at 21:11

You aren’t a registered importer.