Thread: chassis VIN
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Old 02-23-2022, 02:13 PM
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twobjshelbys twobjshelbys is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Beer4myhorses View Post
Guys, thqnks so much for the precious information.
I missed a CR from 1991. While the negociation was well engaged, the guy sold it to someone else.
I'm in touch with another seller for another CR, with a 355 Chevrolet engine.

Twobjshelbys, indeed it's not an easy thing to import a Kit Car.
There are 2 major points :
1) the custom will consider as a collector car and charge reduced taxes (200 euros custom taxes instead of 10%, and 5,5% VAT instead of 20% !) if :
-the car is more than 30 years old
-the car hasn't been significantly modified (it seems that brakes and suspensions are acceptable)
-the car is not produced anymore

To prove the age of the car is the big challenge, because they won't accept a title showing 1965 for a replica, so we need to prove when the car was built or registered for the first time (that's why the info you gave me about the VIN decoder are so precious to me ;-)

2) The registration will be possible only if the French collector car association considers the car as a collector and delivers a certificate. To obtain it, you need to prove again that the car is 30 years old and hasn't been modified, you also need to prove that the engine is also more than 30 years old. Then the car must undergo a technical check at an approved center then you can get the registration.
Without that you have a 400 horse power flower pot !
What a nightmare ! But I think it's not really easier to import a car in the US, isn't it ?
So the engine itself has to be over 30 years old too? Does that literally mean 30, or will a current facsimile, e.g., a Dart 351 block, or a Shelby Engine side oiler which are made to the original look and feel (except that the Shelby is aluminum) be accepted? I had a similar thing in Colorado - if my engine was accurate to the old format then it was accepted (this for emissions) but if it was, for example, a modern engine in an old Cobra, e.g., now the Coyote, then it would have to meet emissions of that year.

But according to the press I see, France pretty much wants to take away your internal combustion engine from you. I'm sure the rural areas and farmers will just love having to go back to horses and bicycles. They'll have to have a "Horse Tax" to clean up all the doo-doo on the streets.
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Cheers,
Tony
CSX4005LA
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