Importing a Kirkaham to Australia

[Tinker51]

I figured I would go to the "locals" to get the straight poop. An Australian friend of mine is over here in the States visiting/touring with another car club at an event in Utah. As you might imagine if you were a car buff in Utah with some free time you would drop in on the Kirkahms and check out the operation. Well he did and now he is considering purchasing a Kirkham. What will he have to do/prove/show/whatever to get this car into Australia? Any and all info would be appreciated.

[boxhead]

I think If he was importing a kit then he would have alot of troubles with the engineering side of things.
Also he will have to meet current emision standards depending where he lives.
I am not sure what would be required if he was to import a complete car that has been registered allready and has a vin number.
I am not sure if he the car can remain L/H drive or if the year on the title will affect things.
It may pay to wait until Craig 750hp gets on and reads this as I think he has been thinking about importing them.

[Cameron Parsons]

I went through the exercise in detail before deciding on a Superformance.

The only reasonable way to do it, is buy one complete (preferably RHD, they do make them), keep and drive it in Nth America for a year (purchased and registered in your friends name, with proof of his use), and bring it in as a personal import. Then you will need to do all the conversions and updates for Australian ADR's.

Bringing in a roller and trying to get it registered would be a lot of effort and cost without any guarantee of success.

Cameron

[Tinker51]

Good info, keep it comming.

[Cameron Parsons]

Try this link for more info

Personal Imports

Good Luck!

Cameron

[750hp]

Importing the car is easy. No problem at all - just pay the applicable duties and taxes, and you'll have a beautiful Kirkham in the garage. No problem........ yet !

The real fun will be to actually get the car registered to legally drive on the road. Others will no doubt add to the list of craziness that has to be followed when legally registering a Cobra in Australia these days. Your friend will need to add (among other things):
A padded dashboard cover
Side indicator lights
Side intrusion bars on the doors
A 6 digit odometer in kilometres
A hand brake warning light
A brake fail warning light
A seat belt warning light
Aust DOT approved brake lines (if braided)
NO shiny stuff facing the driver (no chrome gauge bezels, need to black out the back of the windshield trim etc)
Late model EFI engine with all pollution gear attached
Cat convertors
Aust spec tyres
Wilwood brakes are illegal over here (no dust shield, and not DOT approved !)
Fuel pumps not allowed in the boot/trunk

That's a start. While there's no doubt that it CAN be done, I wonder if anyone would be prepared to spend the kind of money necessary to destroy the looks and purpose of a car as nice as a Kirkham.

Good luck !

[csx700?]

and we thought california had issues,LOL!

[PCC]

Craig,

Are not your comments only applicable to a roller or new car?

When investigating the possibility of importing a certain Daytona other than duties etc the fact that the car was second hand allowed it to be freighted into Aus as a "Personal Import" enabling the car to be registered with not too many hassles.

[Cameron Parsons]

Personal Import has certain restrictions... see link posted previously, but it is clearly the easiest.

Next option is Low Volume scheme on new or used, in which all those lovely ADR's need to be accounted for, and it only applies to complete cars made by a single manufacturer in identical spec.

etc..
et al...
Blah blah...

All makes for a boring motoring future..

[Ibr8k4vetts]

How did Madmax get his car legally on the road down there! LOL
Mike

[BMK]

The film industry greased the palms of those who count.



If your friend is prepared to have input into the Cobra and do some of the building he may consider just bringing the body and bare chassis in.

The chassis could then be engineered and the rest of the build done as compliant with the engineer requirements and the Australian Design Rules.



Some of whose requirements are above.

It would be worth talking to both the Kirkhams and their agent Hawk in the United Kingdom to see where the better exchange rate is and the easier import option exist.

Keep reading as the Kirkhams will enter this Aussie forum.



Cheers

Bernie

[Cameron Parsons]

Or just bring in the body and attach to a pre-engineered and known chassis in Australia.....

But isn't that defeating the point

[Aussie Mike]

Don't forget you need an engineers report on the chassis showing that it meets the minimum 6000NM per degree for torsion and beaming results.

this figure is fairly significant and from looking at the chassis on some of the US Cobra kits I think a few wouldnt pass it. Surprisingly I heard some DAX cars imported from the UK have had trouble meeting the requirements without aditional stiffening added. Some Aussie DAX owners may want to set me straight but this is what I've heard.

I'd love one of the 427 Aluminium body Stainless Steel chassis Kirkhams, that's just the ultimate Cobra for me. I'll keep buying lottery tickets and when I land the big one I'll send them a cheque.

Cheers

[BMK]

Cameron

Hi

This was what a few us talked about some time ago. However, the Kirkhams note on their site that the attaching of the body to the chassis was one of the more difficult tasks.

I will possibly be corrected here, but I think Kirkham's bring the body in attached to the chassis from Poland already done/completed. (Dave will come on with some correction?)

I guess if you had and could get the body only sitting on the floor here and then built the chassis to fit. That may work. I see your point.

From memory the body/chassis was somewhere in the US dollars range of $39,000.



David from down in Victoria had a John Olsen car from New Zealand prior to getting his current AC. This was all aluminium.
Both were at the Camberwell Cobra show earlier this year.

Possibly heading off in the direction that 'Tinker51's' friend may not want to head, but this is an option to have a body built in New Zealand in aluminium.

Import boot, bonnet and doors and then follow with front and rear clip cut through sills. Sounds like old car parts and panels to me.



You would think that I had looked into this? New Zealand dollars not bad either.

Cheers

Bernie

[BMK]

Ok then - I see

If I win the lottery I'll buy one also. And keep the rest of the winnings.

Obviously not on the Dark side


Bernie

[Aussie Mike]

At this stage I think I'll just try gluing aluminium foil on my fiberglass body. The only problem I can see will be getting the creases out.

Cheers

[Cameron Parsons]

I'm collecting coke cans Mike, just flatten em out and polish them up..

But seriously, if it's the Ally body you really crave, there are a number of really, really good craftsmen in OZ who can do it.

A few years ago I had a quote of A$29,000 to convert my old DAX to Aluminium bodied. And that was using the WA original 427 that was in Duttons on loan as a template...

Should have done it

Off to the store for another lottery ticket... Mike, I'll keep you all in mind.

Cameron

[Cobra.au]

Maybe Jethot or HPC could coat your hole car body just got to figure out how to stop it catching on fire.

CraigW

[Tom Kirkham]

We have had a lot of interest in the past with importing our cars into Australia. As this thread has clearly pointed out, the problem is making the car compliant with Australian laws.

The major engineering problem I see with our car becoming legal in Australia is the 6,000 NM (4,400 ft-lbs) per degree torsional rigidity requirement. This a significant challenge but I think with some thought it might be possibly to be met. How is the test performed? Do they actually measure a car? Or is it by calculation? Is the test performed with the engine installed? If the test is with out the engine installed an original style frame may be hopeless. What are the beaming requirements?

Left hand drive is not a problem.

A padded dashboard cover
What are the requirements? I would assume this is not overly difficult. Does this rule also require that the dash switches be rockers instead of toggles?

Side indicator lights
Should be easy.

Side intrusion bars on the doors
Could be a significant problem. What are the requirements?

A 6 digit odometer in kilometers
I assume gages are available in Australia to meet the requirement. If not, I am sure Autometer can make the correct gage. Does the tenth digit count as one of the digits?

A hand brake warning light
A micro-switch should make this easy.

A brake fail warning light
Please explain. Low fluid level? Brake bias?

A seat belt warning light
Might be problematic. What are the rules?

Aust DOT approved brake lines (if braided)
Should not be a big problem. I assume aftermarket lines are available.

NO shiny stuff facing the driver (no chrome gauge bezels, need to black out the back of the windshield trim etc)
Is black paint acceptable in muting reflective surfaces?

Late model EFI engine with all pollution gear attached
What engines qualify? Small Block Ford? 4.6 Cobra 4 cam?

Cat convertors
I think there are now racing cats that will work in side pipes. Or do the cats that are certified with the engine mandatory?

Aust spec tyres
Is DOT or E (Europe) spec tires legal? If not, what Australian size tires are available that will work? 15 inch? 17 inch?

Wilwood brakes are illegal over here (no dust shield, and not DOT approved !)
I am sure PBR calipers can be made to work

Fuel pumps not allowed in the boot/trunk
Not a problem.