Importing Kits

[LoBelly]

400TT:

This is what you would need to do once you get it here:

Chassis would need to pass beaming & torsional testing.
Need door side intrusion bars fitted to ADR specs.
If in QLD etc you would also need a fibreglass impact test.
Convert it to right-hand drive. Not sure about factory five, but they might offset the engine/tunnel to the right-hand side.
Pretty sure you would have to do your own engine/transmission mounts for LS1 or Boss 5.4.
Find an engineer that is happy to approve something like this.
Got through more drama than most with local transport authority

When I wrote that the above items would have to be addressed I was saying that having an imported chassis or a domestic chassis makes no difference to the engineer, the engineer still has to be satisfied - and it may be the case that there is some local overlay/regulation on top of the ADR.

By way of example, I purchased a kit that someone else had given up on - the kit was in Perth. I rang RMC (took some time to find them) and they told me they knew the kit - the guy had been trying to offload it around the place, the chassis was the 'old single rail' not the 'new double rail' chassis and that it would never be legal for registration. So, not such a great start.

A short while later I'm at the engineer's, after looking it over he tells me the chassis is fine and that it will pass. I tell him about the conversation with the kit manufacturer, he tells me the ADR does not specify a torsional/beam number but rather that the chassis has to be (in the opinion of the engineer) suitable for the application.

I think it is the case that the chassis would not have passed in Perth because they have a local requirement for a specific rigidity.

Similarly he sketches out the layout of the side intrusion - tells me what size steel to buy and how its all to be connected. Which bolt are to be what spec etc, etc, etc.

My experience is limited to one car, and ultimately I decided not to go the ICV route anyway, so maybe no-one should take too much notice - however - having been through the ringer of being told my car could never be registered and the hassle of collecting and manufacturing parts for assembly I still feel that the high base that you'll get for a build from an imported US kit makes a compelling argument.

LoBelly