The POOL ROOM

[boxhead]

Tatsushige.

This is my opinion only and you can do as you please.
But sending a private email to a company then broadcasting there reply on a public forum is not exactly "good form"

I wish you luck in your venture but feel you may make more enemies than friends if your not careful, the market for kit cars is not a very big one so you dont want to annoy what could be either a major supplier or a major competitor.

Also I do not know the legalities of selling complete turn key cars within Australia, but suspect that once you sell more than X amount you would have to comply with a different set of rules.

Again this is just my opinion and I wish you luck.

[Tatsushige]

Kit cars are huge in the UK so will head there to sort it out.

There are a few companies building complete cars for clients, so as I only plan on making 2 to 5 a month it will be easy to pass the SVA.


Thanks for the advice boxhead.

[Tenrocca]

Tats - one of them plastic falcons for sale on ebay (unfinished) if your interested.


http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-GENERATIO...1%7C240%3A1318

[Tatsushige]

Originally Posted by Tenrocca

Tats - one of them plastic falcons for sale on ebay (unfinished) if your interested.

Hell yes, having a look now. I would need to fly back to OZ to finish it as I have found out under Japanese Law OWN built kit cars can not have a engine more then 125cc or a top speed of 60kph.

You can import a fully licensed kitcar as long as it is licensed in country of origin.

[trularin]

So, you can visit with a 600 HP Cobra but you can not stay.

[Tatsushige]

You can own a KIT CAR that has been build outside of Japan and licensed out side of Japan, it will be imported as a normal vehicle NOT classed as a Kit Car,

There are 1000's of Cobras here from the USA all licensed for road use.

But :

if you import a kit and build it here then you have no change in hell of getting it licensed or on the road.

if you built it in OZ have it licensed in OZ then import it in to Japan, then No problems you will have it licensed here and on the road.


Stuffed up RULES but they are set up to PROTECT the BIG CAR companies here!.. This country and the government are controlled by the Car Companies and Electronic Companies.

[BMK]

Mmmm - just saw on the news that the Victorian Police are possibly going to charge a fireman over lighting fires in the Kinglake area.

The news reader flashed across to an on site reporter at Kinglake.

I was surprised to see in the background that building activity was well under way on some blocks. It was also showing signs of green grass and trees with leaves.

It is amazing how quickly nature springs back from such devastation.

[boxhead]

Hi Bernie,
I was in the area on the Shelbyfest weekend, I have a mate who lives at Strathewen, they lost 100 acres out of the 112 they own.
It is getting green again and some trees are starting to sprout leaves again.
Talking to my mate on the phone gave me a feel for what they went through on the day, but until I went there and saw just how close things where, it was very confronting to see.
They did lose a number of neighbours in the fires and they would have been in the same boat had the wind not changed directions less than 30 metres from the houses.
Adam described a wall of fire higher than he could look up (tops of trees are about 40 metres above ground level) and it was coming very quickly, hit the peak of the hill where there houses are and stopped in the wind, it stayed there burning for over 1 hour before dying down.

[BMK]

Yes there were some lucky one. I had the chance to fly over the entire site and it is really surprising to see some houses right in the middle of the fires have survived.

Others just went up in seconds. It really was like a bomb had hit the entire area when you see it from above..



I just hope that the Police are able to charge someone with the fires. It will give a lot of closure for some.

Tonight on the news they were talking about some of the money getting out to the fire victims. Seems to have taken a long time for that to happen..

I wonder if the money that we gave personally and through our business, may have been better just handed to someone living on the football ground...

Bernie

[Tatsushige]

Originally Posted by BMK

Tonight on the news they were talking about some of the money getting out to the fire victims. Seems to have taken a long time for that to happen..

It is always the same, when donating money. I use to donate to UNCIEF until I found out 80% of the money went to admin fees and staff, and the last 20% went to the kids.



There was a lot on the Fires here in Japan. I was like I was sitting in OZ watching Channel 9 NEWS.

[trularin]

Aren't you all heading for winter there?

I mean, isn't getting cool and like the trees are loosing their leaves and all that stuff?

[boxhead]

It is getting cooler in Alice Springs, only got to 36 yesterday

[BMK]

Cooler here though at 19c - about 68f.

The only fires around here are the farmers burning off and the fire staff doing some clearing.

[Tatsushige]

I have read on this site a few guys have LS motors in their Cobras.

Maybe this might interest guys who have or are looking at LS motors in their Cobras

WET AND WILD

Take 6.2 litres of Chev Alloy, add one blower and stir it in water. Instant 470kW insanity.
Four hundred and seventy kilowatts. That's a figure so formidable, mere numerals don't do it justice. Here's another worth spelling out: seven hundred and eighty Newton metres. Who on Earth throws around such numbers? Massey Ferguson? Kenworth? The Royal Australian Air Force? Even for Lamborghini that's impressive. But when they apply to a humble HSV VE Clubsport, you know you're pushing the envelope like a coked-up postman.
Most casual gawkers during our test presume it's some new whiz-bang model in Clayton's line-up. Nope. On day-release from Walkinshaw Performance's Braeside headquarters, in Melbourne's suburbia, this Clubby comes bellowing and screaming across the ever-changing Aussie muscle-car landscape like a red exclamation mark. Not just figuratively, but literally. On a quiet morning, you can hear it coming long before you see it. And it's not its guttural exhaust note - imagine a V8 Supercar engine gargling rocks - piercing the air, but the cat-in-a-blender shriek of a supercharger. It's like motoring's classic rock at full noise, and a sonic giveaway to anyone with a passing interest in horsepower hedonism.
"No, officer, it didn't come like this from the factory."
And yet, in many way's, it's bloody close. WP is renowned for creating OE factory-style engineering and presentation. With WP and HSV kissing cousins under Tom Walkinshaw's corporate umbrella, you'd expect as much, too. No wonder punters get duped, despite WP's effort in crafting a unique identity for its cars. HSV badges are removed, there's no '470' horsepower boast on the bootlid, and it's lettered with WP logos. As a one-off rolling demoof of WP's VE-ready aftermarket goodies - and not a turn-key showroom model - it has no name. Of course, 'No Name' looks ridiculous in print, so we'll call it the 'WP470'. No worries. You're welcome.


....... READ HERE



WP470 v LAMBORGHINI LP640
Which brand-spanking turn key cars on offer in Oz has WP470-like stonk? The $476K CL65 AMG (450-kW/1000Nm), $375K Bentley Continental GT (411kW/650Nm) or $595K Ferrari 599 GTB (456kW/608Nm) perhaps?
They all come up a bit short. Laughable, innit?
But how about a Lambo Murcielago LP640?
Here's the theoretical shootout. The Lambo offers one extra kilowatt (471kW) from its 6.5-litre V12. But, with 660Nm, it's shy by 110Nm. But the LP is lighter - 1665kg verses 1842kg - which suggests a bloody close-run race.
Sure enough, it is. During last year's PCOTY Round Two, the all-paw Lambo nailed a 4.0sec 0-100 time and scorched to the 400m mark in 11.9sec. Meanwhile, the rear-drive WP470 is just 0.2sec slower to 100 kays and a mere 0.6sec shy for the quarter, their terminal speeds split by just 5.5km/h. Sobering?
There's more. The Murcie demands $675,678, plus some frightening on-road costs. For that money you could buy a WP470 ($100K) and park a Gallardo ($415K) next to it, and have enough change to park an HSV W427 ($155K) in storage as a so-called 'investment' to help put the grandkids through uni.

[Aussie Mike]

Garrett (justbetter) on this forum has a blown LS1 in his Superformance Cobra that's probably making those numbers. It makes 400KW at the rear wheels on the dyno and is frighteningly fast and brutal to drive. All of this on a bone stock LS1 5.7 bottom end.



Cheers

[tomcat racing]

my 6.3 ltr naturally aspirated ford windsor [no puffers] does 11.5s all day, and its a kitten to drive. its not about how many neddies youve got up front its how you put them to the ground. 12.5seconds for the blown wp470 is nothing to brag about, theres unblown street commodores up here that do those times and they dont cost a 100k or more. tomcat

[Tatsushige]

Well have the run down on the Laws in Japan in regards to Kit Cars and it is way too bloody hard to try to even start something here.

So I have decided to pack up shop at the end of the year and head to the UK.

I have a small Aussie Pie Company here that I will sell or shut down, but I will keep the family home here as we will fly back and forth between the UK and Japan.


The plan now is to move to the UK (As I hold British Citizenship) and get cracking on a 25th Ann Countach Replica and sell the things in Japan as turnkeys. The Brother-in-Law works for Subaru Japan so he said he can help with Selling the Countach in Japan, he has looked in to the sale of Countach Replicas and from the information he has found the US made replicas sell for about $105,000AU so if I can do them for about $90,000 I should be on a winner.

The Govt here have said I will have no problems selling fully built replicas as long as they have been built outside of Japan, but they will NOT let me build cars here as the building of Replicas will break Japanese copywrite Laws and a few other BS laws.

So looks like I will not be getting my Cobra Oh well things happen for a reason I guess.

Anyway a nice photo from a Kit Car Show in the UK. This is a DC Supercars Countach 5000QV Replica, mould taken from a REAL Countach, so the car is 100% Correct.

Well keep safe all and chat again soon.

[Cameron Parsons]

I thought twice about posting this as seemingly innocent questions can turn into flame wars, and that's not the intent.

I truly wish you all the best with your venture, but am intrigued to ask.

1. Why a Countach? Are they in super high demand in Japan?
2. When you can buy a real one for similar money, why would people buy a replica, regardless of how well it's put together?
3. If there's that much $$$ in selling pies in Japan, I'm moving

OK, So 1 & 2 were serious questions...

Thanks

Cameron

[Tatsushige]

Why a Countach,

Cobras are a dim a dozen here, they are imported from the USA.

A real Countach will cost about $120,000 for RHD to $160,000 for LHD, but because of the age of the vehicle the up keep will send you to the wall.

The car has to go over the pits every year because of its age, you have to pay emission tax because of the age and the fuel it uses, the repairs for the vehicle is also a killer here, a service for a Countach will cost about $15,000.

If it is a unlicensed Countach then there is no way in the world you will get it licensed because of the age of the vehicle. There are about 5 for sale that are unlicensed and they have been for sale now for over 18 months because they are unlicensed, who ever buys the cars will never get them licensed.

This one here

http://www.carsensor.net/usedcar/det...l?ROUTEID=hiho

has been imported from the UK, it still has UK plates but because of the age and it is not licensed in Japan it has been for sale for about 12 months now.

I am looking at buying it and shipping it back to the UK to use for making the moulds.




A plain meat pie 180grams will cost you about $5.50AU, There are only 3 Meat Pie Shops in Japan, 1 in Osaka, 1 in Yokahama and my shop. The Shop in Osaka sells Plain mince pies 120grams for about $3.00AU and he claims they are Aussie Style, I placed a order when I first landed here 6 years ago and the pies tasted like some crap a kid in a sand pit made. The other shop in Yokahama sell British type pies, I have not tried them. A Aussie Pub in Roppongi(Tokyo) has a Plain 150gram meat pie for about $7.00AU but they are made in house for the pub only.


My Profession is in Close Personal Protection, been doing it for abut 14 years, I retired in 2007 because the wife wanted me out of the industry, so having nothing to do I started making and selling pies from home, it worked but I am board with it as I am now stuck in the house 24/7.

[Rob. Smith]

Make em outa kangaroo meat...the japs will go apesh1t ! ha ha ha