If you imported a Ute here in the states, why not just keep it RHD? Making it LHD ruins the fun of it.
Because of America's weird laws the ute's body is only imported, the engine, interior and lots of other bits & bobs are taken from Pontiac G8s so they have enough US legal bits on them to be road worthy. In the pic you can see the Ute first arriving in the US (Same ute from the pic I previously posted), the owner used the parts from his written off Pontiac G8 to build her.
How are those trucks legal when R33 and R34 skylines aren't? That doesn't make any sense to me at all.
They are illegal because of America's import laws. One thing is that the car has to be 25 years old or older to be considered legal. Canada on the other hand has the same law, but it's only for 15 years. Now to be part of your picture:
For those of you who don't know my name is Cooper. I feel that if I do not get a Mini Cooper & have the license plate "MINI ME", that I am just wasting everyone's time.
Incorrect. VW caddy and Skoda Felicia pickup. Only real non "light truck" based pickups that were manufactured in europe. Known as pickups, or in the case of the felly its often insured as a van here in the UK. - - - Updated - - - Nah. Its crash testing. R32/33/34 never underwent crash testing and are not old enough to qualify for exclusion on certification. Another company later performed R33 crash tests and does perform the modifications in order for it to pass the US regulations and therefore be sold.
I think BJCreeper means that the R32s are the newest models old enough to be imported with no further action, keeping them as they are without changing them to be "more legal". The R33 didn't go into production until 1993, and currently the newest legally importable Skylines would have to be from 1990.
I remember seeing a Clio V6 Renault Sport in Texas a while back, though I believe it was registered in Mexico where these regulations aren't present. I've also seen a few AE86's around here. So it's definitely possible, although it's very expensive to get the car to meet federal safety regulations and emissions if you want to import it legally.
AE86 was sold in the states. DX, SR-5 and GTS trims although the DX is technically an AE85 on the VIN and the SR5 runs an AE85 engine. GT-S is down 20hp to meet emissions standards.
I am starting to think about leaving this country and going somewhere else Edit: That somewhere else could be Australia. I want to see kangaroos in the wild anyway.
We never got the AE86 in the states. The one I've seen here was RHD, which usually indicates that it was imported. But we did get the AE88, or the GT-S trim which you're referring to. (I am by no means a Toyota expert, so feel free to correct me on this.)
We get R34s here in Australia, I was only laughing the other day because there was an R34 & a Supra but parked between them was a 1986 Holden VK Commodore SL.
As said. The DX trim (sold as 86) is VIN'ed as an 85. The so called AE88s are actually VIN'ed as 86, I think its a few later digits *also* altered to have an AE88 stamping, the letters AE86 still appear on the VIN plates for these vehicles. Even so, an AE88 is pretty much a detuned LHD AE86. But yeah, true JDM 86's have been imported. Want to get one here in the UK, but they can go for anywhere between 8 and 25 grand.
So let me get this straight... if you import an LS3 engine from Australia, it's doesn't meet emissions regulations, but if you import the body and put in THE SAME EXACT ENGINE from a U.S. car, it's emissions legal. HURR DURR
We make a lot more sense that people tend to give us credit for. It's just that our automotive regulations are a royal mess of kneejerk reactions, enviro-jihad, profiteering, litigation, and just plain idiotic rules made by people who are either apathetic or outright hostile towards car culture.
