Motor for bike

The laws are different in each state. If you are in California it's fairly easy. There are two ways you can go. If you use a donor car for the build and you can make it meet all the applicable CARB requirements for the original car it's fairly straightforward but not necessarily easy. The other route is to use the special construction provision in the law that allows 500 cars per year to be tested and registered in the same way as "the car they most closely resemble". So mine had to meet the same regs as an early 60s Lotus. If you live in CA I can give you more details if you want. If you live somewhere else check with the local authorities. Most states have some provision for home builts. There are also a lot of Yahoo groups about various home built cars. You can probably find someone with personal experience in any state. Too bad about the TVR but that is a Fed issue. I believe that for a while there was a one time per person exemption on the import restrictions. You still had to deal with the state DMV for registration. That may have gone away though.

Richard Coke

Have you been in touch with a TVR club(s)? They might be familiar with the process of getting one of these cars in. What year is your Griffith 500? I'm assuming it's a later year than the Griffiths that were imported in the '60s, yes?

Peter

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Richard Coke) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m11.aol.com:

Richard, thanks for the reply and the leads. I'm in FL so I'm sure things are even more confused than CA. While they applied all sorts of requirements to attempt to import a year 2000 TVR they've also dropped ALL form of yearly inspection requirements, smog tests the lot. Wierd.

"Peter Grey" wrote in news:YRa0c.12062$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net:

Hi, the TVR clubs in the US only have experience of the earlier wedge and S type models which were commercially imported in the 60's, 70's and

80's. As you surmise the Griff 500 is one of several entirely new models 1993+ produced after the company was bought out. Look them up if you're interested, shame they don't import here anymore - it would open a few eyes, very quick cars, everything build by the factory, they had an entry in Le Mans again this year. Hollywood have shown a few with the sports car in Swordfish being a TVR Tuscan.

There's a classic Top Gear video on the net that shows a standing mile drag race between a 911, Lotus turbo, Ferrari something, Viper and a TVR Cerbera. The Cerbera finished before the Viper got half way....

My Griff was modified so that caused problems too, weighed under 2000lbs, big brakes, V8 5 litre with about 450hp. fun cars... latest straight 6 is around 4 litres and up to 440hp stock and about half the weight of a chevy small block..

I know of the cars. They are absolutely beautiful. The first time I saw one on London, I was knocked out - just gorgeous! I've always thought that if they were imported they would sell well. I'd buy one in any case. They make the Panoz look pretty sad. Of course, I have no idea of the build quality...

I' ve always thought they way to do this would be to buy a used, clapped out kit car. Export it to (in your case) the UK. Then take the VIN stuff off it and throw the car away. Put the VIN stuff on the car you want to import, take off the OE badges and bring it back. I'm betting the US import guys wouldn't know the difference. You could register your TVR as a VW kit car. Probably wouldn't work...

I went through enough hassles with my car - a Volvo 940 wagon with a 400 HP

347 Ford and Tremec 3550. CARB was a PITA, but we got it straightened out in the end. At 3400 pounds, it's not going to beat any TVRs around here, but it's still quick enough for a street car to have a little fun. Wait.... there AREN'T any TVRs around here!

Regards,

Peter