My dad is a military employee currently on TOD based in the Tokyo/Yokohama area and will be finishing his assignment in 5 months. As most of you already know, military employee overseas are allowed to bring back up to 2 civilian vehicles w/o incursion of taxes and duties.

With the current Yen : USD ratio of 131.65 : 1, it's looking very favorable to import one. The question is tho: Will the DC5R (as is) meet DOT regulations to be legal for street use?

Even if I don't want the car, it might be possible to get it for somebody else that wants it as long as it's not a big hassle for him, will have no liability for it once it's out of his hands, and gets proper compensation for such effort.

Opinions anybody?

 

Oh, I forgot to mention that he lives in LA...so that's where the car will initially go.

 

Not an expert but from what i know the de-tuning part is not as hard as you think.

The new computers can be flashed with different programs in minutes. Finding someone that cn do this is another story. Seems like right now dealer only.

I heard that that is why the skunk2 DC5R puts down 180 to the wheels.....jdm program. Lucky guys.

 

there are so many people here with jdm itr swaps that i'm sure the dc5 ecu can retard it's timing for lower octane... but i don't know what that would do for performance.

as for emissions it might be iffy. i still remember back in 97 all the itrs sitting on the dock because there were still problems passing emissions... maybe a stock ecu from a usdm rsx-s might work?

other things that might work are the headlights, cat, exhaust, and bumper rebars from a usdm rsx should go in and hopefully things might work... do they care if your gauges are in km/h? and don't bother ordering a radio...

 

..."crash testing has not been done for the car so that might be a problem as well, unless the rsx base model counts for it..."

It helps in Texas, don't think Jesus freakin' Christ can help you in Cali... unless you can get in good with an importer like Motorex to "lift" some good information...

 

Or why dont you just bring in a DC2 ITR or a CTR? That way you could sell sll the **** off them and keep the motor for yourself. Hell, just keep it all and switch everything over to a USDM shell. That would be sweet.

 

imo do it just because you can. I was going to try to get stationed in japan just to bring an r34 back. The car always will be cool chit just because it's real JDM. as for the octane issue, why would a jdm k20c be any different then any of the thousands of other jdm engines here. I'm just a baby newbie though.

 

I would definately try to bring it back if you can. Or else possibly a Skyline if you can.

Lucky here in Nebraska there is NO emissions testing.

 

If you have a problem with DOT, then the hell with them and just make it a dedicated track car for "off road use only". Ha ha, it would be hard not being able to sport that thing around town, though

 

No Emmisions is one of the only cool things there is about living here in Nebraska.

 

Tell your father to get the "EXPORTING A CAR" package from the vehicle regs on whatever base he is stationed.

The rules are being strictly enforced nowadays! If a car can not pass DOT/EPA regs for the US, not the state to state BS, it will find a nice home in the junkyard after it is CRUSHED. That last statement is written in bold letters in the package. There is a lot of paper work that needs to be done in order for the military to transport a vehicle that isn't "common" in the US. Some of the EPA/DOT stuff can be wavered but a US cat, EGR valve, saftey glass, and a couple other things can not be wavered! You might as well import a CTR or just wait until the RSX-R is released in the US.


Sidenote... The DC5 ecu is not easily reprogrammed! The one write chip by itself is easily in the $400 range.

 

drealgsr, its my understanding that there is no chip to write. meaning that the ecu is re-flashed with a new program direct. No parts involved at all.

I could be wrong but am pretty sure of this.

 

Er...if you have the means to import a vehicle, why not import something better than the DC5R?

 

The DC5 ECU is supposed to tuner unfriendly! That is why guys over here are using HKS F-CON s or F-CON V to tune their rides.

 

I have some advice, GT-R R34!!!!!!!!!! then, carry a rag in your glove box for all the people blowing their load over your car!!!!!!

 

Just cause the motor is from Japan doesn't mean it can't run on 93-92 octance. i have a JDM motor and I have no pinging.

 

why DC5?
It's not going to be easier than importing a R32, STI, EVO, S15, S14, S13...

BTW, bring 2, one is for the crash test.


[Modified by citanest, 8:57 AM 1/2/2002]

 

They don't have 100 octane gas in Japan. It's 100 RON which is equal to around 95 octane. You should be able to run it fine over here. Hell, there's guys running 12:1 on 91 octane here in SoCal so I'm sure 11.5:1 can run on it.