Modified car rules

[Fen 0]

OK, this isn't BMW specific but I'd really appreciate some advice from you guys.

As some of you may remember from my previous posts I am intending to move to NZ either late this or early next year (depending how long the visa takes to come through). One of the cars I have been intending to bring is my 944 Turbo, but another post on here has made me realise I might need to look into modified car regulations before I get too keen.

The car is pretty heavily modified: coilovers and lowered, (European at least) road legal track tyres, larger capacity engine, bigger turbo plus lots of other changes in the engine department, bigger brakes, rear seat removed, front hard shell buckets, should have a roll cage but doesn't yet etc. It's a 1990 and from what I can tell Porsche say anything after 1986 passes frontal impact standards. It's RHD and has never had any airbags.

I don't especially want to drive it on the road a lot, but I was intending it to be road registered simply to be able to exercise it now and again. Am I going to be out of luck or will there be hoops I can jump through to get it registered. I've owned it since June 2001 if that matters.

Thanks in advance.

[cainchapman 0]

Have a look around the LTSA website.

http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/importing/

Do you have any idea of where you are moving too? It may be good to talk to one of the local importers about getting it from the UK for you.

Here is the frontal impact page for Porsche from the website.

frontal_impact_compliance_porsche_20021018.pdf

Edited May 1, 2007 by Cain

[Fen 0]

Have a look around the LTSA website.

http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/importing/

Do you have any idea of where you are moving too? It may be good to talk to one of the local importers about getting it from the UK for you.

Here is the frontal impact page for Porsche from the website.

Thanks for the links. I had seen the Porsche frontal impact data before, hence my saying any RHD after 1986 complies. We'll be moving to the Wellington area and I have a good personal recommendation for a shipper - in fact I'm pretty sure I'd be happy with the process if the car was standard, but what I haven't seen any information on is what difference modifications will make.

[tibbs.james 1]

HI

Please have a really good look at the http://www.lvvta.org.nz website this is the Low Volume Vechicle Technical association which involves all aspects of modified cars in New Zealand it also has a list of Vehicle certifiers or Vehicle inspectors who can advise you on what standards your car will have to comply to for it to be able to be registered in New Zealand.

It has all the relevant standards you car has to comply with for modifications in New Zealand ,generally you can have most things legally Certified ie your Coil Over Suspension and so on.

Hopefully This helps

[Fen 0]

That sounds really helpful - I'll take a look later when I'm not supposed to be working. Thanks.

[Fen 0]

A quick initial look suggests it will need to be certified in lots of areas, but nothing I've seen so far suggests it would fail certification.

[cainchapman 0]

New Zealand will let you do pretty much anything to your car, as long as it gets certified by an inspector.

So, as long as it has been done properly, you shouldn't have too much problem.

[Fen 0]

That's good to know, though it sounds like it has to be used for competitive motorsport before it's allowed a full cage and harnesses?

[CamB 48]

Sort of - you need to comply with the requirements of the Authority Card, which means:

- member of a Club (no big deal)

- motorsport licence (again, no big deal)

- vehicle logbook and homologated cage (probably not a big deal if it's done right)

- harnesses meeting required specs (basically FIA and not expired)

Supposedly you have to use the car for a minimum number of events per year, but I have never had a problem (car was off the road for 4 years and they didn't blink when I renewed the Authority Card).

Events can be pretty simple - eg Clubsport level hillclimbs and track sprints. The type of thing you surely WANT to be doing!

[smokenbaby 0]

I work part time at a race car prep shop in the wellington area. Am sure we can sort the cage out for you and do what ever else is required for you to get the authority card and homolgation. Once you are here just send me a PM and I will give you the contact details.

[Fen 0]

I work part time at a race car prep shop in the wellington area. Am sure we can sort the cage out for you and do what ever else is required for you to get the authority card and homolgation. Once you are here just send me a PM and I will give you the contact details.

Cool, thanks. In terms of wanting to do events that's possible, but I built the car for non-competitive track days and it's modified to the extent that the class it has to run in puts it up against cars prepared for the specific race series with big budgets. In other words it's never going to be competitive even not allowing for me as the merely average pilot.

I'm happier it won't be an issue now though. I'm looking at selling it just now rather than have to build another engine for it as it blew up last season (Pistonheads here if anyone is interested: http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/159469.htm ), but I don't expect it to sell so I'll finish the jobs it still needed doing before it went bang as well as get the engine issue rectified.