Pros & Cons of Euro Cars

[edmayo]

Plastic 85 liter gas tanks in 72-73 euro cars weren't allowed here, so had to be changed to steel 62 liter ones.

[csbush]

I imported my 70S in 1985. The only thing I had to do was replace the master cylinder with a dual circuit cylinder, replace the headlights with US sealed beam units, and replace the speedometer. H1’s went back on a few years later, and I had the original speedometer converted to MPH and put that back in too.

[mobius911]

As opposed to starting a new thread, I thought I'd ask in this one:

For those who have imported early 911s or 912s into the US, in addition to the obvious (KM to MPH), were there any other changes DOT made you complete on the car? The reason I ask, my '68 912 was German spec and delivered and later imported to the US. It retained its Euro heater boxes, turn signals, tail lights...KM was changed to MPH. One thing that was changed on the car prior to my ownership were the headlights. The car came to me with US spec sealed beams (glass lens from US spec 65-67 cars), not the Euro Bosch headlights.

My car shows absolutely no sign of front end damage, but I suppose it's possible one of the prior owners swapped headlights at some point for some unknown reason. I'm wondering if this was a possible mandatory change from DOT when it was imported. Anyone ever know of this happening to other imported Porsches from this era?

One pro, for me, was no US DOT side lights and no smog equipment :-)

-Mike

In theory each car had to be brought into compliance with all the features required for the US model for the year of manufacture. You would have to know what was required in 68. For my 73 it included dual brake master cylinder with warning light, seat belt light/buzzer, key buzzer, headlights, gauges, door impact beams, marker lights, switch labels, tire pressure recommendations, etc. I mocked stuff up to take photos for the report but kept the car 100% German spec.

So basically you can expect a car to be somewhere on the spectrum between 100% European spec and 100% US spec. All of them should be 100% US spec but I imagine very few are. Cars that had their conversion handled by legitimate businesses were probably converted more faithfully to US spec. Conversions done by the owner (my case) are likely closer to European spec. Today I bet most are like Chuck's- very close to European spec with one or two exceptions.

[steve shea]

My current ROW S was shipped to NY from Europe in the late 80's. The owner picked it up at the docks drove it to Ohio and registered it for the street no questions asked. I bought the car in 88' from him in it's full Italian livery with no US compliance. I don't know how but it slipped through the cracks.

[LongRanger]

. . . in addition to the obvious (KM to MPH), were there any other changes DOT made you complete on the car? . . .

Nothing was changed on my car --- as far as I can tell, anyway . . .

. . . instruments, seat belts, emission controls --- even an externally-viewable VIN . . . nothing added/subtracted




And this car was brought into Kleptofornia . . . early '80s




.....

[mikeO_912]

So basically you can expect a car to be somewhere on the spectrum between 100% European spec and 100% US spec.

Based on the responses thus far, I'd say this is 100% accurate

Interesting to see the wide range of responses, I appreciate the feedback.

[mobius911]

Yeah, kinda stating the obvious! A better way to put it is that the cars are all over the place. The more time that has elapsed from import, the more likely they are to have drifted back to European spec. It would be a fun archeological project to go through your car to see how it's kitted.

[Orange71S]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that Euro 71 S's got the super-cool corduroy inserts on the Sport Seats.

Jay

[Jules Dielen]

i recently imported a euro P car under the 25 year rule and did not need to change a thing. Km/h, yellow turn signals, no side markers, no EPA/DOT stickers or anything else. It's running around here in the USA exactly the same way it was over there, 100%. First time it was on US-soil, ever. Easy as pie too. This is AZ though, not sure how this works in other states.

[mobius911]

That's a great deal, and seems perfectly reasonable; these aren't going to be daily drivers. I would expect, given the relative strength of the dollar right now, that this is a pretty attractive approach. The common complaint is that the German cars tend to be "driven hard and put away wet", but if you can get past that there should be some deals to be had.