Last weekend I stopped by Best Buy to pick up some CDs I'd been meaning to get. On my way back to the car I realized there was a Skyline parked near mine. For the uninitiated, the Nissan Skyline is a very fast, relatively conventional-looking car sold only in Japan and a few other countries like Australia. They're very sought-after here in the US. They had a few in some of the Fast And The Furious movies.
I went to my car and grabbed my camera. As I was walking back to the Skyline, its owner walked up and started the car (from the right side, of course). We talked for a while (as I inconspicuously slid my newly purchased Phantom Of The Opera and Cats soundtrack CDs into my pocket) and I took a few pictures. Apparently, there's a relatively thriving drift scene in the area, and they regularly hold legal drift events at several nearby racetracks. They're relatively inexpensive, too — about $50 for a day of unlimited runs. Most road course events cost upwards of $100. The guy gave me some URLs for a few local websites to check out.
It's cool that there's fun driving opportunities here, and legal ones no less. Once I get around to converting my car to 5spd I'll definitely be checking out some of those events.
Posted by henry 2 days, 8 hours later
Did you find out how he was able to legally title/register it as a US DOT approved car?
Posted by Dan 3 days, 16 hours later
No, he didn't describe the process to me, but he said it definitely didn't come through Motorex. I'm not sure if the cars are now able to be titled legally because of the crash testing that Motorex did, or if there's some other process entirely. But he didn't give the impression that he was driving the car around illegally (and I'd think you wouldn't get away with driving a RHD car for too long before some cop decided to check and be sure it belongs here).
Posted by henry 3 hours, 36 minutes later
The easiest way to legally drive whatever you want in the US is to be active military duty. I don't believe you can title a vehicle but can legally get special registration for anything anywhere for up to 1 year. They also will ship your vehicle to and from where you are stationed. Did you get the impression he was perhaps military? I'd love to figure out that loophole.