Paul said: "...$80k is a lot of money. I don't know. You throw every option
on the Elise and you still only hit $50k."
You what? In the UK the Elise is significantly more - #24k-#28k rather than
#16-#20 for the MG TF (depending on engines). The MG is undoubtably a more
practical car, but you'd still have to have a fairly blind dedication to pay
more for the MG than the Lotus, IMHO. Then again, I own an MG, but have
worked for Lotus, so I have a degree of blind dedication to both!
Paul also said: "...that might be a good engine swap for a B. Compact and
tons of power. Orientation change required of course...." That should be
possible - the K-Series engine is commonly used for Caterham 7 cars (and its
imitators). Caterham I believe have their own 6-speed gearbox, I'm not sure
what gearboxes other kit cars use.
I had a quick look at that website - I'm amazed how strict the US is about
imported cars!! In the UK (which I generally believe has a more nannying
government than the US) the attitude appears to be more along the lines of
"if you choose to import a car personally (and the same goes for cars from
very low volume manufacturers, and kit cars) you probably know the risks
you're taking and so safety requirements are lower". Kit cars and personal
imports have to go through "Single Vehicle Approval" - which is just a test
to ensure that the car meets roadworthiness requirements such as having
appropriate lights etc., and that it appears to be structurally sound (no
bad thing for some kits constructed by amateurs in their garage!). This
allows you to bring in pretty much any car from anywhere you want.
The irony is that the US has these incredibly strict requirements for
imported cars, yet many states (I believe?) have little or nothing in the
way of annual roadworthiness tests, while in the UK we have our fairly
rigourous annual MOT test.
Richard Gosling
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