UK Corvettes v Euro v USA

[Pvapour]

Does anyone know what changes they have to make to the later, officially imported Vettes to get them up to euro spec?

I only ask as am thinking of buying a Corvette or Mustang in the UK & importing it to France but dont want loads of hassle changing headlights etc, if anyone knows the differences between Official French cars & UK ones that would be even better.

any pointers appreciated

[GO55 USA]

Official UK cars the headlamps are disigned for driving on the left side of road,Euro cars the right,however USA spec cars have a flat beam pattern good for both sides.
hope this helps.

Edited by GO55 USA on Monday 8th December 19:40

Edited by GO55 USA on Monday 8th December 19:44

[JimexPL]

Other than the headlights genuine UK and France cars are identical, including the Europe wide 3 year warranty and breakdown cover.

[Vet Guru]

Just change the speedo on the DIC to MPH!! and away you go!

[vetteheadracer]

Vet Guru said:

Just change the speedo on the DIC to MPH!! and away you go!

don't the Euro spec cars have 300 speedos whereas the US ones only go to 200?

[Vet Guru]

You can change the speedo between MPH/KPH by pressing a button on a euro spec unlike the US spec which has a speddo with MPH in large and KPH in small. The euro car changes the head up display as well to show MPH/KPH.

[mitch_]

Diving straigt in to the important part given that you are in France the important part is that European cars come with Certificates of Conformity, which no amount of money will buy you otherwise. It will help greatly when registering the car. Otherwise the headlight beam is the only difference. We've been selling a number of cars back into Europe lately due to the exchange rate.

[Vet Guru]

Mitch is right I here in Europe they can't get enough of Victory red with cashmere in Automatic!

[Pvapour]

Thanks for the pointers guys, I guess a headlight change would be in order then, anyone here changed them? themselves? I'm pretty ok with a set of spanners as long as its a plug & play scenario & no ecu changes (like on a BMW e39)

Vet Guru - was your comment tongue in cheek, or are they generally quite liked in Europe & popular? there seems to be more of them over here, a fair few indy american dealers set up to.

[Godzilla]

Pvapour said:

Thanks for the pointers guys, I guess a headlight change would be in order then, anyone here changed them? themselves? I'm pretty ok with a set of spanners as long as its a plug & play scenario & no ecu changes (like on a BMW e39)

Vet Guru - was your comment tongue in cheek, or are they generally quite liked in Europe & popular? there seems to be more of them over here, a fair few indy american dealers set up to.

Some people don't seem to read properly. You want to bring a UK car over to France, correct?

I don't know what the French rules are, but reading Ian Goss's post above, you could look into getting the beam deflector modified so the beam pattern is flat. Should be cheaper than buying a LHD set of lights.

I will have that done to my Euro import when I have to MOT it next year. (Assuming my cam won't get it thrown out straight away!)

[Pvapour]

Godzilla said:

Pvapour said:

Thanks for the pointers guys, I guess a headlight change would be in order then, anyone here changed them? themselves? I'm pretty ok with a set of spanners as long as its a plug & play scenario & no ecu changes (like on a BMW e39)

Vet Guru - was your comment tongue in cheek, or are they generally quite liked in Europe & popular? there seems to be more of them over here, a fair few indy american dealers set up to.

Some people don't seem to read properly. You want to bring a UK car over to France, correct?

I don't know what the French rules are, but reading Ian Goss's post above, you could look into getting the beam deflector modified so the beam pattern is flat. Should be cheaper than buying a LHD set of lights.

I will have that done to my Euro import when I have to MOT it next year. (Assuming my cam won't get it thrown out straight away!)

UK > France is right, good idea on the deflector part, they changed the rules a while back with regard to this though, now each part needs to be stamped with the appropriate 'E' number, think France requires an E3 number, you'll probably find the UK headlights have a different number somewhere along the line.

If only headlights are a concern (seeing as speedo is easily changed) then I might look at these as a possibility.

Any ideas on the Vettes popularity in Europe? france in particular, help for re-sale.

[mitch_]

Having recently talked to an old friend who is the distributor for Hummer in France as well as a Cadillac and Corvette dealer I can tell you that Corvette demand is stronger than the former two. It's seemingly quite buoyant and all ZR1s are now allocated in Europe.

[Le Man]

At this rate, when you consider that the French live in a warmer country than ours, make great wine, cook like Gods, take a bonking break during the middle of the working day, and buy warranted cars from franchised dealers, they may yet prove to be more intelligent than Les Rosbifs after all. Merde!

[franv8]

There is a very active Corvette club in France, they normally lay on an international spread for Le Mans, in fact they normally do something and GM does from a nice chap called Gerard, you get the impression he is someone with a Corvette passion inside GM who gets these things sorted where normally they'd fall by the wayside.

[DH 46]

You will find, contrary to previously stated, that U.S cars have switchable speedos calibrated to 200. The DIC switches it between MPH and KPH. Likewise the HUD but it continues to read to beyond 310kph(as far as I have seen) There is much discussion elsewhere about the inaccuracy of Euro speedos,some complaining,"out by as much as 10%"(and always on the high side).My US import C6 Z06 is less than 1/2mph out at 100 according to GPS.Previous U.S.import C5 had the same level of accuracy. Curiously enough my U.S.import Ford Explorer is also extremely accurate. Always makes me wonder if the European and Japanese manufacturers do this intentionally to boost performance and economy figures.(bear in mind that it will also record a greater distance than actually covered thereby boosting MPG figures).It is after all a lot cheaper than fitting a proper drivetrain.

Edited by DH 46 on Sunday 14th December 19:40

[anonymous-user]

DH 46 said:

There is much discussion elsewhere about the inaccuracy of Euro speedos,some complaining,"out by as much as 10%"(and always on the high side). Always makes me wonder if the European and Japanese manufacturers do this intentionally....

Yes, it's done intentionally because that's what the law requires.

"Vehicle construction and use regulations require a vehicle speedometer accuracy to be in the range of -0->+10%. The implications are that it must never under-read - for obvious reasons - but may over-read. As the cost of manufacturing a speedometer with -0% error would be very costly they all over-read by a few percent without exception."

Best way to check your own speedo's accuracy is against a sat-nav with a speed readout. But make sure you do it on a straight road.

[GW65]

5 USA said:

DH 46 said:

There is much discussion elsewhere about the inaccuracy of Euro speedos,some complaining,"out by as much as 10%"(and always on the high side). Always makes me wonder if the European and Japanese manufacturers do this intentionally....

Yes, it's done intentionally because that's what the law requires.

"Vehicle construction and use regulations require a vehicle speedometer accuracy to be in the range of -0->+10%. The implications are that it must never under-read - for obvious reasons - but may over-read. As the cost of manufacturing a speedometer with -0% error would be very costly they all over-read by a few percent without exception."

Best way to check your own speedo's accuracy is against a sat-nav with a speed readout. But make sure you do it on a straight road.

I believe that the rule also applies even if snow-chains are fitted, so in tyre-only driving the speedo would always have to under-read. Now, just trying to remember the last time I fitted snow chains in the UK....

[Tom74]

GW65 said:

I believe that the rule also applies even if snow-chains are fitted, so in tyre-only driving the speedo would always have to under-read. Now, just trying to remember the last time I fitted snow chains in the UK....

Did you not tick the snow chain option when your bought your vette? I would have thought that was the first thing any responsible UK owner would have done!

[GW65]

Tom74 said:

GW65 said:

I believe that the rule also applies even if snow-chains are fitted, so in tyre-only driving the speedo would always have to under-read. Now, just trying to remember the last time I fitted snow chains in the UK....

Did you not tick the snow chain option when your bought your vette? I would have thought that was the first thing any responsible UK owner would have done!

Must have been brain-fade Just like when I typed "under-read" when I meant "over-read". Ah, let's just forget the speedo!

[JimexPL]

The mad thing is, the speedo accuracy is never checked again (e.g. at m.o.t). My Landrover has a speedo that only goes up to 70mph, but at a gps indicated 85mph it reads 58mph! (due to diff and tyre changes).
It helps with the limited mileage insurance policy....