'59 for £200k on ebay,be quick or you'll miss it !

[v8yea]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1959-Chevrolet-

[mitch_]

For a right hand drive conversion! Don't make me laugh!

[sublimatica]

I wonder if there's a single part of that car that's original.

[Tom74]

If we are to believe the ad then "...ever nut and bolt has been replaced in making this not a period restoration for someone who has more money than sense to buy.."

Seriously, £198k? Why?

[Bowler]

Why would a builder/restorer in the US want to make it RHD?

[v8yea]

Apparently it was built for Elvis' forthcoming tour of Mars that has been cancelled because of the planet-wide credit crunch.
They can't afford to ship in the oxygen for his entourage.
And I thought they drove on the left on Mars!!

[scovette]

It's RHD as it was built for an Australian and I think some states there don't allow LHD?
It's on a SRIII chassis so if done properly the build cost would have been close to $200k.

Would you even be able to register it here as the new chassis would mean a SVA would be needed (which I assume it couldn't pass)?

[mitch_]

It depends on whether it is still going by its old chassis number or not. To me RHD adds no value, rather it detracts from the car. I couldn't even say I thought it was an original custom job.

[v8yea]

Nowadays you can register left hookers in Oz if they are over a certain age and determined to be a classic that would lose its originality and therefore value.
However these are more like permits and have an end date,then you have to take it for inspection and have another permit issued.
If you were an Aussie who wanted to do this you could ship your Oz registered LHD car to the states on a carnet de passage,have the work done and ship it back.
It would already have Australian Compliance so making things SOOOO much easier.

[VetteG]

scovette said:

It's RHD as it was built for an Australian and I think some states there don't allow LHD?
It's on a SRIII chassis so if done properly the build cost would have been close to $200k.

Would you even be able to register it here as the new chassis would mean a SVA would be needed (which I assume it couldn't pass)?

Hi Tony,
When our cars were with Scott I talked with him about yours, since the original had a space frame chassis, I wondered why you didnt go the SRIII route?

G

[scovette]

As it stands in the eyes of the DVLA it's just a rebodied Corvette - if it had a SRIII chassis then it would have to go through an SVA which it could never pass.

Also the cost would have been prohibitive as there were already enough unknowns when we started the project. And we couldn't have put C5 suspension under it as it's too narrow (cars like in the Ebay ad are widened at the rear).

There's a carbon-fibre bodied SR2 replica in France - that was built on a SRIII chassis but all the suspension parts are custom made as nothing stock would fit due to the car being so low, so I think we would have faced that problem also.