Right hand drive ZR1 anyone?
Discussion
Vet Guru said:
Can't sell the left hand drive ones! How much extra for a right hand drive one?? Look's like they forgot to move the mike on the drivers pillar.
I think from what I've read elsewhere that it costs about £25K to do an RHD conversion! (So in some ways it makes more sense on a ZR1 than a base C6) The Aussies have to do it because it's illegal to sell/drive an LHD car over there (unless, I think, it's over 30 years old).G4HKS said:
I'm told that changed a few years ago - you can drive LHD or RHD now....
Hi Martin. The regs have changed a little, and I think they vary a bit by state, but here's the latest missive from Western Australia (for Aussie residents):"From January 2003 new provisions have taken effect relating to Left Hand Drive (LHD) vehicles in WA.
If you are a resident of Australia and you import a LHD vehicle, you may need to convert the vehicle to RHD before it can be registered if your LHD vehicle was manufactured up to 15 years ago.
However if your left hand drive (LHD) vehicle is less than 4.5 tonne, and was manufactured more than 15 years ago, it may be possible to register it without the need for a right hand drive conversion. It must however be intended for personal use only."
Clear as mud, like all government regs
5 USA said:
G4HKS said:
I'm told that changed a few years ago - you can drive LHD or RHD now....
If that was the case surely there'd be no market for expensive RHD conversions???????????Shame on GM for being an alledged World Brand supplier of cars and thinking that GB, Japan, Oz, and New Zealand to name but a few, aren't important enough.
Good topical post!
How are things Séan?
How are things Séan?
car95 said:
This is very interesting and copied from the "Corvette Fever" site:
Right Hand Drive Chevrolet Corvettes Australia - Righthand Drive
Exploring The Australian Outback For Rhd Corvettes
For more than 20 years, Australia has been a key supplier to the manufacture of the Corvette, making the entire braking system for all our cars since 1984. I visited the impressive PBR plant in Melbourne in 1990, saw the aluminium calipers being poured and machined, and finished units packed ready for shipment to Bowling Green. The lasting impression, however, was the C4 test mule parked outside in the hot Victoria sunshine. It looked just like any other Corvette from the front, but across its tail was a full-width sign warning in giant letters "Caution, Left Hand Drive Vehicle." A deadly menace was on the street, and drivers had to be alert to the danger!
Later that day, I went to see some converters who were modifying a '72 and an '80 to righthand drive (RHD) so they could be registered for the road. Like the British, the Australians drive on the left of the road, as they do in Japan, India, pakistan, New Zealand, and all of Africa south of the Sahara. Australia suffers from excessive regulation of its drivers and vehicles, in particular speed limits entirely inappropriate to its wide-open spaces and insistence that all cars on the road should be righthand drive. Neither St. Louis nor Bowling Green ever produced a Corvette with the steering on the wrong side, so an industry has developed over many years converting our imported American cars to righthand drive.
This year, Australia further raised its rating on the Corvette map of the world by becoming the second country outside North America to establish its own NCRS Chapter, the UK being the first in 1998. It's tough to judge a car for originality when the tinted screen has been changed for a clear one, the steering box is from an RHD Ford Fairlane or Toyota Cressida, and two weeks have been spent reengineering the car so the dash is on the right and all the A/C equipment on the left. Even the seatbelts have to be changed to Australian specification. Most conversions are extremely good, producing a near mirror image of the original car. Because the engine in all Corvettes is offset some 2 inches to the right to allow extra space for pedals and the steering column, foot room is always tight when the pedals are transferred over. A further problem arises from the depth of the righthand foot well, where the righthand toe board is some 6 inches closer to the seat than the lefthand. Ingenious converters have molded complete replacement firewalls in Fiberglas to compensate for this problem, particularly in the C3.
I was in Western Australia for a family party (both of my wife's sisters are married to Australian farmers), and managed to escape the agricultural talk for a day by driving three hours on deserted country roads to the beautiful waterside city of Perth, which must be the most remote city in the world. There I tracked down Tony Katavatis to learn the latest techniques in conversion from an expert whose Corvette Engineering Company has converted more than 200 cars since 1980.
His workshop was packed with conversion work, but he was mainly converting WA registered Corvettes back to left drive. A few years ago he tired of "damaging" immaculate original cars and persuaded a few of his best customers to pool the funds they had put aside for conversion into lobbying the Western Australian government to change the rules instead. Amazingly, after immense effort, they succeeded, and LHD cars over 15 years old can now be registered and used anywhere in WA with little more than the lighting changes we're used to in the UK. As the 15-year rule rolls forward, this year will see '90 ZR1s registered-cars that are almost impossible to convert because of the sheer size of the four-cam motor.
Tony showed me an '84 he was converting back to LHD. Rather than using the Citation-powered rack that can be reversed to use on an RHD C4, this one had been converted using a cut steering column with an enclosed chain drive fixed to the firewall. Putting this one back to LHD using good, used parts imported from California was a service to road safety as well as originality.
Western Australia is separated from the rest of the country by vast empty deserts, and likes to see itself as independent from the Eastern states. Its relaxation of the RHD regulations reflects this. If you want to drive a lefty in Melbourne or Sydney, it has to be more than 25 years old and, much worse, only used on organized club runs. The antipodean's passion for RHD probably dates back to the pre-turn-signal days of hand signalling, but another law there prohibits arms out of the car while driving. Hopefully, the new Australian Chapter of the NCRS will use some of its lobbying power to stop unnecessary conversion of Corvettes. And it isn't cheap-a top-quality RHD conversion of a C5 costs more than $20,000 U.S.
End of article. For orginal site see: http://www.corvettefever.com/featuredvehicles/corp...
Right Hand Drive Chevrolet Corvettes Australia - Righthand Drive
Exploring The Australian Outback For Rhd Corvettes
For more than 20 years, Australia has been a key supplier to the manufacture of the Corvette, making the entire braking system for all our cars since 1984. I visited the impressive PBR plant in Melbourne in 1990, saw the aluminium calipers being poured and machined, and finished units packed ready for shipment to Bowling Green. The lasting impression, however, was the C4 test mule parked outside in the hot Victoria sunshine. It looked just like any other Corvette from the front, but across its tail was a full-width sign warning in giant letters "Caution, Left Hand Drive Vehicle." A deadly menace was on the street, and drivers had to be alert to the danger!
Later that day, I went to see some converters who were modifying a '72 and an '80 to righthand drive (RHD) so they could be registered for the road. Like the British, the Australians drive on the left of the road, as they do in Japan, India, pakistan, New Zealand, and all of Africa south of the Sahara. Australia suffers from excessive regulation of its drivers and vehicles, in particular speed limits entirely inappropriate to its wide-open spaces and insistence that all cars on the road should be righthand drive. Neither St. Louis nor Bowling Green ever produced a Corvette with the steering on the wrong side, so an industry has developed over many years converting our imported American cars to righthand drive.
This year, Australia further raised its rating on the Corvette map of the world by becoming the second country outside North America to establish its own NCRS Chapter, the UK being the first in 1998. It's tough to judge a car for originality when the tinted screen has been changed for a clear one, the steering box is from an RHD Ford Fairlane or Toyota Cressida, and two weeks have been spent reengineering the car so the dash is on the right and all the A/C equipment on the left. Even the seatbelts have to be changed to Australian specification. Most conversions are extremely good, producing a near mirror image of the original car. Because the engine in all Corvettes is offset some 2 inches to the right to allow extra space for pedals and the steering column, foot room is always tight when the pedals are transferred over. A further problem arises from the depth of the righthand foot well, where the righthand toe board is some 6 inches closer to the seat than the lefthand. Ingenious converters have molded complete replacement firewalls in Fiberglas to compensate for this problem, particularly in the C3.
I was in Western Australia for a family party (both of my wife's sisters are married to Australian farmers), and managed to escape the agricultural talk for a day by driving three hours on deserted country roads to the beautiful waterside city of Perth, which must be the most remote city in the world. There I tracked down Tony Katavatis to learn the latest techniques in conversion from an expert whose Corvette Engineering Company has converted more than 200 cars since 1980.
His workshop was packed with conversion work, but he was mainly converting WA registered Corvettes back to left drive. A few years ago he tired of "damaging" immaculate original cars and persuaded a few of his best customers to pool the funds they had put aside for conversion into lobbying the Western Australian government to change the rules instead. Amazingly, after immense effort, they succeeded, and LHD cars over 15 years old can now be registered and used anywhere in WA with little more than the lighting changes we're used to in the UK. As the 15-year rule rolls forward, this year will see '90 ZR1s registered-cars that are almost impossible to convert because of the sheer size of the four-cam motor.
Tony showed me an '84 he was converting back to LHD. Rather than using the Citation-powered rack that can be reversed to use on an RHD C4, this one had been converted using a cut steering column with an enclosed chain drive fixed to the firewall. Putting this one back to LHD using good, used parts imported from California was a service to road safety as well as originality.
Western Australia is separated from the rest of the country by vast empty deserts, and likes to see itself as independent from the Eastern states. Its relaxation of the RHD regulations reflects this. If you want to drive a lefty in Melbourne or Sydney, it has to be more than 25 years old and, much worse, only used on organized club runs. The antipodean's passion for RHD probably dates back to the pre-turn-signal days of hand signalling, but another law there prohibits arms out of the car while driving. Hopefully, the new Australian Chapter of the NCRS will use some of its lobbying power to stop unnecessary conversion of Corvettes. And it isn't cheap-a top-quality RHD conversion of a C5 costs more than $20,000 U.S.
End of article. For orginal site see: http://www.corvettefever.com/featuredvehicles/corp...
Edited by G4HKS on Monday 7th September 12:44
Looks like a much better job than some Aussie C6 conversions I've seen. For example they've bothered to move the gear linkage to the right which I've not seen before, although the handbrake wasn't moved over to the left.
I reckon that cost more than £25k though, and once you add the Aussie import taxes, that was probably a well over £250k Vette!
I reckon that cost more than £25k though, and once you add the Aussie import taxes, that was probably a well over £250k Vette!
Godzilla said:
Looks like a much better job than some Aussie C6 conversions I've seen. For example they've bothered to move the gear linkage to the right which I've not seen before, although the handbrake wasn't moved over to the left.
I reckon that cost more than £25k though, and once you add the Aussie import taxes, that was probably a well over £250k Vette!
When I looked at Australian RHD a few years back it looked like a 50% price premium on a regular coupe or convertible with, as you say, the gear-shift not moved across. Far from cheap.I reckon that cost more than £25k though, and once you add the Aussie import taxes, that was probably a well over £250k Vette!
I'm very well thanks! Volvo seems to be bucking the trend through these "troubled" times.
I'm not selling, unless you're looking to buy a nice safe Volvo! The XC60 T6 is quite fun, by the way, and would be good on your local roads...
I've never killed a pigeon in a Corvette, but I killed a badger in my V70 demonstrator about 9 months ago. Barely a scratch on the car!
Do you take the pigeons home to put in the pot?
I'm not selling, unless you're looking to buy a nice safe Volvo! The XC60 T6 is quite fun, by the way, and would be good on your local roads...
I've never killed a pigeon in a Corvette, but I killed a badger in my V70 demonstrator about 9 months ago. Barely a scratch on the car!
Do you take the pigeons home to put in the pot?
car95 said:
All is well, Stephen, thank you. You?
Are you selling something? ;o)
BTW is it just me or is "suicide by Corvette" a favourite for depressed and/or fat pigeons on a rural road?
Are you selling something? ;o)
BTW is it just me or is "suicide by Corvette" a favourite for depressed and/or fat pigeons on a rural road?
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