TVR Tuscan to Perth?

Author
Discussion

BATS666

Original Poster:

27 posts

197 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2008
quotequote all
Having hacked my way thru the red tape (& an excellent post from "7805") for personal imports, I think I've got my head around all the charges I'm likely to incur.
Big question remaining is - servicing in Perth/WA. I found a coupla places that will do Tiv servicing but wonder if this is the easier V8s, rather than the newbies. Bumped into a Chim owner in Freo in March who mentioned a classic car place there that he uses. Also someone told me of a Perth Nissan dealer who's a Tiv enthusiast & has UK contatcs to get parts & do services.
Anyone know where the 1 or 2 Tuscans already out there get their work done ?
BATS

deviant

4,316 posts

215 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2008
quotequote all
Dont forget Tuscans are only worth $500 here but I like you so I will give you $1000 for it mate...its the least I can do for you beer

BATS666

Original Poster:

27 posts

197 months

Wednesday 23rd July 2008
quotequote all
well, if they're worth only $500, I might as well keep it. What else can you buy for $500? a push bike ! hmmm.....scratchchin

tim the pool man

5,005 posts

222 months

Thursday 24th July 2008
quotequote all
Be great to see another TVR here, they sure are rare.

The way we're going by the time you get here with it you might even catch our first Perth PH meet hehe

deviant

4,316 posts

215 months

Thursday 24th July 2008
quotequote all
Should have saved ourselves a mighty $2 each or whatever it was for postage and got him to load his car up with keyrings and stickers biggrin

Turbo100

49 posts

284 months

Thursday 24th July 2008
quotequote all
Ed Farrar looks after mine, and just about all of the other Chimaeras and Cerbera in Perth. If you send your details I'll ask him to contact you.

tim the pool man

5,005 posts

222 months

Thursday 24th July 2008
quotequote all
Richard, someone told me you were on here, but you've been quiet lately...

Going to join us for our Perth PH meet? (you can bring the chocolate hehe )

onny

325 posts

267 months

Thursday 24th July 2008
quotequote all
There's a Tuscan in Perth already. Search for Richard Hewes on the members list. My Tuscan is based in Canberra and I'd found a local garage that had done a great job for me to get my car pass compliance so I'll used them to do the service. They have loads of experience doing the tappets on other cars, they should have no problems balancing the throttle as well. Everything else should be no different to a normal car service. Make sure that you have a copy of the servicing schedule with you and tell whoever is doing the service to do what's needed.

The main thing is to make sure you have a copy of the ECU software and connection cable that works with your car before shipping it over.

BATS666

Original Poster:

27 posts

197 months

Thursday 24th July 2008
quotequote all
thanks guys, some useful info !
cheers
BATS

BATS666

Original Poster:

27 posts

197 months

Tuesday 29th July 2008
quotequote all
Anyone know if the radial speedo needs changing to KPH for Oz compliance or does the digital KPH readout satisfy this ? Also, read somewhere that a flat driver's mirror was required. Any other suggestions for compliance that I can do in the UK before shipping ?
cheers....

onny

325 posts

267 months

Wednesday 30th July 2008
quotequote all
There is no legal requirement to have KPH speedo as there are still loads of cars in oz that only have MPH speedo. However, it would be worth while to have a KPH speedo fitted to give you a chance against the speeding police here, at least you'll know how much above you're over the limit when they pull you over.

Depending on the State you are registering you car, I'm not sure what's required for WA. For me in the ACT, I had to raise the ride height of the car to 10cm with the car fully loaded with passingers, I had to get custom made sleeves fitted to the suspension. I had to reduce the noise level to 80db at 3000 revs so I had to replace the rear cans with 2 normal mufflers. Apart from that, they just did a MOT on the car. All up it cost me about $550 to get all the work done for compliance. If I had the car registered in NSW, there's a very good chance that I won't need to have anything done at all.

My advice is to do nothing in the UK, get the car tested here for compliance then fix anything that needs doing if any. You can drive the car here while its going through compliance tests with a tempory registration so that you can drive it to garages for repairs etc.


chunder

746 posts

251 months

Friday 1st August 2008
quotequote all
Hi,

Richard Hewes runs the Nissan dealership in Wangara so I believe the grunt work is done there but that he also uses Ed Farrer for anything more involved as previously mentioned.

There could be a requirement for the speedo to be altered, I think the law is along the lines that the KPH reading needs to be the most prominent. If you can display KPH without MPH that should be ok but I had to alter the speedo on the 450 I imported even though it had KPH on the dial, as the MPH numbers were bigger !

Company called AISAT can probably sort if it is needed but as said before best to just run it over the pits once here and see if they fail it on anything. It will depend on what way the wind is blowing rather than whatever the rules say.

The latest car I put through the pits failed on a number plate light out - they didn't pick up on no immobiliser or that the fuel filler would accept the larger nozzles - which they have previously and are supposed to !

I did used to liaise with a few other owners to arrange a few runs out and meetings but haven't had time lately and to be honest most owners are not that interested in meeting others - there are a few exceptions though with Richard being one of them.

BATS666

Original Poster:

27 posts

197 months

Friday 1st August 2008
quotequote all
I bumped into a Chimaera driver back in March when I was in Freo. He mentioned the Nissan dealer/TVR enthusiast, but I'm buggered if I could remember his name afterwards.
I have been in contact with Ed re what to do pre import and what spares to pack. He'll be more convenient for me as he's in N Freo.
Tuscans have a digital readout in KPH only, but it's small and, with my failing eyesight, unreadable ! The main radial dial is MPH only and I'm looking at getting that replaced here, if it's not too expensive. That way I can have the digital display set to RPM instead.
cheers for the info.

Bob the Planner

4,695 posts

274 months

Tuesday 23rd September 2008
quotequote all
I am thinking more NSW than Perth - is it possible to get the Tuscan in to Aus under a relocation package ? I am a fair mechanic so can do most of the stuff myself. What should I look out for ?

BATS666

Original Poster:

27 posts

197 months

Tuesday 23rd September 2008
quotequote all
Check out any info you can find on personal imports both on PH and the Oz Govt website. Also www.britishexpats.com If you are moving to Oz under a PR visa and have owned the car abroad for over 12 months, you should qualify for a personal import. You have to prove 12 months ownership and can only bring in 1 car in any 12 month period.
It'll cost about £1,750 to ship + insurance. you then pay 10% customs duty, 10% VAT (GST), and a whole load of other charges including quarantine and dock & customs fees and a valuation fee. A £20,000 Tuscan will probably cost about £10,000 to import in total. I'm shipping in about 2 weeks, hopefully. It should be there by Xmas.

Bob the Planner

4,695 posts

274 months

Tuesday 23rd September 2008
quotequote all
Thanks for the info.

The other question is insurance - What can I expct to pay ?

[edit] Oh and would be a lot cheaper to bring the Chim ?

Edited by Bob the Planner on Tuesday 23 September 20:38

deviant

4,316 posts

215 months

Wednesday 24th September 2008
quotequote all
For something special like a TVR I believe there is only really 1 choice of insurer... www.shannons.com.au

BATS666

Original Poster:

27 posts

197 months

Wednesday 24th September 2008
quotequote all
Shannons would not give me a quote via email. I had to phone them (which I haven't done).
Also got a quote from justcarinsurance.com which was about £750 fully comp on a Tuscan valuation of about $100,000 and garaged in Freo. Worth trying these guys too.

deviant

4,316 posts

215 months

Wednesday 24th September 2008
quotequote all
I had a few odd conversations with the justcar mob...look very carefully at the value of the car and the excesses.

Shannons wil take your agreed value as you tell it and it stays fixed unless you say otherwise.

Bob the Planner

4,695 posts

274 months

Wednesday 24th September 2008
quotequote all
As mine is 7 years old and worth about £15k (A$33k ?) in the UK market, I could possibly get a reasonable figure. As long as its not much over A$1800 its worth me considering bringing it over - depending on getting a job ! I'm paying £600 at present which I reckon is OK.

Edited by Bob the Planner on Wednesday 24th September 18:43