Save your pennies folks - '89 GT-R now legal in the USA

  • Thread starter Thread starter CodeRedR51
  • 63 comments
  • 2,591 views
He got the Porsche in the early '90s I think ... the law was passed in the late '90s as I remember.

Per Wikipedia, so who knows ...

"The "Gates 959" is an infamous car,[10] one of the Porsche 959s built in the mid-eighties, imported by Bill Gates to the United States in 1987. Gates' fellow Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen imported another one, as did Porsche collector Jerry Seinfeld. These cars had not been approved by regulators and had no Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency approval. The "Gates 959" was stored for 13 years by the Customs Service at the Port of Seattle, until regulations were changed to allow "Autos of Interest" to be imported with severe limitations on their use.[10] Gates and Allen both helped pass the "Show and Display" law.[10][11]"
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_and_Display

The Show and Display law is the proper term. You can have the car, but not drive it ... lol. I remember attending the NOPI Nationals back in the early 2000s and seeing my first and only R34 and RenaultSport Clio on display. The cars were pushed in and pushed out ... probably because they were in the US under this law.
 
Tornado
This was a pretty common way of doing it up until a few years ago (as was having cars shipped to America, bought, shipped out of the country, then shipped back in pieces to be registered as a kit car). A lot of the ones that had done that ended up with their cars siezed when the federal government started cracking down on it, though.
Click to expand...
Yep there is a R33 GTS in Espanola, New Mexico (Population 10k) which as far as I know is the Only pre R35 GTR in the state. I had a friend who is a Nissan shop owner in Albuquerque trade his 600+HP 300ZX and some cash for it a few years ago. The damn thing had an invalid registration/title which NM DMV would not reissue to a new owner. The previous owner must have known or bribed someone @ DMV who made a fake title for it. My friend gave up after a month or so of trying to get it road legal and traded the car back. I still see the car at local car events so I assume its still on a false title.
 

Latest Posts

Back