retro mods outside of the UK

Good question.

I'm in South Korea, and although I don't drive here (the public transport shows what a sorry inefficient ripoff the UK is), I can tell a few things:

Fast & The Furious style bodykits and graphics have a small but definite following

There's no limit to window tinting on side/rear windows or sunstrips on the front

There seems to be no noise limit for big fartcan exhausts - some of the rich guys with Harleys here are especially deafening

There's a fair bit of snobbery, I've seen Merc 600 SEL badges on the back of one of these, which as you can tell has the optional Merc-lookalike grill too:



(That's a Ssangyong Chairman, BTW - very popular among the wannabe bigshots with 20 grand to spare)

Said snobbery also partly explains why there's virtually no retro stuff at all - most people want the newest, biggest car they can get, although I saw an old movie the other day that showed they had mk4 Cortinas back at the turn of the '80s...I guess that was before Hyundai, GM Daewoo, Kia, Ssangyong and Samsung (yes, they make cars too!) really kicked off in the motor trade.

As for engines, it seems to match the cars in general - all very very dull saloons and 4x4s, 99% of which are Korean due to OTT taxes on imports. I think I've heard one turbo'd Hyundai coupe, seen one new M3, and once in one of the dodgy nightclub districts of Seoul I saw a guy who must have been seriously loaded in a 911 Turbo. When you bear in mind that a new Audi RS6 costs the equivalent of over 100 grand, you see why there's not much exciting stuff here.

In Germany, any additional kit you attach to a car has to be TUV approved (eg wheels etc...)

You can do a lot of things to cars here in Queensland but they must be approved by an approved engineer,which doe''snt mean you will not be harrassed by the bounty hunters employed by the Police.
We have two types,Roads department,usually exbiker type attitudes but car savvy blokes who can talk about mods etc and the highway motor patrol who are basicaslly bad ass cops who were too dumb to walk the beat or man desks .
The latter man the radar and the random breath test vehicles,they generally have a greater knowledge of Nazi german uniforms and methods of public relations than vehicles and modifications.
They have High performance Ford XR6 turbo's,(REALLY high performance!!) and Motorbikes which are speed limited to 120 KPH!!! ;D ;D ;D
I saw a young guy on tele last month who had clocked up $3000 in fines because of non approved mods to his 1993 Nissan Silvia,these included lots of stickers...,a carbon fiber bonnet,which the cops said was dangerous because it was not steel and if the engine blew up it might burn....
Chrome wheels which might be dangerous.....
The police then decided to impound his car because of nonpayent of the fines,The owner delivered the car to the impound minus a few things like ..interior,engine,trans and diff and so on,he now faces jail because of contempt.
As it is the cops who decide these things and not some one versed in auto engineering you can see the sort of nonsense we have to put up with here.

www.transport.qld.gov.au/qt/LTASinfo.nsf/index/vehicles_codeofpractice

Oi mercmad, I presume this guy with the Nissan had not got his mods ‘approved’? Or does it work that, even if you do get them approved, if a copper has a bad day he can bust you anyway?

Never heard of anyone getting busted for having stickers before, that is quality!

It could be better here in NZ,

You have to pass a WoF (Warrant of Fitness) every 6months forolder cars and every 12 months for cars up to 5 years old (I think it's 5).

Modifications that increase capacity or power output greater than 15% or something stupid, have to be Certified, wheels and bodykits etc are fine but they're even starting to get anal about tyre widths and exhausts etc.

whats involved in getting a car with a bigger engine certified over there or austrailia i'm interested in this as i am thinking of emigraiting in a few years to either australia new zealand or the states and would like to take my van with me (mk3 cortina estate converted to 2door van fitted with a modded 1993 5.0 HO small block ford )

but bikes are sold in greece so it wouldnt be a problem?




after seeing the semi porn tuning mags a la max power - 16S or tuning seduction surely they should bring in a thing like tuv??

I can't imagine it being too much of a problem, basically you take it to a LVVTA (Low Volume Vehicle Techinical Association) Agent, who looks over the car thoroughly and tells you what to sort out if you need to sort out anything and then depending on what needs to be done, Certification costs range from about $300 upwards. You then get a plate with all your modifications listed bolted into your engine bay so if you get pulled up or go for warrant checks, it can be seen that everything that's done to it is legal.

V8 culture in NZ is huge, so I can't imagine you running into too much trouble with the Cortina.

LVVTA website is here;
www.lvvta.org.nz/

You may want to have a look around here too;

LTSA;
www.ltsa.govt.nz/index-ltsa.html

If you're in doubt, email the guys on the LVVTA website, give them details and they should be able to help you out.

Lots of restrictions.


But not here ;D

Each province has its own view on what needs to be inspected and when. I think all need a full going over if the vehicle was previously written off or out of province. Other than that it varies. We don't have anything ;D

Your insurance company may require one based on age irregardless of provincial regs. Finding another insurance provider ain't hard.

Importing a vehicle is another matter