At the end of last year I took the plunge and decided the time was right for me to import a car from Japan. I already have a 1968 Toyota Corona which I've had for 10 years and cherish dearly. It's a four door and I was looking for a 2 door coupe to go with it. One popped-up on auction on Nippon2U's facebook page and a top bid was mustered but alas it was not sufficient to secure a nice 1600GT. The search was broadened to include any 2 door Japanese sports icon. This provided me the opportunity to bid on a few really nice cars including an R31 and an R30 Skyline. The R30 (the RS is designated DR30) was going to command a higher hammer price than the R31 but because it was over 30 years old, the import duty would be a fraction of that of the younger car. Again my high bid failed to secure the car but it didn't sell. A second chance to negotiate was offered so I re-submitted my maximum bid and to my surprise, won the car!
Scott and Grahame of Nippon2U made the import process absolutely pain free as did Penguin Shipping here in the UK. One chilly mid-January morning this year the car arrived! The very '80s lines brought a big smile to my face as did the first drive.
When you're importing a car viewed with only a handful of grainy pictures, you're never really sure what you're letting yourself in for. It turned out pretty good though. It's a very tidy car with a seemingly low mileage of 61,000 kms. It's pretty standard besides Watanabe wheels, performance exhaust, Blitz boost controller and HKS performance piggyback ECU.
I quickly found the front suspension was on its bump stops most of the time so I stripped the front end, sent the struts away to Gaz for shortening and had the rest of the suspension powder coated. I had all the fixings zinc plated and reassembled everything with new polyurethane bushes, new balljoints etc
I bought it a registration number, had it MOTd and had it registered and on the road as soon as I could. Here are some recent shots
I quickly disposed of the nasty '90s CD player and fitted this period-correct Pioneer head unit.
It's a 1998cc FJ20ET engine, the world's first fully sequential electronic fuel injected engine. 16 valves. It's put out 210bhp when new but with a few mods it's making a little more. I haven't had it on the dyno yet. The plan for it is to take really good care of it and maintain it to a high standard. You can see it at the Gathering and I have it booked to go up the hillclimb in the morning.
Scott and Grahame of Nippon2U made the import process absolutely pain free as did Penguin Shipping here in the UK. One chilly mid-January morning this year the car arrived! The very '80s lines brought a big smile to my face as did the first drive.
When you're importing a car viewed with only a handful of grainy pictures, you're never really sure what you're letting yourself in for. It turned out pretty good though. It's a very tidy car with a seemingly low mileage of 61,000 kms. It's pretty standard besides Watanabe wheels, performance exhaust, Blitz boost controller and HKS performance piggyback ECU.
I quickly found the front suspension was on its bump stops most of the time so I stripped the front end, sent the struts away to Gaz for shortening and had the rest of the suspension powder coated. I had all the fixings zinc plated and reassembled everything with new polyurethane bushes, new balljoints etc
I bought it a registration number, had it MOTd and had it registered and on the road as soon as I could. Here are some recent shots
I quickly disposed of the nasty '90s CD player and fitted this period-correct Pioneer head unit.
It's a 1998cc FJ20ET engine, the world's first fully sequential electronic fuel injected engine. 16 valves. It's put out 210bhp when new but with a few mods it's making a little more. I haven't had it on the dyno yet. The plan for it is to take really good care of it and maintain it to a high standard. You can see it at the Gathering and I have it booked to go up the hillclimb in the morning.
