Estoril Coupe or: How I Learned to Import a Unicorn

Meet Emma.

Estoril Blue = EB, EB = Emma Bovary. Yes, I have named the car after an adulterous literary character. It's a good book, and I'm a nerd.

As I'm sure everyone on this forum with a pulse is aware, Slater is selling his Estoril ZHP Coupe. Whelp, I'm the buyer. I'll be flying up in mid/late January, meeting my friend (user ZHPizza) in Toronto, importing and then driving this unicorn back to North Carolina.

Be prepared for many future pictures. I'm a detailing nut, and have an extensive background in photography. Subscribers are welcome.

(Photo cred on this goes to Slater)

http://imgur.com/m5BtV5P.jpg

The first thing I have to address in order to bring it into the States legally is the speedometer. It seems the ability to import a car with a kilo-only speedometer is completely subjective, and is more or less based on how shitty of a day is being had by the agent inspecting the car at the border. I'm not interested in getting stuck in upstate New York in late January, so I've been looking at my options. The Bimmian faces are nice but I'm not in love with them, they're $115, and the redline is off. Since I was likely not going to have an accurate redline, I started looking for cheap E46 clusters on eBay/Craigslist to take apart and pull the US/MPH faces out of. When looking for sub-$100 clusters, I found this:

http://imgur.com/xRnas0Q.jpg

$21 shipped. And it's from a ZHP. You can't tell me buying this car wasn't meant to be.

...much more to come...

Awesome. Hope you have safe travels. I'm interested in reading the import documentation.

Congrats on the purchase, you got a well sorted car it seems. And the color is CHOICE

We definitely have to get a Carolina GTG going in the spring. I'd like to see this car up close

Subscribed.

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Originally Posted by danewilson77

Awesome. Hope you have safe travels. I'm interested in reading the import documentation.

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Thanks, Dane. I was careless and wrecked my Mazda3 on an icy bridge so I'm having some anxiety about the drive, but I certainly won't be taking any unnecessary risks.

As far as the import process is concerned, it actually doesn't look to be that bad given the car is "substantially similar to models sold in the US." This label under the hood (do they say "bonnet" up in Canada?) should help a lot:

http://imgur.com/Q3HkLN6.jpg

this is awesome. looking forward to it! :cheers

I love that it says US Regulations and then California Regulations as if we were another country. (Frankly, it feels like it when it comes to car rules..)

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Originally Posted by derbo

I love that it says US Regulations and then California Regulations as if we were another country. (Frankly, it feels like it when it comes to car rules..)

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California is ​another country as far as I'm concerned. :p

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Originally Posted by az3579

California is ​another country as far as I'm concerned. :p

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It's pretty comforting to know the things "known to cause cancer in California" are safe for me on the East Coast.