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Originally Posted by TuxedoCartman
I disagree. I think the reason we haven't started seeing more RI's importing Skylines is because it costs so damn much. Every time you turn around, you hear somebody claim that they're an RI, and they're going to start importing Skylines, and theirs are going to be half the price of Motorex's, that they're working on research right now. Granted, probably a bit more than half of these are people are blowing smoke out their asses, but I think a sizable percentage of them honestly intended to do this, got to looking at what all would be involved, and backed out because they underestimated how much a venture like this costs. And frankly, if you can't offer people cheaper Skylines than Motorex, then what's your sales base? All things equal, I'd go with Motorex just because they had the balls to get this done first, and bringing us the first (regardless of price) Skyline's in America.
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sean won't comment publicly on this, but RB motoring is an RI now and as soon as Motorex releases a few skylines they are doing for RB, then RB will start doing their own legalization work. Sean knows George at G&K very well, and G&K will be doing all of RB's EPA stuff just like they do for Motorex. Sean knows exactly how the modifications need to be done and exactly what parts to use as he was the one that formerly did all that work at Motorex.
I guarantee you when RB starts doing Skylines their pricing will be less expensive than what Mrex charges, thus forcing Mrex to lower their prices to remain competitive.
It's not that it's so hugely expensive to be able to conform Skylines, it's just that there's not a huge demand from the public for the car since not a whole lot of people have enough cash to drop on one, and financing is hard to get for them.
All any RI would need to do is to bring a 32, 33, and 34 chassis car over, modify them as they see fit to meet the FMVSS's, then have each of the cars crash-tested at that facility that JK Motoring did in Michigan (?? i think) to prove that the cars do in fact meet the FMVSS's with the mods they have done themselves, and then that RI is good to go with the DOT stuff.
Any RI could follow that route, or if they chose they could take a Mrex 32, 33, and 34 and reverse engineer all of the safety modifications. Having spoken many times with people in the Safety and Compliance division at NHTSA, they have all told me that any compliance package received by them for a Skyline would have to have exactly the same modifications that Motorex does to their skylines in order for NHTSA to grant a bond release.
There have been many gray market cars that have been petitioned onto the eligibility list by a single RI who was the only company for a long while that knew exactly how the necessary mods needed to be performed, who later had another company reverse engineer their stuff and be able to also gain bond-release from NHTSA. It's a common thing. Ask Wallace Labs about the different Porsche, Mercedes, and BMW's this has happened with.
The work and parts necessary to conform the pre-1996 skylines to EPA standards can really be done by any ICI as it's just a matter of adding cats, tweaking the a/f ratios, and doing what it takes to get the car to pass the exhausting list of EPA tests. There is no big secret to the EPA/emissions side of things. The only big secret is exactly how and with what parts the DOT/NHTSA mods are done by Motorex that prevents other RI's from easily doing Skylines.