Fed ban threatens special imports
Read Full Article at TheStar.com
While it may resemble a shop-class pimp job, the scoop feeds a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine that’s good for 230 hp – enough to grind the tires into eraser dust.
Onlookers are more likely to notice that Bayley has to roll down the passenger window to order in a drive-through lane. That’s because the steering wheel is on the right-hand side of the car.
Bayley imported his used 1991 Nissan Pulsar GTi-R directly from Japan, eschewing conventional left-hand drive for the cachet of driving an automobile unknown in these parts.
“I was looking for something a little different,” says Bayley. “And I had a personal connection to the car. It appealed to me when I was living in Japan.”
A mechanical engineer who works in the auto parts industry, Bayley has joined a small but growing contingent of auto enthusiasts who have taken advantage of a loophole in Canada’s importation laws to bring in distinctive, older Japanese and European models that are exempt from federal safety rules.
While Canada’s Registrar of Imported Vehicles (www.riv.ca) carefully screens late-model domestic and imported vehicles brought in privately from the U.S., it leaves 15-year-old-plus vehicles unscrutinized….
