No. It wasn’t then, and it isn’t now. Great car nonetheless.

Tony Dron has been saying as much, at length, for over a decade now. I remember his columns in Octane & elsewhere stating clearly that there are cars on the grid making significantly more power than they did in period, and it’s not just down to “improvements in metallurgy” or clever machine work and carb tuning. If…

Ah, that’s fine. Kari could tell me bald eagles can tap dance, and I’d believe it.

I’m jumping up and down with a gigantic smile on my face over this, and I’m an adult. Sometimes.

That’s just Olaf, the Saab roadside assistance troll.

They’re worth more like that:

$800, want me to check it out for you? Yeah, you do.

They shouldn’t. If it has a CARB sticker, they shouldn’t care. I think that’s a lot of the problem with many of the Vanagon swaps, guys just hack in Subaru engines or TDIs, then expect to go off to smog or become exempt without having done their homework or going to the referee. The ALH TDI swapped DoKa we work on…

Since Tiico went out of business it’s been hard. They had nice, CARB certified Jetta 2.0 engine swap kits that are great.

Agree completely, it’s inexcusable.

That’s why I thought of it, actually. The VA isn’t getting fixed any time soon, so a perk like this couldn’t hurt in the meantime.

What’s the chance that F1 will grant McLaren an exemption on penalties for using the new engine since it was not the result of mechanical failure, and in the first race? It would seem that any advantage they could gain in using six power units through the season are pretty well negated in this case.

Then limit them to one or two, or to existing personal vehicles at the time of transfer as in the above case. Big deal.

Of course they are, and I realize Germany isn’t exactly the front lines. But it’s not exactly fun & games, and we don’t do a very good job of taking care of them in many cases. Letting those who want to import an otherwise needlessly forbidden car seems a small concession to make.

I’m going to go back and read this fully, but I just want to quickly say that regardless of the desire for broader changes to import laws, we should let our service personnel bring back whatever the hell they want. Put your life on the line for Uncle Sam? Have a Skyline. Or a perfectly good old Rover, as the case may…

Be A Thinker, Use Your Blinker!

Very cool, but a little odd. As I recall when the R35 came out, they liked to tout the fact that the VR38 is built in a clean room environment... not so much for this one, huh?

Whoa...

FATE NUMBER THREE: They end up on the front page of Jalopnik in a Freddy Hernandez story, exhorting readers to buy them for the price of a good used Lexus.

Are any subscription cards left in there? Can you send one to me to fill out & mail?