Read more
In the 1970s, as car enthusiasts in the U.S. grew bored with models manufactured under tightening pollution and safety regulations, some innovative dealers exploited a legal loophole--designed to allow U.S. soldiers and diplomats to return from abroad with their vehicles--to import exotic cars never intended for sale in America. During the 1980s, a rise in the value of the dollar made car shopping in Europe a bargain hunter's dream. A network of unauthorized "gray market" importers and conversion shops emerged, bypassing factory channels and retrofitting cars to meet U.S. regulations and emission standards--at least in theory.
These cars had to pass through U.S. customs, a system equipped to handle only a few independent imports annually. As applications ballooned, the regulatory system collapsed. This is the story of a misunderstood but fascinating period in the automotive industry, when creative importers found ways to put American motorists in new Ferraris while the EPA and DOT were backed up with mounds of paperwork.
List of contents
Table of ContentsPreface
Introduction
¿1.¿Congress and Cars
¿2.¿Small Importers and Their Reactions
¿3.¿The First Compliance Shops
¿4.¿Making Them Pass
¿5.¿The Stoichiometric Closed Loop Electronic Feedback Controlled Breakthrough
¿6.¿The Boom
¿7.¿More Fuel on the Fire
¿8.¿In the Workshop
¿9.¿The Independent Labs
10.¿The Shine Rubs Off
11.¿Meanwhile, at Lamborghini
12.¿The Factories Push Back
13.¿An Inaction of Congress
14.¿The Market Winds Down
15.¿Lessons of the Gray Market
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
John B. Hege is a retired import auto mechanic from North Carolina who worked in gray market "conversion" shops during the peak years of 1985 and 1986. He wrote this work because he wanted to share some unique stories about a very poorly understood period of automotive history in America.
Summary
Tells the misunderstood but fascinating period in the automotive industry, when creative importers found ways to put American motorists in new Ferraris while the EPA and DOT were backed up with mounds of paperwork.
