I think you have pretty much received the truth of your inquiry. With all your time and money the only thing you gain is baller status at your local car shows. If that's what your after than more power to ya. As for bang for your buck find a nice VIII or IX and do boltons.

 

Worst idea ever.

You will pay too much and be slower than an evo 9 with bolt-ons and a good tune.

Buy a good condition 9 and spend the difference at English Racing and ETS and end up with a WAY better setup.

 

I don't think you would even be "baller status" at car shows. People would just wonder wtf you bothered. The FQ series Evo's aren't like JDM Skylines, they are slightly tweaked factory RHD Evo's. Any lightly modified USDM Evo would smoke a stock FQ340. The uniqueness of the car isn't worth the price or legality issues.

The problem of legality isn't a matter of just crash beams etc, its the fact that the car was not produced in the US, it has no direct USDM equivalent. No crash safety ratings, the headlights are not legal for US roads, etc etc. You simply cannot import it as a road legal US car. It's the same boat the guys who want JDM Skylines are in. You pay a ton of money for something that is almost impossible to get legally approved for the road.

If the OP just wants an Evo with 340 bhp, that should be easy. With an intake/exhaust and decent tune you can have 330 WHP with a USDM Evo IX and be perfectly safe for the stock block.

 

Yeah, I'd be interested!

Ok, well it looks like everyone is saying that this isn't the greatest idea haha. I think you guys convinced me to not try to import an fq-340, however I think I'm going to look into it for a few more days just to verify everything. I'd still like to know exactly what needs to be done to the vehicles to legalize them and place an actual final dollar amount on what it takes to import one. If nothing else I'm just curious now.

 

If you want to go through the hassle of importing a rare evo. Get an Evo VI TME. If you have the money and inclination to do it there are some grey area ways to get it registered.

 

New/prospective-owner nonsense coming out of the woodwork today.

OP, screw the naysayers! Import the FQ! Why have a car faster than a V8 M3 at 1/3rd the price when you can have a car slower than a Stock Evo X at M3 money?!?!

RHD is easily worth the extra $30k, and you can just take license plates off cars in the Wal-Mart parking lot instead of worrying about how to register it!

!

Post pics when you get it!

 

While I agree that you should go with a car more worthy of going through the hurdles (such as the Evo VI TME you mentioned), the registration aspect is going to be a pain. Sure, it might be able to be taken care of now, but the rules and regulations may change. Just look at all of the stateside owners of Skyline GT-Rs... everyone thought it was legit, especially after Kaizo had supposedly figured out the loophole, but now it's not the case, and some of the cars got seized. One of my friends who had a daily driven R32 GT-R (which he could afford since it was a DD but it wasn't the best financial move) had to stash his car somewhere, and he had to buy a POS beater car since he can't drive his GT-R anymore.

So unless you have a lot of money, then you're just going to regret the headaches. The juice isn't worth the squeeze.

 

1. It isn't a matter of grey area or not. Its illegal, plain and simple. It's illegal to get an Evo VI, or an FQ340. The car needs to be 20 years old (It may have been 25) to legally import. There are NO changes that can be made to the vehicle to get around this at all ever.

2. The reasons are multiple. First... crash testing. In order to pass this you would need to buy AT LEAST one other version and wreck it at the appropriate facility to get it certified to use within the US. The problem with this is... Mitsubishi already did this, which is why we have a slightly different engine, and slightly different bumpers. Second... the car would need to pass emissions initially. This isn't very difficult, as many of our cars passed emissions from the dealer, and I'm sure many wouldn't pass now. That doesn't make it legal at all though. Third... the safety features.

3. If you were REALLY interested in doing this... the smartest way to go about doing it would be to purchase a USDM Evo and then either use the exact RalliArt parts used on the FQ3xx to get to where you want, or buy the motor from RalliArt.

4. Any car that is imported that isn't outside of the 20 year window is actually a "grey market" car. If you ever got pulled over, and the Police Officer got a hard on and wanted to be all billy busts alot, he could impound your vehicle with no questions asked and you would NEVER get it back. It would be destroyed.

5. Any vehicles you see driving around like those fancy Motorex Skylines are in the same boat.

6. You COULD start a business and go and crash test a bunch of really rare cars and then get them approved and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars jumping through the hoops of the US government and once you get approved you could turn around and sell a vehicle that is (by the time you get it approved) probably 5 years old and has such a niche limited market that you make almost no money or have to charge $100,000 for an Evo FQ.

7. You DEFINITELY can have one of these cars legally imported for racing and off road use only. I'm not talking about the "for off road use only" BS that people tell you when they sell you an exhaust setup... I'm talking about legitimate off road use only. People do this all the time and have a crapload of fun. But you'll probably notice that there aren't very many Evo IX's (if any) that are RHD racing in the US. Thats because anyone in their right mind (no offense sir) would just buy a USDM Evo. It's a race car, not a show car. And if you want RHD that bad for a show car, just convert a USDM Evo to RHD and tell people it's from Japan. They won't know any different.

8. Want to know how I know... oh, right... see that "Evo V" listed in my profile. Just so you don't think I'm blowing smoke up your ***. Want to know how I got an Evo V? I bought a USDM Mirage, and built it over 6 years using legit parts. It was fun... but I'll never do it again, and my Evo IX is an absolute PLEASURE to drive and work on compared to it. Because if something blows up, I can take it to any mechanic and not have to try to explain to them that it isn't a Galant (before the Evo's came out in the US). But it was pretty sweet driving around in something so unique.

 

as everyone's said, this is a terrible idea. just buy an EVO IX, add bolt ons and a tune, call it a day. when I sold my old IX MR it was faster than an FQ-400 for a whole hell of a lot less money, and the one I have now will be back at that level soon.

 

Damn ODUB. I can't believe you went back to a IX. That's crazy. Although I understand why you would.

Do you regret selling Ver 1? after all the time spent with it? Even though it had those miles, you had to know every in-and-out of that car from top to bottom.

I'm sad for you man, what a buzzkill that you got rid of that car for a X.

 

I miss it everyday. I'm very sad for me too lol. The X was a big mistake. I had high hopes for that car, but it sucked. I wish I had just kept my first IX MR, and bought the 335 later this year, but it all ended okay I guess....I have the 335, and another EVO IX MR.

 

^ Presumably with less miles than the old one, right?

 

With the cost of importing one to the United States (assuming you could do so legally), you would, in my opinion, be better off just nicely modifying one you can buy locally.

 

Ive never driven a X but everyone keeps saying the same things about them..., dyamanoha I agree 100000% with what everyone here is saying, plus I don't see why the RHD thing is such a big deal, I look at some of these evo's i see and I say damn man i wish they were available in the US and they were LHD. Theres a WW RHD VII running around by where I work, I looked at it at first and was like nah thats an VIII dressed up as a VII, but upon closer inspection it was RHD, and i though thats cool I just wish it was LHD. Good luck either way, BTW ProPilot04, I always loved the VI and maybe one day if i have the time I will attempt to build one out of a Mirage, I see the one dude on this board thats building one on the west coast somewhere, hes taking his time and doing it right i appreciate doing things the right way and not hacking things up. Eh maybe one day but for now the IX is fine with me.

 

Pointless /thread.