I have been around this forum, and lots of forums as - tyndago (Typhoon in San Diego) for many years. We, International Vehicle Importers or IVI, just became an advertiser on NICO, so I wanted to go though the formal introduction.
My whole life has been in the car business. My father has been a car dealer since he was 17 years old, and I have been around it since I can remember. I was born and lived in New Zealand until I was five years old, when my family moved to the US, Los Angeles.
My father started selling cars to Japan starting in 1989. In 1991, I went to Japan, which started my love affair with the R32 - Nissan Skyline GT-R. I bought a ton of video cassettes with the R32 on it, against its contemporaries, it killed them all. I thought it would be a cool car to have, and I read the story's about it not being exported to the US.
At 17 after graduating high school, I joined the US Navy as a Gas Turbine Electrician. I was stationed on the USS Rentz for four years out of San Diego. I had copies of Turbo Magazine, with the stories of the RS Akimoto R32 GT-R in it, and wondered why we never got them here. I even tried to rent a Nissan Skyline a few places that I went when I was in port.
In 1997, I left the Navy for the family business, which was still exporting vehicles to Japan. After a couple of years in the business, I had a friend, an exporter also, that was trying to import cars to the US. At SEMA back in 1997, we started talking about the Nissan Skyline GT-R. He got funding, and started the company that was MotoRex. First US DOT bond released(legal) GT-R was on November 15 , 1999 . Final publication of VCP-17 was in January ,2000.
I worked at MotoRex until 2002. There is a lot to that story, you can read about some of it here - http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ ... ticle.aspx
After MotoRex, I help the guys from RB Motoring start up as an RI(registered importer), and I did some work for CEE Labs (emissions testing including California).
In 2006 I was crew chief on the AutomotiveForums.com R34 GT-R that raced in SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge.
Since 2005 I have been exporting vehicles to Australia. Australian's wanted to buy cars in the US, and I helped them find, inspect, and purchase vehicles. Lots of American's had no idea how to deal with the Australian people, they were afraid of scams, and moving vehicles, and we made that process much easier for people in both countries.
In 2011, I put in an application for Show or Display application for the NISMO version of the R32 GT-R. I nearly gave up hope on it, but finally in September 2012, I got a letter back from the NHTSA, granting me permission to import the NISMO R32 GT-R's under a Show or Display exemption.
This obviously led up to starting IVI, as a way to help people find, purchase, and transport vehicles to the US. We don't want to sell you anything you don't want. We just want to help make the process of importing a vehicle easier. We know the red tape, we have been doing this a long time.
We want to make sure you don't get scammed. http://www.importavehicle.info/2014/01/ ... -soho.html
We want to give you real information, even if that isn't what you want to hear sometimes. California and Hawaii are two examples. http://www.importavehicle.info/2013/04/ ... newer.html http://www.importavehicle.info/2014/02/ ... years.html http://www.importavehicle.info/2011/11/ ... legal.html
We do this because we love cars. We do this because we can help. If you just want advice on importing, we can help. If you want us to locate, buy, ship, clear, and title a car, we can help.
There is no one else with as much experience specific to importing the Nissan Skyline GT-R. When you are looking to import a 1989 car in 2014, will you trust the guys that just started, or the one that taught them everything they know?
