Iam driving my car to Australia


bruce j

New member
Oct 3, 2006
3
Hi Match ,
Great to hear from another Aussie owner of a fgt, Ihave one that has been sitting in melbourne since february 07 waiting to be converted to rh drive.have not driven the car yet and only seen it once as I live in Western qld. Bought it off the showroom floor by telephone. Have been listening in on this forum for nearly two years.
bruce j
 

MATCH

GT Owner
Nov 13, 2007
34
MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA
Hi Bruce j, Iam in Melbourne and have seen a couple down here. Must be around 8 to 10 in Australia at the moment. Great forum.
 

B O N Y

MODERATOR & FGT OWNER
Mark IV Lifetime
Sep 5, 2005
12,110
Fresno, Ca.
Hello,
We had a member buy one, sadly he had major health issues and passed away. The last I heard his car was in Montreal and never made it to Oz. I had no idea so many FGT's ate in Ozland. Especially since the right steering conversion is required for road use.
Drive on and welcome!
daniel
 

XRQTOR

Member
Jan 4, 2008
24
Hi Bruce j, Iam in Melbourne and have seen a couple down here. Must be around 8 to 10 in Australia at the moment. Great forum.

Congrats on the purchase mate, my dream car. Good to see another one head down under, there is a place in W.a that has about 5 or 6 sitting in the yard just there.

I'll own 1 one day, hopefully sooner rather than later. It appears youv'e done your homework with regard's to the importation & conversion of this beauty, if you don't mind would you be able to share with me the costs involved in conversion & compliacning and the taxes.
 

Gimbal

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Jan 11, 2007
204
Queenstown, New Zealand
RHD would look something like this. Would be nice to see an actual change over.
 

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Empty Pockets

ex-GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
Oct 18, 2006
1,361
Washington State
I don't care for that "reversed" Ford GT logo on the steering wheel though! 'Stands out like a sore thumb! Or the "counter clockwise" function of the gauges! That'd drive me nuts...:lol :rofl

(Okay. I'll say it first. "Pockets, that'd be a short drive. You're half way there already." :tongue))
 
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ByeEnzo

GT
Mark IV Lifetime
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
Dec 10, 2005
2,284
Fort Worth, TX
Like commodes, the supercharger spins backwards. You have great boost at idle, and excellent vacuum at WOT.
 

XRQTOR

Member
Jan 4, 2008
24
I don't care for that "reversed" Ford GT logo on the steering wheel though! 'Stands out like a sore thumb! Or the "counter clockwise" function of the gauges! That'd drive me nuts...:lol :rofl

(Okay. I'll say it first. "Pockets, that'd be a short drive. You're half way there already." :tongue))

Yea does look kinda odd with the reversed dials lol. Other than that she looks sweet, only thing is i don't know how good the dash will look as it's not a reverseable (Symetrical) dash. Unless you get a custom one remade that is.
 

OzGT

GT Owner
Aug 21, 2006
290
South of Sydney, AUS
Hi Bruce j, Iam in Melbourne and have seen a couple down here. Must be around 8 to 10 in Australia at the moment. Great forum.

Geez, hope it's not that high... I want the premium value to remain here in Oz :rolleyes My understanding is more like 5-7, 5 to be converted rest left...

Hi Match ,
Great to hear from another Aussie owner of a fgt, Ihave one that has been sitting in melbourne since february 07 waiting to be converted to rh drive.have not driven the car yet and only seen it once as I live in Western qld. Bought it off the showroom floor by telephone. Have been listening in on this forum for nearly two years.
bruce j

Since Feb '07, try Nov '06 after purchase June '06 for me. First in line, thought I was going to stand alone for a while there, as I love being original but sure enough the the others started coming out of the woodwork- LOL. Oh well not long now for me and I'll have my exclusivity in RHD for a little while at least. Was the same for my '03 Cobra for a while too :)..
 

XRQTOR

Member
Jan 4, 2008
24
When do you expect to see the car on the road. I'm told you can register them LHD in darwin, i'm looking into that atm.
 

OzGT

GT Owner
Aug 21, 2006
290
South of Sydney, AUS
When do you expect to see the car on the road. I'm told you can register them LHD in darwin, i'm looking into that atm.

Soon as the compliance is done, a matter of weeks.

If you're looking at registering LHD in Darwin, what state do you live in? I would have to think if you do that and are in another state it's going to be frowned up by the cops and that state's RTA. I know of enough people who have made the mistake of moving interstate to NSW, only to be lazy and leave their existing registration in place and then after a few months get pulled over and fined for owning an out of state registered car but being licensed to drive and living in NSW. I would think driving a LHD in that scenario would be a magnet for that kind of issue.
 

STUNTS

FORD GT OWNER & LITTLE TIMMYS DAD!
Mark IV Lifetime
Apr 5, 2006
2,438
SoCal
I've gone through that gate alot in the past 13 years.... You just gave me an idea.... hmmmmm
 

XRQTOR

Member
Jan 4, 2008
24
Soon as the compliance is done, a matter of weeks.

If you're looking at registering LHD in Darwin, what state do you live in? I would have to think if you do that and are in another state it's going to be frowned up by the cops and that state's RTA. I know of enough people who have made the mistake of moving interstate to NSW, only to be lazy and leave their existing registration in place and then after a few months get pulled over and fined for owning an out of state registered car but being licensed to drive and living in NSW. I would think driving a LHD in that scenario would be a magnet for that kind of issue.
I live in sydney (Ctown) but have a S.a licence, my cars are registered in syd and i used to get asked to explain all the time. All the local HWP knew the car well as it was heavily modded and had custom plates, that and being young :thumbsdow made it a target. I get my licence back in 8 months and will switch to a NT licence if it means i can drive a GT left hook. At the end of the day it's up to them to proove i live here.
 

OzGT

GT Owner
Aug 21, 2006
290
South of Sydney, AUS
I live in sydney (Ctown) but have a S.a licence, my cars are registered in syd and i used to get asked to explain all the time. All the local HWP knew the car well as it was heavily modded and had custom plates, that and being young :thumbsdow made it a target. I get my licence back in 8 months and will switch to a NT licence if it means i can drive a GT left hook. At the end of the day it's up to them to proove i live here.

Ok, so you have first hand experience that's similar to what I was saying with interstate rego's and licences, but just the other way around.. CTown eh, not all that far away from where I'm based- we don't want too many in Syd area, people will start thinking their common :lol. That's quite a bit of trouble to go to just to drive LHD. Do really want to put up with driving around streets LHD? It would drive me plain nuts in about 5mins and I'd probably end up having an accident eventually if I drove enough that way. If you're considering ponying up for one surely it's worth considering the extra for the mirror conversion to RHD...
 

XRQTOR

Member
Jan 4, 2008
24
Ok, so you have first hand experience that's similar to what I was saying with interstate rego's and licences, but just the other way around.. CTown eh, not all that far away from where I'm based- we don't want too many in Syd area, people will start thinking their common :lol. That's quite a bit of trouble to go to just to drive LHD. Do really want to put up with driving around streets LHD? It would drive me plain nuts in about 5mins and I'd probably end up having an accident eventually if I drove enough that way. If you're considering ponying up for one surely it's worth considering the extra for the mirror conversion to RHD...
I'd put up with it if it meant i got a GT, not everyone can pony up a cool $5oo,ooo to buy one and have it converted. Personally it's robbery what they charge, i suppose if your the only people in the country licenced to do it you get to charge what you like.
 

OzGT

GT Owner
Aug 21, 2006
290
South of Sydney, AUS
I'd put up with it if it meant i got a GT, not everyone can pony up a cool $5oo,ooo to buy one and have it converted. Personally it's robbery what they charge, i suppose if your the only people in the country licenced to do it you get to charge what you like.

That's where you're jumping to conclusions matey. The $A500k is a figure that's been quoted to random punters probably by the local converter/importer as to how much one would be acquired, converted, and delivered by them. You'd really be a fool to pay that much over the odds! The conversion itself is $A88k retail, plus whatever you import the car for i.e. $US150k+ (your purchase price off the yard) and then the duties and shipping i.e. something just north of $A250k + conversion. If you spotted the complete thread in this section ironically entitled Right hand drive Ford GT http://www.fordgtforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9657, you'd see where I'm talking about the real costs not the one's quoted around the net. Pays to dig a bit deeper sometimes before assuming what you read online is 100% correct...and potentially taking yourself down a road of compromise and dramas. :thumbsup
 
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