The second part of how to ship a car from the United States
Part two of our look at how we imported a Porsche 914 from the USA, and then went through the process of getting it registered for use in the UK
The first part of this story showed how we found our Porsche 914 in the USA and went through the process of shipping it back to the UK. Receiving the news the car was ready to collect at Southampton docks was just the beginning of the story though. There were plenty more fun and games before the car could be enjoyed on British roads… With the car back home, I had chance to assess what I’d got for my money. Overall, it looked great, but there were some obvious changes that a) needed to be made and b) I wanted to make. Among the former was the conversion of the lights to meet UK laws, among the latter was swapping out the seats for some in better condition (or having the current ones retrimmed). But, at first sight, things were looking good and I sighed a sigh of relief.
With the battery charged – it’s an Optima solid state one – the car started ‘on the button’ and ran well. The throttle felt heavy but that was something to worry about later. There was play in the steering column and the roof seals had clearly seen better days, but in terms of the all important matter of rust, the 914 seemed better than most I’d seen.
To register the vehicle in the UK, you need to complete DVLA form V55/5, which can be downloaded from the DVLA website (just do a Google search on ‘DVLA first registration’), along with a helpful information sheet, V355/5, which tells you how to complete the V55/5 form. Be warned, though, that the V55/5 form applies to all vehicles of any age, including those eligible for Type Approval, etc. This means that some parts of the form at first sight appear to be difficult – if not downright impossible – to answer. Don’t worry, you don’t have to – quite a lot of the form gets left blank when you apply to register a historic vehicle.
You can ignore all references to Type Approval, emissions, noise levels and other similar matters, and concentrate solely on those which relate to an older vehicle. The worst that can happen, after all, is that the form gets sent back for you to amend if you don’t fill it in 100 per cent correctly, but it isn’t as bad as it looks.
In addition to the form, you’ll need to send the original title for the vehicle which, in most cases, will also serve as proof of age. If that isn’t clear, you’ll also need to get verification of its age from one of the approved clubs listed by DVLA. Also send the bill of sale as proof that you did actually pay for the car, and a print-out of the NOVA certificate you would have received when the NOVA application was made at the point of entry into the UK. Theoretically, you don’t need to send this as it should all be on the computer, but for the sake of a sheet of A4, it’s worth doing.
You must also get the car insured using the chassis number – I used Hagerty – and the insurance certificate, plus a cheque or postal order (remember them?) to cover the first registration fee of £55 also need to be included.
Now, again in theory, you don’t need to have the vehicle MOT’D, as these days ‘Historic’ vehicles are Mot-exempt. I chose to have the 914 examined for two reasons: first was for peace of mind as I wouldn’t easily be able to give the underside a thorough going over outside my house, and secondly I hoped it would mean that the car wouldn’t be required to undergo inspection by SGS, the independent company contracted by DVLA to carry out vehicle identity
checks and IVA testing. The only reason I preferred not to go through the SGS inspection routine was that I knew it could take several weeks to get an appointment – and it was simply more paperwork. Of course, that meant I needed to make a few changes to the 914 to make it legal for road use over here, so that it could be put through the MOT test. First on the list was to swap the sealed-beam headlight units for ones that dip to the left – an inexpensive swap as the 914 uses the very common seven-inch sealed beam units.
The all-red Us-spec rear light lenses look great and were in good condition, so I decided to try a little trick I’d discovered on line, which is to install hi-intensity LED amber bulbs in the indicators – these are bright enough to show amber through the red lenses and work a treat. At the front, I had to swap some wiring and install a new bulb holder in the sidelight/indicator units, along with new Euro-spec lenses I’d bought at the Retro Classics show in Stuttgart, so that I now had separate white side lights and amber flashing indicators.
The windscreen washers refused to work (they run, Beetlefashion, using pressure from the spare tyre) so I decided to convert them to electric, using a column switch conversion purchased through a DDK forum group buy and an ebaysourced pump. That was simple enough, but while I had the column apart, I decided I’d tackle the cause of the excessive play in the steering column.
On a 911, this is often due to the spring and collar behind the steering wheel hub being incorrectly fitted, but the 914/4 is different as it uses a VW column (914/6s use a 911 column). The play is usually caused by the disintegration of a bearing at the top of the column and help is at hand, courtesy of the Porsche 928 – yes, really.
Porsche made a split metal collar which slips over the column and is tapped into place to ‘repair’ the broken bearing. It carries a 928 part number – 92834773902 – and installation solves the problem in a matter of minutes. I purchased mine from Design 911 (www.design911.co.uk).
And so to the MOT… I dropped the car over at Williamscrawford, who are about 25 miles away, and left it there while I disappeared off on a photoshoot with a Carrera RS for the cover of issue #63. On my return, I was delighted to learn the 914 had passed first time, the only advisories being a split windscreen wiper blade and poorly-aligned headlights.
So, fingers crossed, I sent the V55/5 forms, the NOVA certificate, the original title (after having made a copy to add to the car’s history file), the bill of sale, insurance certificate and the MOT print-out to DVLA and sat back and waited. And waited – and then waited some more.
I had sent the forms to Swansea by ‘signed for’ post, along with a postal order to cover the £55 first registration fee. A quick check on line showed the package had been delivered, so I sat back and waited…and waited… You can do an online chat with DVLA, so in an affort to see if there was any news, I gave it a try. The results weren’t encouraging as there was no record of my application in the computer system. ‘It can take a few weeks to go through,’ said the ‘voice’ at the end of the line. But at least I managed to get a case number.
I e-mailed DVLA but that didn’t make me feel any better as I was informed that my application hadn’t even been received! When I pointed out that it had been signed for by the DVLA mail office, the response was that it hadn’t actually been signed for by DVLA, but just a mail centre in Swansea. It was suggested I reapply, at which point I lost my cool asking how that would be possible as my original submission included the car’s US title, the bill of sale, the NOVA forms – and my
money. The following day, I got another e-mail…
With this came the news that the car would need to be inspected after all. It took a further two weeks for SGS to send their man to the house where he spent an hour or so looking round the car, taking photographs before readily admitting that he didn’t really have a clue what he was looking at. But at least he did agree that the VIN number matched the paperwork, so all was good.
Part of the thinking behind the inspection is, apparently, to make sure that a vehice which is being imported as a classic, and therefore eligible for Historic status, is indeed a largely unmodified example. Too many people have tried sneaking highly-modified street rods through as ‘classics’ in an effort to evade import duty and the necessity to go through the IVA process. Although the legislation has been in place for many years, the DVLA is now more particular about this, so be warned if you’re tempted to sneak a car through the system…
It took a further ten days for the system to churn out an age-related registration number and issue a V5C registration document, meaning that I was finally able to drive the car legally. All in all, the process had taken six weeks since first applying – six very long and frustrating weeks.
Driving the car suggested that all was not well with the suspension alignment. It felt ‘nervous’. A look under the front hood showed that one upper strut mounting was set at maximum caster, the other in a mid-position setting. That couldn’t be right. At the rear, there was more negative camber on the left-rear wheel than the right. No wonder the handling didn’t feel as pin-sharp as you’d expect from a 914. A couple of trips back to Williams-crawford saw the suspension geometry reset to factory spec, and the difference out on the road was amazing. The car felt a different animal altogether.
When imported, the car was running on a set of 195/55 tyres, which meant it was undergeared and the ride was fairly harsh. I had a set of 195/65 Vredestein tyres that I’d run briefly on my 912/6 project, so had my local tyre store – Steve Andrews Tyres in Bodmin – swap them over. Again, it made an amazing difference to the way the car rode, although they are arguably a little fat for the 5.5Jx15 Fuchs wheels. However, a change of wheels (and tyres) is planned.
The first trip out in the car was to Roger Bray Restorations’ open day where it received favourable attention. But a far longer trip was on the horizon – a near-2000-mile drive out to Germany and back through Belgium for a couple of events and to visit the VW archives at Wolfsburg. On the way, I took the opportunity to call in at the former Karmann factory (now owned by VW) where the 914 was built some 44 years ago. Needless to say, the car behaved itself perfectly. Well, it is a Vw-porsche after all…