'74 Tires

[Duke W.]

Right hand drive?

Martin - It's my understanding that in order to register a Corvette or any other LH drive vehicle in Australia, it has to be converted to RH drive. Is this true? Is your car converted? What does is cost nowadays?

Duke

[Martin K.]

NCRS Down Under

An NCRS Chapter Down Under, sounds like a good idea. There are quite a few nice Corvettes down here and it would be great to have a local chapter, that is of course if one does not already exist that I do not know about. I have attended local shows and events sponsored by the Chevrolet car club and the Corvette car club (I beleive Zora even made a trip to Melbourne in '94 for the Corvette Convention) but as Family and work commitments grew over the years my ability and in some ways my interest fell away. I guess a bit of personel history would not go astray at this point. I brought my '74 LS4 4 speed froma local importer in early '85, after a little work here and there, I drove the car for about 3 years. In mid '88 I garaged the car for the best part of a year while I took a large vacation around Europe and the U.S., on my return the '74 was pressed back in to service but within a few months the indications were that some minor mechanical work was waranted in the way of a main bearing for the T-10. That was September '89, my Corvette has been off the road ever since, no need to analyze this to closely as I am sure I am not alone on this one (there must be some recognition for sticking with it). A few years ago work commenced in earnest for it was to be ready by Summer, we were going driving (Important note: it turned out to be a little more than the bearing in the box eg: all I managed to salvage out of the motor apart from non rotating assemblys were a handful of valves and the rods and for the money that sucker consumed I may as well have thrown them away). Well Summers have come and gone as has a large portion of my Bank Account and I have long ago given up projecting completion dates, all I will say is that all sub assemblys are rebuilt and refitted save for the engine which while being finished still resides on the engine stand. Interior is complete and awaits installation, Body is done. What the heck one more guesstimate can't hurt, IT WILL BE ON THE ROAD IN A MONTH OR SO!!!! Back to the question my early experiences of the 'Corvette Fraternity' were that it was a somewhat fragmented group, and as I have had little exposure to the scene in recent years (see above) so I do not know if that has improved, bear in mind this is a personal view point of one individual. There is a Corvette car club currently in Melbourne as well as other state's but I am not aware of any plans to start a chapter Down Under, maybye one day.

[Martin K.]

Re: Right hand drive?

The Short answer re Left Hand Drive cars: If a car is less than 25years old it has to be converted to RHD. If a car is less than 30years old but not less than 25years old it can be registered on 'club' registration, this enables the car to be driven on designated club events as well as to or from Panel Shops or Workshops ect (mind you, this has been manipulated, read abused, over the years). If a car is 30years or over it may be fully registered LHD and used as any other RHD vehicle. Now there are some quirky exeptions to this such as street sweepers and a bunch of other stuff that escapes me for the moment, needless to say none of the exeptions are corvettes. The 30year and over rule is also a rolling one, that is to say that this year'70 models are eligible, next year or late this year if you want to be acurate '71 models are eligible and so on. The above changes to registering of LHD cars took effect sometime around late '98 or early '99. Yes my car has been converted to RHD (see other posting NCRS Down Under) as it was not possible to register it any other way back in '85, personaly and from an originality perspective the car has been all but deystroyed as it would be cost prohibitive to return it to LHD given the availability of all the new and/or used parts required to complete the task. The only comforting thing here is that the car pretty much started out as a basket case that would have otherwise been broken up for parts, as it turned out it is now a very nice car albeit RHD, so nothing lost really. But in light of the new laws once the '74 is finished and I have had some fun with it, it will be sold and I will be heading Stateside hunting for a real clean '70-'72 LS5 4 speed that will be staying LHD. The C3's cost about $4-5,000aus to convert back in the mid '80's, I think they are around the $10,000aus mark now (but for reasons above I don't think there are a lot of people doing them anymore). C4's start around the $10-15,000aus mark. C5's are somewhere in the $20-30,000aus range, I know a guy who converts these and he is one of only two that I am aware of in Australia but as I have never really entertained the idea of owning anything past '82 I have never bothered to ask him exactly how much it costs.

[Roberto L.]

Re: NCRS Down Under

Understand very well your comments. I'm trying to do the same in Argentina, we have some cars but not all owners are NCRS oriented, actually only a few, I mean a FEW, are in original/stock/correct/etc avenue. I'm trying to 'converte' people here, but as other have stated, it is their cars... We don't have LH/RH problem but our vette owner are new to the corvette experience and will take some time before our Chapter. Good luck, Roberto, NCRS #30019, RMC


Argentine Corvette Club