>An E Type would be nice, but they seem to start around £20K in fair condition. I >could get an NSX for that

Heh, you know what - in Denmark i can't ven get a brand new Ford Mondeo 2.0 w/o aircon for that amount. Sickening isn't it ? At most it would buy me a Peugeot 206 1.6 liter, or perhaps a bloody Toyota Corolla..

Oh well. At least the healtcare is good here.

\\Kaare

Unfortunately most of the british special makes are unavailable in Denmark because of our import and car tax rules.

Well, not unavailable, just priced out of reach. They can't stop you from importing a car that is road-legal in any EC country - but they can charge crazy amounts of customs and tax - at least for now. Our friends in Brussels are working on it...

Well, not unavailable, just priced out of reach. They can't stop you from importing a car that is road-legal in any EC country - but they can charge crazy amounts of customs and tax - at least for now. Our friends in Brussels are working on it...

Oh yes - unfortunately they can stop us having them on the roads. The Danish goverment can't stop us from importing virtually any type af car, but they are stopping us from putting licensplates on them and run them on the public roads. Every country is allowed to have special rules for registration. Denmark has a large number of those. Including a 210% (yes two one zero percent) registration tax for licenseplates. If the cars dosn't meat our strict rules there is no way in hell it gets plates on. Newer Caterhams, and morgans dosn't fit our rules.

Oh well. Perhaps the EU is helping out sometimes in the future.

\\Kaare

Newer Caterhams, and morgans dosn't fit our rules.

Any idea what it is that makes them not fit?

Oh well. Perhaps the EU is helping out sometimes in the future.

It is. Finland (another absurdly-high-car-tax country) has already started adjusting the tax down in anticipation of harmonization. And the technical exemptions are temporary too. Brussels is definitely driving for pan-european rules.

Any idea what it is that makes them not fit?

Emissions and crashtest. It's OK to import an old car, eg. the E-type, because it has allready been registreted in Denmark, when it was first launched. But when you take a car that hasn't allready been registreted it has to live up to the current spec.

It is. Finland (another absurdly-high-car-tax country) has already started adjusting the tax down in anticipation of harmonization. And the technical exemptions are temporary too. Brussels is definitely driving for pan-european rules.

Oh yes, trust me - i'm following the discussion in Denmark very close on this matter. Allready now there is a tiny loophole. If you've lived in another EU country, you are now allowed to take your belongings with you import and tax free if you paid tax and what not in the country you came from. You only have to live out of Denmark for six month for this to apply. Ofcource, that didn't come by it self, there had to be a trial against the Danish state in the EU for this to happen. But we're getting there in small steps. There is only one thing you can be certain on, the at all time sitting goverment will have to find other ways to collect taxes, so it's not gonna be cheaper to be Danish.

\\Kaare

I've either come to my senses, or lost them totally. Either way I will be doing a total engine rebuild next month with help from the ever fantastic Arnold/Schofield duo. The parts alone will cost twice what I paid for the car, but I see plenty of plus points:

- Up-rated components top and bottom end should make the engine much more robust
- Opportunities for an easy 80 ish extra BHP, with possibilities for a lot more
- I've always wanted a very shiny engine
- Don't have to reinstall my empeg in yet another car

To be honest, the last bullet point is the main motivation

Rob

I would say that’s the best possible solution to your problem. I had my timing chain explode on my vr6 a couple of years ago (bent every value on the head), and I was forced to picked a vr6 in better condition from the vw junk yard and rebuild it. I also picked up about $6000+ in engine parts (pretty much everything except the pistons) but I did get new rings too. I've added around 100hp my vr6, and once again I’ve falling back in love with her after she left me stranded a couple hundred miles from home.

Plus if I had the help of patrick and rob, I’m sure that 100hp would have been closer to 1000

I wish the three of you the best of luck, it would be really nice to have a nice photogallery posted documenting the previous damage and rebuild progress.