Newbie with a few questions

[oxam]

Hi guys,

just purchased a 2002 yellow RT10 in the US last friday. Trying to organize the shipping this week and cannot make up my mind - ro/ro or container. I got different quotes from several companies but what would you recommend? I have heard stories of front bumpers being ripped off when loading/offloading on ro/ro's and to be honest not really sure I want to let somebody else drive 500 hp (this one has headers, exhaust and induction kit) car around.

anybody you would recommend for the IVA after that and approximate cost? I live in London. I was thinking of Surrey Mustang as they take care of my supercharged Mustang but maybe you can suggest somebody else who has done many vipers.

looking forward to get the car here and I am sure I will have plenty more questions

cheers
Max

[Viper]

nice one !

i think just about everyone who has imported on here has used a container, quite a few have used Kingston Shipping, get the top deck on a ro/ro and you get three weeks of salt spray, lovely

speak to Dr Bob (Baz) on this forum for the IVA he has prepped loads of vipers and owns a yellow '02 RT S/C with 730hp as well, he's very friendly with the IVA centre in Luton which may help with the exhaust mods. I dont think he's ever had a viper fail the test. Baz also knows a few things about mustangs as well

He's probably also worked on 80% of the vipers in this forum, one way or another
and will get lots of recommendations from the guys here

Edited by Viper on Tuesday 15th February 21:58

[acrman]

Make sure you check the build date of your car, a lot of 02 cars were built in 01 which could means no IVA needed. I use Schumacher Cargo 01449 722203 don't skimp on shipping put it in a container and I have a standard exhaust if you need to borrow one for the test.

[Viper]

good point clive, you can check your VIN here, it will give you the build day info

http://www.compnine.com/vid.php


just realised Oxam you were the guy with the yellow mustang at Bedford autodrome back in Oct we chatted to you briefly, Ph'ers viper owners neilsfishing had the graphite ACR viper and Joelism was in his silver monaro that day. Baz mentioned above was there to, its a small world

get yourself to Luton in March, there will be a load of vipers there and chat time with the guys

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Edited by Viper on Tuesday 15th February 22:56

[oxam]

It's a really small world thanks for all the replies guys, the car has been built on 3rd march 2002 so it will need the IVA. I will drop Baz a message. You are right, I will go for the container, the difference is 600 USD but if I think of the cost of respraying/sorting out dents/bumpers etc it's well worth it. The dealer recommended a shipping company he is working on regular basis with and they quoted me 1850 USD all in to Felixstowe so I think will go for that.

[fatboy18]

I used Kingstown Shipping from San Fran to Southampton, car in a Container. They take the car out of the container and it was sitting in a warehouse waiting for me with a flat front tyre I never did get the monies for a new tyre The tyre had a nail through the middle of it!

When you find out the name of the Ship your car is going on you can use Shiptracker.com to watch the position of your boat every 12hrs

I would get yourself some extra tyres too, cheaper there

[oxam]

Next question - found a set of srt10 calipers and discs (front an rear), are they worth shipping over with the car ? As I might have to sell my other track toy (supercharged z3m coupe), the viper will be seeing some track time and seems that the standard brakes are not the best. Any opinion?

[Ginja]

Others will chime in here but you will need a big brake upgrade kit to go with the calipers, these can be had from Parts Rack. I think you will also need a parking brake which I think parts rack also supply. I also think one option was to use SRT front calipers and use your OE fronts on the rear. Other options are to increase the size of the rear caliper piston (cheapest option and apparently very effective - MadMax will be able to tell you about this) or to use StopTech brakes which are what was used on the Nurberg Viper Taxis - best option but most expensive as well.

Mark

[Viper]

the SRT brakes are quite a vast upgrade from the stock gen2 brakes, and definately worth doing if your tracking your viper, but there maybe better options for you

the SRT discs are quite cheap over here £100 each, so it could be cheaper to buy them here and save the US postage costs if you dont throw them in your container, the stock pads run at $250 per axel off Chuck

as Mark mentioned youll need a few other install bits to make it all work, and new hacksaw if you fit them all round

when i had the viper ring taxi ride a few years ago run by the Zackspeed team, they were using Move It brakes, theyre really huge ! make the SRT's calipers seem tiny. The driver said they had tried the lot over the years but the Move Its were way better than anything esle for the viper

[ViperDave]

I paid $1250 for containerised Houston to Thamesport plus $300 for US pick up and £365 for UK processing, (paperwork,unloading,etc) with kingstown end of last year. I would check your all in price includes UK processing, especially if being arranged at the US end.

I took the decision to arrange shipping myself rather than the vendor a) because it was cheaper. but b) I had ownership of the shipping relationship rather than a vendor who had the car off his lot and money in the bank. I'm sure the vendor I used would have been ok should there have been a problem but just thought it would be easier to sort out if things did go wrong if it was just me and the shipper.

Don't forget marine insurance, runs at about 1% of insured value.

there are pro's and cons to both types of shipping. Just keep your fingers crossed either way. It still gets driven by someone else when they put it in a box and the crane drivers don't care whats in the box either and will assume its packed properly!

[Ginja]

Always behind the curve me! Serious brakes! RT/10 is on the right side drop down.

Mark

[Viper]

a couple from the german trip





Charlie waiting for the off, youll need to zoom in to see the calipers

[neilsfishing]

there is also the stop tech 6 pots as on the ACR my ACR

Edited by neilsfishing on Wednesday 16th February 20:02

[oxam]

So shipping has just been arranged - pick up, customs, container, customs in UK etc. All I have to do is pick up the car from a storage in Kent. Hill Shipping are charging 1475 GBP so it's fine with me. They said it takes on average 3-5 weeks so cannot wait

For the brakes I will do some more research and then will be patient on the US ebay (got my Stoptech kit for the Mustang for 700 USD

[Viper]

http://partsrack.blastmart.com/customer/home.php?c...

http://ipsco.org/Viper.htm

[fatboy18]

OR........ http://classifieds.viperclub.org/showproduct.php?p...

[Dr-Bob]

I Have the SRT-10 BBK soon to have the ACR stoptech rotors as well... HUGE IMPROVMENT....

You can not resize the rear caliper piston on an ABS Viper.... this is for the earlier vipers pre ABS...

[Viper_Larry]

I still run stock sizes on my 97 GTS, albeit with 'uprated' (if you can call them that) EBC discs and stock pads. I've tracked mine at the Nürburgring, Spa, Snetterton, Rockingham, Bruntingthorpe - including a 185mph run on the runway - all on standard brakes.

You just need to push the pedal hard, grit your teeth and clench your butt cheeks!!! Soiled undies are par for the course

Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride...

[Escalade]

Been down to Surrey Mustang today and mentioned your Viper. Trevor said he has converted loads of Vipers and can do the IVA mods for you no problem! He always does all my IVA work and has been spot on everytime from Escalades to Vipers!

[fatboy18]

Hope it all goes well for you, Just one thing though, why the hell did you have to get a Yellow car

Its bad enough having One Yellow owner living in Surrey, now it looks like we will have another!
I reckon if you had bought a Red car the shipping would be much faster

so have you got any stripes on the car?