The £7700 Corvette C6
Discussion
Fishy Dave said:
davepoth said:
Awesome trip.
One question though - what did you do about insuring the car while you were in the US?
Thanks guys One question though - what did you do about insuring the car while you were in the US?
I used Geico, they were happy to insure me as a non-US citizen and without a social security number. With the help of Ivan, the Z4M friend we made from our first USA trip in 2016, we arranged it with breakdown cover based at his address in California. By paying on instalments we cancelled after the first payment so it cost us just over $100. We were 100% honest with the answers we gave them. Where things were less certain was over the legality of driving it across states with a Californian title, where the car was effectively unregistered. You have to register it within 14 days from the date of sale, so we were within that. It worked out ok.
With regards to driving it across State lines, how would this differ from, say, a usual USA resident driving it across borders? Is it the case that upon purchase you didn't take ownership of the USA legal title (as you would have via a V5 in the UK), as you bought the vehicle but deferred title registration until you arrived in the UK?
Also, how did you manage to drive the car on US plates upon collection here? I was led to believe that you cannot drive a foreign registered vehicle owned by yourself within the UK? I was looking at buying a car for Europe on Spanish plates but the downside being as a UK resident I understood I couldn't drive it on those plates back in the UK.
I am very keen to follow in your footsteps and make the same purchase (C6 too) but these grey areas do concern me a little.
selym said:
Now, about the Tech 2 clone; I don't suppose you have a link?
There are plenty on ebay, such as this one for £275 delivered https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GM-TECH2-CAR-Scanner-TI...CAPP0 said:
Hi Dave, what a great read! Things have definitely moved on from when I first knew of you!
We seriously considered buying a UK-spec Mustang a little while ago (and may still), but I've always had a soft spot for the Vette, and MrsC could probably be convinced if she could get her head around the LHD thing. I live pretty close to Claremont but of course he has retired now, should have bitten the bullet whilst he was still operating. Will keep an eye on this thread with interest!
Hi CAPP0, more than 15 years now since the Fiat Coupe days! I do like the UK spec Mustang, they are certainly holding their value well too. We seriously considered buying a UK-spec Mustang a little while ago (and may still), but I've always had a soft spot for the Vette, and MrsC could probably be convinced if she could get her head around the LHD thing. I live pretty close to Claremont but of course he has retired now, should have bitten the bullet whilst he was still operating. Will keep an eye on this thread with interest!
Shnozz said:
This sounds like a bit of a grey area. So you have to presumably put down a US address as "your" address to insure the car - it cannot be a hotel address presumably? So you need a friend stateside and then have to fib that is your address for the purposes of that insurance.
With regards to driving it across State lines, how would this differ from, say, a usual USA resident driving it across borders? Is it the case that upon purchase you didn't take ownership of the USA legal title (as you would have via a V5 in the UK), as you bought the vehicle but deferred title registration until you arrived in the UK?
Also, how did you manage to drive the car on US plates upon collection here? I was led to believe that you cannot drive a foreign registered vehicle owned by yourself within the UK? I was looking at buying a car for Europe on Spanish plates but the downside being as a UK resident I understood I couldn't drive it on those plates back in the UK.
I am very keen to follow in your footsteps and make the same purchase (C6 too) but these grey areas do concern me a little.
I've been reading through a long conversation I had with my friend in the States, when he helped me set the insurance up. Whilst we used his address, we didn't fib that I lived there. The State lines don't seem to matter, the insurance card I printed off to show to authorities (not required in the end) showed I had coverage throughout the States. I paid for an international driving licence just in case.With regards to driving it across State lines, how would this differ from, say, a usual USA resident driving it across borders? Is it the case that upon purchase you didn't take ownership of the USA legal title (as you would have via a V5 in the UK), as you bought the vehicle but deferred title registration until you arrived in the UK?
Also, how did you manage to drive the car on US plates upon collection here? I was led to believe that you cannot drive a foreign registered vehicle owned by yourself within the UK? I was looking at buying a car for Europe on Spanish plates but the downside being as a UK resident I understood I couldn't drive it on those plates back in the UK.
I am very keen to follow in your footsteps and make the same purchase (C6 too) but these grey areas do concern me a little.
Yes, you are right, I signed the title but deferred registration. Happy to private mail you or anyone else with a transcript of how this was arranged, but Geico were very helpful when talking to them directly. I have read of others who have used hotel addresses when buying and touring in a motorhome, but this is more difficult in some States than others. California's high number of travellers, tourists and alien workers probably means that car insurance for non US citizens is quite common there?
Over here, you are right that I shouldn't have driven the car from the collection depot in Milton Keynes to home (near Bath), but did so just because I wanted to finish it's journey on its own tyres, not on a trailer. I arranged UK insurance that specifically covered me to and from a pre-booked MOT appointment (you must have an MOT before you can apply for the first V5), however 100 miles was probably a little further than they would be happy with!
Good to hear that you are thinking of a C6 too.
The first mod I fitted were the Z06 brake ducts. These draw air from just in front of the flexible air dam. What a bargain, a genuine manufacturer performance modification for $20 each! Coming from BMW and Porsche ownership this was quite a shock.
The rubber air dam is sacrificial and scraped on every journey from my house on the way to work! It acted as a plough on the cambered, single track road, sweeping the gravel and grass nicely.
I could fit flexi hoses to direct air to the very centre of the discs, but for now I'm just happy to get air in roughly the right place. With the suspension compressed the air is directed nearer to the centre of the wheel.
Whilst the car was on the MOT ramp I had a look around, expecting to find a dribble of coolant from a hose clamp. The first owner had replaced the rad some years ago, so initially I ruled that out until I looked at the tiny gap beneath the A/C condensor and noticed the radiator bowing dramatically. I had experienced this same issue on my 325ti and whilst someone suggested it could be a H/G failure I felt confident it was fatigue or just a weak part. I looked around at various radiator options, opting for a thicker core, full alloy ebay special that came via the States. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/64MM-for-Chevrolet-Corv...
I borrowed a good friends 2 post lift that made life much easier and over the course of a very long day I changed the Rad, Dexcool coolant, lower temperature thermostat (180deg), oil, oil filter, baffled sump and oil cooler.
The hardest job by far was fitting the crank scraper and sump baffles. To remove the sump you need to lower the subframe, removing the front spring, a few hours work.
The workmanship of the Improved Racing kit was perfect, the crank scraper fitted VERY closely but using a feeler gauge it tightened in place without touching any part of the crank.
With a charity event at Rockingham booked http://thesupercarevent.com/ it was important to protect the engine from starvation on the long first left hander.
We were VERY lucky this didn't turn into a big leak on our roadtrip!
The aftermarket rad is a much thicker core but fitted in perfectly, very nice alloy welds. Whilst the rad was out i used an airline to clear the A/C rad of flies, grit and other blockages, surprising how much there was wedged in the holes, blocking airflow. 30 minutes of blasting later it was better but would still benefit another going over at some time.
The Improved racing oil cooler is a quality bit of kit, only bought after a fair bit of research as it represents nearly 10% of the value of the total car! The cheaper but genuine Z06 cooler has issues of over cooling on the road, with the Z51 system not quite good enough (built into the coolant rad) for trackday use.
My lovely wife was actually out for a horse ride but I asked for her help for a few minutes......which turned into a few hours.
Slender hands are useful when threading the oil cooler lines through to the front of the car. Youtube videos were useful here to check the routing.
I had bought a new Z06 radiator shroud ($50 well spent) which took the guess work out of where to cut the holes for the lines. An acrylic template from Improved Racing helped enlarge these slightly more.
The air filters that Zip Corvette sent didn't fit, being too large, the packaging label was correct though, will look into that further.
By 11pm I was feeling pretty tired and my wife had left for home hours ago. Refitting the front spring was hard work physically by myself, involving floor jacks and bits of wood to bend and persuade it in place. Still, it was an opportunity to adjust the ride height, making it slightly lower. It is the easiest car to adjust each corner height, with a 10mm spanner all that is needed.
At a later date I will adjust each corner correctly using my scales, but for now it is set up simply on number of visible threads showing.
This is what a Corvette monoleaf spring looks like, with the height adjusters on each end.
The rubber air dam is sacrificial and scraped on every journey from my house on the way to work! It acted as a plough on the cambered, single track road, sweeping the gravel and grass nicely.
I could fit flexi hoses to direct air to the very centre of the discs, but for now I'm just happy to get air in roughly the right place. With the suspension compressed the air is directed nearer to the centre of the wheel.
Ej74 said:
Dids you solve the overheating ?
Thanks
Yes, see below Thanks
Whilst the car was on the MOT ramp I had a look around, expecting to find a dribble of coolant from a hose clamp. The first owner had replaced the rad some years ago, so initially I ruled that out until I looked at the tiny gap beneath the A/C condensor and noticed the radiator bowing dramatically. I had experienced this same issue on my 325ti and whilst someone suggested it could be a H/G failure I felt confident it was fatigue or just a weak part. I looked around at various radiator options, opting for a thicker core, full alloy ebay special that came via the States. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/64MM-for-Chevrolet-Corv...
I borrowed a good friends 2 post lift that made life much easier and over the course of a very long day I changed the Rad, Dexcool coolant, lower temperature thermostat (180deg), oil, oil filter, baffled sump and oil cooler.
The hardest job by far was fitting the crank scraper and sump baffles. To remove the sump you need to lower the subframe, removing the front spring, a few hours work.
The workmanship of the Improved Racing kit was perfect, the crank scraper fitted VERY closely but using a feeler gauge it tightened in place without touching any part of the crank.
With a charity event at Rockingham booked http://thesupercarevent.com/ it was important to protect the engine from starvation on the long first left hander.
We were VERY lucky this didn't turn into a big leak on our roadtrip!
The aftermarket rad is a much thicker core but fitted in perfectly, very nice alloy welds. Whilst the rad was out i used an airline to clear the A/C rad of flies, grit and other blockages, surprising how much there was wedged in the holes, blocking airflow. 30 minutes of blasting later it was better but would still benefit another going over at some time.
The Improved racing oil cooler is a quality bit of kit, only bought after a fair bit of research as it represents nearly 10% of the value of the total car! The cheaper but genuine Z06 cooler has issues of over cooling on the road, with the Z51 system not quite good enough (built into the coolant rad) for trackday use.
My lovely wife was actually out for a horse ride but I asked for her help for a few minutes......which turned into a few hours.
Slender hands are useful when threading the oil cooler lines through to the front of the car. Youtube videos were useful here to check the routing. I had bought a new Z06 radiator shroud ($50 well spent) which took the guess work out of where to cut the holes for the lines. An acrylic template from Improved Racing helped enlarge these slightly more.
The air filters that Zip Corvette sent didn't fit, being too large, the packaging label was correct though, will look into that further.
By 11pm I was feeling pretty tired and my wife had left for home hours ago. Refitting the front spring was hard work physically by myself, involving floor jacks and bits of wood to bend and persuade it in place. Still, it was an opportunity to adjust the ride height, making it slightly lower. It is the easiest car to adjust each corner height, with a 10mm spanner all that is needed.
At a later date I will adjust each corner correctly using my scales, but for now it is set up simply on number of visible threads showing. This is what a Corvette monoleaf spring looks like, with the height adjusters on each end.
Edited by Fishy Dave on Wednesday 15th August 17:09
Fishy Dave said:
Shnozz said:
This sounds like a bit of a grey area. So you have to presumably put down a US address as "your" address to insure the car - it cannot be a hotel address presumably? So you need a friend stateside and then have to fib that is your address for the purposes of that insurance.
With regards to driving it across State lines, how would this differ from, say, a usual USA resident driving it across borders? Is it the case that upon purchase you didn't take ownership of the USA legal title (as you would have via a V5 in the UK), as you bought the vehicle but deferred title registration until you arrived in the UK?
Also, how did you manage to drive the car on US plates upon collection here? I was led to believe that you cannot drive a foreign registered vehicle owned by yourself within the UK? I was looking at buying a car for Europe on Spanish plates but the downside being as a UK resident I understood I couldn't drive it on those plates back in the UK.
I am very keen to follow in your footsteps and make the same purchase (C6 too) but these grey areas do concern me a little.
I've been reading through a long conversation I had with my friend in the States, when he helped me set the insurance up. Whilst we used his address, we didn't fib that I lived there. The State lines don't seem to matter, the insurance card I printed off to show to authorities (not required in the end) showed I had coverage throughout the States. I paid for an international driving licence just in case.With regards to driving it across State lines, how would this differ from, say, a usual USA resident driving it across borders? Is it the case that upon purchase you didn't take ownership of the USA legal title (as you would have via a V5 in the UK), as you bought the vehicle but deferred title registration until you arrived in the UK?
Also, how did you manage to drive the car on US plates upon collection here? I was led to believe that you cannot drive a foreign registered vehicle owned by yourself within the UK? I was looking at buying a car for Europe on Spanish plates but the downside being as a UK resident I understood I couldn't drive it on those plates back in the UK.
I am very keen to follow in your footsteps and make the same purchase (C6 too) but these grey areas do concern me a little.
Yes, you are right, I signed the title but deferred registration. Happy to private mail you or anyone else with a transcript of how this was arranged, but Geico were very helpful when talking to them directly. I have read of others who have used hotel addresses when buying and touring in a motorhome, but this is more difficult in some States than others. California's high number of travellers, tourists and alien workers probably means that car insurance for non US citizens is quite common there?
Over here, you are right that I shouldn't have driven the car from the collection depot in Milton Keynes to home (near Bath), but did so just because I wanted to finish it's journey on its own tyres, not on a trailer. I arranged UK insurance that specifically covered me to and from a pre-booked MOT appointment (you must have an MOT before you can apply for the first V5), however 100 miles was probably a little further than they would be happy with!
Good to hear that you are thinking of a C6 too.
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