POSSIBLY moving to the UK, questions...

ericono · Post by **ericono** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:50 am

This is very preliminary, but I prefer to do my research as early as I can. There is a chance my company will be sending me to Aberdeen, Scotland, and I know this forum has a fair number of UK residents, so I wanted to start asking some questions. For now I'll keep the questions specific to cars. If things start looking more serious I'll ask for more help on living in general.

I would like to bring my e24 with me. It's an '85 M635, originally German market. Does someone know what all would be involved in getting the car in the country as well as making it road legal? The car is LHD, I am hoping that is legal for UK roads as I do not want to convert to RHD. I'd get another RHD car to drive on a regular basis.

I've got a thousand more questions, but I'll leave it at these to get things started.

Kind regards,

Eric

sharkfan · Post by **sharkfan** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 5:20 am

AFAIK there will be no problem importing your car here, although the Scottish weather and winters won't be kind to an old E24.

Colin C · Post by **Colin C** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 6:45 am

sharkfan wrote:AFAIK there will be no problem importing your car here, although the Scottish weather and winters won't be kind to an old E24.

Shark fan is correct, the local council people use a lot of road salt in the winter when the temps drop, doesn't have to be snowing, which is not good for older cars. Your 85 M635 sounds like a keeper so I would keep it for the summer months and buy a winter alternative - that's what I do

Not sure about headlight configuration but can't think of any other issues with a left hooker abd you won't have any emission issues.

Aberdeen is lovely, although the local accent is difficult.......

ron · Post by **ron** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 6:49 am

ericono wrote: I would like to bring my e24 with me. It's an '85 M635, originally German market. Does someone know what all would be involved in getting the car in the country as well as making it road legal? The car is LHD, I am hoping that is legal for UK roads as I do not want to convert to RHD. I'd get another RHD car to drive on a regular basis.

You will have to change the dip beams to UK versions (i.e dipping to left) and, if your speedo is in KPH, possibly change it to MPH if you want to register the car in the UK. I believe you can use the car for up to a year on US plates before you need to register it but I will check on this.

ericono wrote: I've got a thousand more questions, but I'll leave it at these to get things started.

Keep coming with the questions and we'll do our best to answer them.

PS You will need lots of cold weather clothing as Aberdeen will be a lot colder and damper than SC.

olympia57 · Post by **olympia57** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 8:30 am

Yep , as a Scot who's family originate from Aberdeen I can tell you it's a magnificent city with warm friendly people . I worked in the Oil Industry based there for many years and watched it evolve and still miss it.

If I could give you one piece of advice it would be .......Don't try to swim in the sea.

Good luck
Don

Alpinacsi · Post by **Alpinacsi** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:01 pm

This has been years back but I seem to remember using stickers on the low beams to allow the use of LHD lamps in RHD areas and vice versa. Basically triangular wedges that masked the beam so it had a level cutoff instead of the angled cutoff that would illuminate the nearside. (hmm: nearside, offside ?????? what is correct here? LHD car on RHD roads. Anyway; you want the beam masked so it does not angle up on the traffic in the opposite direction.)

Since your car has already been in the US; you probably have a MPH dominate speedo with an inner scale reading in KPH.

sharkfan · Post by **sharkfan** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 1:35 pm

Speedo should be ok in km/h; there are plenty of lhd BMW M5's and Alpina's here with km/h only speedo's.

Black beam blockers on the headlights should do the trick initially then if needs be source some rhd headlamps when you get here.

wattsmonkey · Post by **wattsmonkey** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 3:25 pm

Wow! That would be a change.

I think you'd be pleasantly surprised at how many of us UK folk actually know each other in person: it's a small island!

Keep us posted,

Rob

ericono · Post by **ericono** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 5:42 pm

Thanks for all the replies guys! So far this is sounding a bit easier than I imagined. I can deal with headlights, and I like the tape idea on the lenses as I imagine I would use the car more for trips to the continent since it is LHD. I lived in Japan for a few years and did not enjoy driving LHD cars over there. My speedo was already changed over to MPH/kph so no issues there (although if someone has a KPH speedo for my car let me know as I'd like to put it back to as delivered at some point in the future).

I've heard about MoT, but don't really know what that is in detail. What sort of things get inspected during an MoT? Is that a good site someone knows of that explains how to pass it?

I am in the process of bolting on some upgraded brakes which include AP calipers front and rear. Is that an issue in the UK? Here in the States, where I live at least, that's not something that gets inspected so it's not a problem.

Again, this is really preliminary so nothing is set yet, but I do hope it works out as I have wanted to live in the UK for quite some time. I've loved British cars since I was small and have had a number of mostly Triumphs with the occasional MG and a Jag. British comedies are also some of my favorite to watch, Last of the Summer Wine is my favorite. And I find the history interesting as well. Most of my ancestors hail from England and Scotland although I haven't done enough research to know the details of which places exactly.

Besides simply wanting to continue driving the car I really want to bring it over so that I can 1.) hit the autobahn in it and 2.) drive on as many great race tracks as possible: Silverstone (if I can even get on track, not sure what all is involved in that), Spa, the NÃ¼rburgring (I've driven there before, but in a very lame Renault diesel) and many more. Anyway, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I hope everything works out.

Thanks again for the help!

Eric

ron · Post by **ron** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 5:54 pm

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eurolite-Drive- ... B001P5UVTE

Brucey · Post by **Brucey** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 6:41 pm

MOT test info here;

http://mottesting.org.uk/

there is also a Wikipedia page.

There are a few aftermarket (racing) parts that will be frowned on but mostly if it is stock or improved it will be OK. A fair amount of discretion is allowable by the inspector but if (say) you don't have a rear fog light then it is an automatic fail.

If you get the same kind of checks in Germany they are substantially more anal about it; if you have any non-standard parts on your car they must be TUV approved for your vehicle, so better or not, your car will fail the tests with such parts fitted if they are not approved.

You can drive a road car in 'track days' on most of the UK's race circuits; it isn't too difficult to sort out.

e.g. http://www.silverstone.co.uk/experience ... rack-days/

BMWCC UK organises days at various tracks too.

cheers

ericono · Post by **ericono** » Tue Sep 09, 2014 11:47 am

Thanks for the links. The light deflector is certainly an inexpensive looking option compared to new headlights. What is the downside to those things?

Luckily with my car originally being a German market car I've already got 2 rear fog lights so that's one less issue to worry about. What about tires? What sort of official approval stamp do tires in the UK need?

The part of the MoT site that had details on what is inspected and how didn't seem to work yesterday so I couldn't read any details, but I'll keep trying and search for the Wiki page.

How about rust? Unfortunately I do have a little, none of it sturctural thankfully.

The Silverstone opportunities are more than I expected, that's great. It looks like I'd need to take a Novice class or 2 first. What are some other good tracks around the UK? I'm familer with Donnington Park and Brands Hatch. How about some other suggestions?

Thanks again,

Eric

Brucey · Post by **Brucey** » Tue Sep 09, 2014 1:18 pm

rust is not allowed in structural parts (like the sills) or anywhere near seatbelt mountings or suspension pickup ooints. It is all fairly well explained in the rules. Wiki article here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOT_test

covers much of it.

Re track days; there are gazillions of circuits in the UK. If you wanted to you could go on a track day three or four times a week. It is almost like we are a nation of racing obsessed nutcases...

This is an incomplete listing;

http://www.trackdays.co.uk/calendar/cars/

you can see that costs start around Â£99 and go up to several hundred for some circuits. The page lists some days at Spa as well.

In Scotland Knockhill is a good circuit; quite challenging in a heavy car.

cheers

Horsetan · Post by **Horsetan** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 11:43 am

ron wrote:..... I believe you can use the car for up to a year on US plates before you need to register it but I will check on this......

I understood it to be six months if continuously resident in the UK.

As a rider to this, I note that over the years, loads of ex-UK right-hand-drive cars have been re-registered on Romanian or Bulgarian registration plates (both countries being EU Member States, for better or for worse), which allows the owners to avoid/evade MoTs, road tax and UK insurance rates. The owners must be able to prove that they have taken the car out of the UK at least once every six months.

Brucey · Post by **Brucey** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 2:37 pm

moving to the UK? Be quick, it mightn't be the UK for that much longer...

cheers

bigcoupe.com

POSSIBLY moving to the UK, questions...

POSSIBLY moving to the UK, questions...

Re: POSSIBLY moving to the UK, questions...

Re: POSSIBLY moving to the UK, questions...