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Boo Boo Foo · 02-25-2004, 02:15

I recently imported from Miami, Florida the car you see in my signature.

Obviously, I'm very proud of it. Being my first post here on the messageboard and all, I'll try and be subdued and humble and all that sorta stuff (smile).

The vehicle is currently in the last 2 days or so of Qld Compliance issues before being officially registered. I had to spend $1945 with the Queensland Transport Dept, and I also had to request a written exemption by the Transport Minister himself to get the super duper plates which said "GT350". Apparently, 2 letters and 3 numbers is set aside 100% of the time for motorcycles - no exceptions. Save for this time. The plates are white lettering on maroon background. They should match the appearance of the vehicle sweet as.

The number of issues involved in registering a privately imported car in Queensland can be almost heartbreaking. It seems like every time you make a phone call, another $1500 bill lights up. I'm sure it will subside, but for now my wife is giving me some very pained looks I assure you!

One of the compliance issues was a real bitch. The interior of the car is a simply gorgeous colour matching Pony interior which follows the Scarlett Red and White Le Mans striping all the way from the front to the back. Ultra sexy stuff and the car is a genuine 55,000 miles - still immaculate inside. But there was no way around it... I had to fit 3 point retractable belts in the front which were butt ugly black, along with a pair of 3 point lap/sash of more butt ugly black in the back fold down bench. And to make matters worse, the engineers insisted on cutting into the interior fastback panels to mount the seat belt gear. Broke my heart it did. The entire interior was immaculate ivory white and scarlett red along with shiny chrome on the dash. Even the dash was colour co-ordinated. And now I've got these ugly, sinful black belts which had to be fitted because only THEY had the special ADR compliance tags. A sinful thing to do to such a classic car. And you pay through the nose of course for the privilige.

I see one of our moderators here has an avatar of the new '05 Mustang in front of the 66 Shelby GT350. Well that red car in the background is MY car - well not THE car but one of 1,500 odd exactly the same which were built in 1966. Well, to be perfectly accurate, the build date on my car was September '65 but it sat in Caroll Shelby's production line for 3 or 4 months before meeting the US Racing Car Club's homologation specs etc.

Man, there are so many stories I can tell you about what was involved in importing this car. It's an interesting tale to say the least. Suffice to say, it was really filthy when it finally arrived after 3 months at sea going via every port in the world it seemed like. (And it looked like every filthy wharfie in the world sat in the bloody car too). But after 10 days of very expensive, world class detailing, the true beauty and immaculate nature of the car came out.

I'm really proud of it. It's just such a total buzz to own one of the most famous cars ever made. I promise to have photos soon if anyone is interested.

Thanks for letting me join the messageboard by the way! I have heaps of technical questions which I'm sure you'll enjoy pondering!