PrintEliminating the Roadblocks
Importing limited-edition cars—such as the English-built McLaren F1—has never been easier, thanks to recently relaxed regulations.
Gerd Petrik loves his cars. The German native, who moved his medical research and development company to Florida seven years ago, had more than 30 of them in three garages and scattered in the driveways of his residential compound outside Sarasota when I visited him earlier this year. By his estimate they are worth $10 million, and all are used regularly. "I drive them all, every day another car, so each is driven about once a month," he said, taking me on a tour of the collection. "You can tell the car I'm driving today because it is out front," he said, walking up to a classic Volkswagen in the driveway. "Today I drove the '79 Super Beetle."
There were automobiles for routine transportation: a Mercedes-Benz CLK320 for his teenage daughter, a 1999 Porsche 911 Millennium Edition for his wife, and a 1994 Mercedes 600SEL for those times when a stately black sedan would be required. "It's our everyday family car," Petrik said with a wink, as if any $100,000 car with 480 horsepower could be considered ordinary. But the meat of the collection is exceptional cars of the past and more current exotic ones. Seeing them all took more than an hour. Petrik delighted in removing the covers from the garaged ones with a flourish and then relating the car's significance and its history. He stopped to gaze affectionately at a gleaming red, majestically finned 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz. "This is one of the cars that gets the most attention when I'm on the road. Around 300 were built, but everybody thinks they had one."
As we strolled from automotive icon to automotive icon, my jaw hung open wider and wider: a Jaguar XKE150S coupe (one of only 30 made); a Jaguar 140 roadster; a 1994 Ferrari 512 TR Testarossa; a 1990 Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible; a 1947 Bentley convertible; a 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Fantuzzi (one of only 10 produced); a 1992 Porsche 911 America roadster; a new Beetle that was cleverly made into a convertible; a 1973 Jaguar E-Type (XKE); a 1957 Mercedes 300SL coupe (the revered gullwing model); a 1959 Mercedes 300SL convertible; and a 1937 Mercedes 200 convertible. There was even a stretched version of the Hummer—at 27 feet in length it accommodates 12 passengers, and has a compartment for the family's enormous St. Bernard and six felines—that its owner referred to as "our hurricane escape vehicle."
However, as the collection unfolded (the owner artfully orchestrating each unveiling so that every new car seemed to best the last) it became clear that Petrik loves fast cars most of all, the hellishly faster the better. A Porsche 911 Turbo S from 1999. A 1995 Bugatti EB110 SuperSport, one of only nine built and the only one in the country. Off the premises for repairs, he said, were a 1997 Lamborghini Diablo VT and a 427 Shelby Cobra. "I like to go fast," he said with a smile. "I have the fastest American car. I've got the fastest Italian car. I've got the fastest German car. And I've got the fastest English car."What's more, he said, I had seen none of them yet. Then, one by one, Petrik undraped the truly fast cars in each national category, starting with the American champion, the Hennessey Venom, a 650-hp upgrading of the Dodge Viper, clocked at over 200 mph in a road test.
Next came the 1995 Ferrari F50. It is, he said, the fleetest street-legal Italian car ever made, as well as the only European F50 in the United States. "It's one of the most beautiful cars I own, and took me six months to get into this country," he added. The next car, a Mercedes-Benz AMG CLK-GTR, is so rare that it's practically a rumor. Few souls have ever laid eyes on this street-legal version of the Formula GT1 race car, other than as a photograph. "Two hundred people want one, but there will be only twenty-five," he said. Petrik got number four last year by finding a champion horse for the daughter of the co-founder of AMG, but it still cost him $1.7 million to buy in Germany, and another couple hundred thousand dollars to bring here and legalize. Boasting 670 hp, it is the fastest German car, and the only CLK-GTR currently in the country.
Still, it is not Petrik's fastest car. He had saved the English-made McLaren F1 for last, lovingly rolling the cover from a car he called "perfectly engineered." It's certainly a jaw-dropping car to behold—a sinuous wedge that doesn't seem to have an ounce of fat on it. Striking from the titanium color to the artfully integrated carbon fiber body, it simply looks fast and capable. The unbelievably exotic CLK-GTR seemed almost rough-hewn in comparison.
TAG McLaren Group (now partly owned by DaimlerChrysler and developing the Mercedes Vision SLR limited-production supercar) made only 72 street F1s between 1994 and 1998. At least nine of them are in the U.S. (Ralph Lauren is one owner.)
Designed from the ground up for streetuse and later raced (unlike race-bred supercars such as the CLK-GTR, the street version of which is produced in accordance with a GT1-class racing requirement stipulating that at least one such vehicle be offered for sale), it is the only street-legal car ever produced by the legendary race-car builder McLaren. Its most unusual feature is a seating arrangement that places the driver in the center, requiring serious contortions to navigate the cramped passenger seat on either side. "There are five pages in the owner's manual on how to get in and out," Petrik commented.
With 627 hp and a weight of just 2,513 pounds, the F1 is built for speed above all else. How fast is it? "Of all my cars, this is the most amazing," Petrik said. "The acceleration is unbelievable—you can't even raise your head off the headrest. There is no other car like this. It is the fastest street car in the world." The F1 has been widely acknowledged as such. "No production car can touch the McLaren for sheer speed," gushed a story in duPont Registry last year. Road & Track—which clocked its 0-60 mph time at an eyeblink 3.4 seconds, 0-120 mph time at 10.5 seconds, and got it up to 217.7 mph—gave it "undisputed title to Fastest Street-Legal Car of the 20th Century." But the company claims that top speed is really 240 mph, and Petrik said it had hit 245 mph in Germany. He turned to me and grinned. "Shall we take it?" he deadpanned. I smiled wanly as we lowered ourselves carefully into the F1, hauled down the upward swinging doors, and he fired up the 6.1-liter, 12-cylinder engine, developed by BMW's Motorsport Division just for the F1.
Thus began one of the rides of my life, at least outside of a dedicated race track, in a machine that could easily crack 200 mph under ideal conditions. As it is, Petrik said he had gotten this one up to 185 mph himself "with the sheriff sitting in the seat you're sitting in." Off we rumbled in the low-slung missile, and I quickly noted the tight suspension, the six-speed manual transmission, a tachometer that redlines at an orbit-achieving 7,500 rpm, and a speedometer that didn't quit until 260 mph. Petrik drove a few miles to his favorite demo road, then cranked the F1 from a dead stop through a few neck-snapping speed-shifts, producing an unearthly roar and all of the anticipated G-forces. When I felt able to look away from onrushing fate, I glanced over at the speedometer and saw the needle hover at 125 mph when I thought we might be doing 100. The F1 feels so steady, sure and effortless it fools you into thinking you're going slower than you actually are. And then it was over, a few seconds of thrills in the world's fastest passenger car.
Back at the house, I asked about the conversion that had legalized the F1. Until recently, the process of getting an uncertified recent-model car approved for use here was arduous and costly. The F1 had cost Petrik "about $1 million" to buy, plus approximately $200,000 to be shipped here, cleared through customs, and brought into line with American safety and emissions requirements. The entire process took nearly two years. Satisfying the Environmental Protection Agency's stringent emissions regulations usually means engine and exhaust modifications. "You had to make changes that are very costly, tens of thousands of dollars' worth. That alone takes between three and nine months," said Petrik. Department of Transportation safety rules required that the headlights be changed and their covers removed, and that a third brake light and sidelights be installed. This is now unnecessary, thanks to new DOT "show and display" regulations issued in mid-1999 (see To Show and Display). "You don't have to change the car any more for the DOT," Petrik said. "But you still have to do the EPA emissions."
All of the McLaren F1s that have been certified in the U.S. were modified by Amerispec, a company that has specialized in legalizing foreign-built exotic cars for almost 25 years. With four new F1s being imported under the new regulations, company owner Dick Fritz vows, "We'll never do a McLaren again as we did before—all of the changes we made took 14 months and six trips to their factory in England." Previously, the conversion to meet DOT and emissions standards cost $124,000 for the F1; now it will total closer to $30,000. That spells savings of nearly $100,000, which brings the final price all the way down to $1.1 million. Quite a bargain.
To Show and Display
August 13, 1999 was a red-letter day for American lovers and collectors of exotic European motorcars like the McLaren F1. That was the date they received an unexpected gift from an unusual source: The Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued its new, relaxed rules for the importation of cars of "historical or technological significance" for "show or display," such as the F1, the Jaguar XJ220, BMW Z1, Porsche 959 and GT1, Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR, and the Bugatti EB110. "It opens up the U.S. for more cars," comments Dick Fritz, whose Amerispec Corp., based in Danbury, Connecticut, specializes in legalizing such so-called gray-market cars. "We'll have less to do on each car, but more of them to do."
Virtually all of the safety roadblocks to bringing in such rare cars were eliminated. Previously, every single automobile less than 25 years old had to satisfy current DOT safety rules before it could be certified to remain in the country. That meant costly and time-consuming additions and alterations such as air bags, seat belts, bumpers, door reinforcements, third brake lights, and reflectors, costing thousands of dollars and often taking months to complete. Such changes ruined the essential look of many cars, at least in the eyes of purist collectors, leading some of them to attempt alterations that would bring the car back as close to the European original as possible as soon as they took possession. Legal? Not really. And certainly not in the spirit of the DOT rules. However, while bringing a qualifying imported automobile up to speed on safety matters no longer involves such cost and trouble, it doesn't mean the bureaucratic tangle was entirely eliminated. Each car still must pass EPA muster for emissions, hardly a cakewalk when it comes to high-powered cars. And the NHTSA rules for qualifying such "show or display" cars are stringent—as well as, on occasion, elusive—the application process is demanding, and lastly, the penalties for noncompliance are stiff.
First of all, NHTSA regulations make it virtually impossible for a car to qualify under the new rules if the manufacturer is still producing the same make and model, or has ever sold a car of the same make, model, and year in the U.S. And any car will find particularly tough sledding if more than 500 of the same make and model were produced. If a car survives these initial tests, the owner must still prove to the satisfaction of the NHTSA committee that his car is valuable in terms of technology or history. The NHTSA publication"How to Import A Motor Vehicle for Show or Display" (consult the Web site: www.nhtsa.dot.gov) specifies that the car must either have advanced technology "of an unusual nature, not commonly found in motor vehicles manufactured in the same time period" or a singular history. That latter qualifier is defined as "one of a kind," or "the first or last vehicle of a particular model," but it also includes a car proved to have been owned by a person of "historical significance." If the committee certifies the car, further rules apply. The car cannot be driven more than 2,500 miles per year if it is registered for use on public roads, and the owner must have an insurance policy stating this. The owner must also keep a log showing mileage and use, and must agree to DOT inspections of the odometer and log. The car cannot be sold, leased or transferred without NHTSA approval. And if the owner is found to have disregarded these rules, fines of up to $1,100 per violation and even seizure are specified. It takes time, too. The first letters of approval were finally being received more than six months after the new rules had been issued. Among the first certifications: a Jaguar XJ220 and a McLaren F1.
Richard John Pietschmann is Departures' automotive columnist.
