Yelvette Tom ~

Bring the Vette ! You'll have a great time with it and there's lots of Corvette Clubs here in Germany to hookup with. The club I'm in does lots of Club Cruises during the Spring and Summer, e.g., Corvette FAME in Valkenberg, NL, Bad Schwalbach International Car Show, Germany, Club Cruise to Garmisch, Germany, 24 hours @ LaMans, France Club Cruise, The Corvette-Viper Shootout at Hockenheim Ring, Germany, and many others. Bring the Vette. . . driving on the Autobahn is out of this world (150mph+ Legally)

OK, that's my pitch for bring your Vette. All I can say is you'll be sorry if you don't

Oh, don't expect to get a lot of $$$$$$$$$$$$ for your Vette by selling it overseas in Germany. The local GM, Chevy, Cadillac dealerships have all the new Vettes models to include the new Z06's !

OK, I'm outa here. . . . Happy New Year to all and good luck on your assignment to Germany. . . . Bring the Vette

Later,

Cecil
Heidelberg, Germany
1999 Nassau Blue C5
MOD: 2004 LS6 405hp Crate Engine
Hometown: Ft Lauderdale, Florida
Born: Alexandria, Virginia

 

Really, I'll have to get the wife's uncle on the phone, asap

 

Rumble Bee (Chris)

Hope you had a Merry Christmas. I had a great time skiing in Vail, Colorado. Weather here in Denver yesterday was a nice 68 degrees and more of the same today. I'll be back in land on 28 December 2005. See ya then

Marmaduke (Cecil)

 

I've got a TR coupe and it stands out like a sore thumb. I don't think it really matters though. I usually get either a "that's really cool" look or "that darn American" look. Doesn't really matter much either way to me and I've never had any trouble. Some of the roads in small towns are narrow, but usually those are 30Km/h speedlimit zone so it's not a big deal. Since I've been here, I've been doing all of the work myself, but there are dealers around that could do the work if you had to. I know one guy around here goes to an Opel dealership for work. Insurance is more expensive, but if can buy a cheap car to drive to work and list it as you daily driver and it cuts down on the price, plus you'll have a car to drive when it snows. Finding a place with a garage is not a problem, but the garages tend to be smaller, so don't plan on doing more than parking your car in the garage.

The only downside is that my gas milage dropped for 22mpg down to 13-14mpg because of the unlimited autobahns.

 

Agree!!!

 

and while the Corvette clubs are talking about what kind of wax is best and sitting in parking lots looking at their cars or watching other people race, you can get out on the Nurburgring and have some real fun (14euro for a 1 lap ticket, cheaper per lap if you buy 6, 12 or 25 lap tickets which are good until the end of the year or if you're really hooking 1 year is about 800euro for unlimited laps) or going to Hockenheim ring on Thursday nights (3 euro to get in and 12 euro for each 20min session on the track) or go autoXing up on the old Bitburg airfield one weekend a month (25-30 euro for the whole weekend, gates open on Friday, drag racing and AutoX going on all day Saturday and Sunday, camp out on the airfield or get a room on Spangdahlem 15min. away)

No offense to any Corvette Clubs intended, but I've yet to find one that has members interested in serious track time, which is why I started hanging out with the F-Body guys.

 

The 'Ring does not, I repeat, does not get cheaper when you buy the longer or even the year pass, the money you spend on tires and brakes will see to that!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'll get a hold of "Jochen". I'll ask him to chime in and help answer some of your questions.

 

I'm going to have to figure out what to do with scrap iron pretty soon. The stack of rotors is starting to get a little high.

 

Thank you Brad for your Email. I will send you the pics from the Miami auto convention in a few days !


Hey Randy,

hope you like it here in germany. You really choose a "bad" time to visit south germany. At this time we are having a looot of snow. Nothing really good to drive a Corvette in . . . Mine is in winter hibernation for the next three months. Be prepared for that

For your questions:
If you come here as a member of the US Service, the german tech. inpsection rules does not apply for you. As some of the guys mentioned it before, your inspection will be done on a US base, concerning US regulations. As far as i talked to some guys in the service, everything that is legal in the US might be legal for your car in germany. Cats you will need !
US military personal using "german style" licenseplates since some time in germany. They look like a german plate. Difference: on a german plate you can identify the city were the car is registered by the first one to three letters on the plate. e.g. "M" means the car is registered in Munich, "B" is Berlin . . . Your plate will probably have the "HK" or something like that. The police knows you are a member of the US military (or working for the US government). Giving you a special status. Shure, nut free for speeding, but with a lot of privileges (like no regular very strict german techn. inspection from the TUV).

It will be different if you come to germany on your own. You have 6 months until you need to register your car in germany. For that step you need a lot of paper work, inspections, german legal documentations . . . i did that once with a Dodge Durango i bought in Florida and shipped it to germany. Some things needed to be changed to the car (e.g. rear turning signal lights, headlights . . .) If you go that way, you need help from somebody here in germany - let me know, i can forward you some addresses . . .

Speeding fines are "normal" and comparable to US tickets as long as you dont go crazy. As soon as you go much to fast (e.g. 35 Miles over the speed limit) they might charge you up to 750 Euro and take your license for up to three months.

When it comes to tuners, germany is still living in the stone age. I asked the biggest and most known german Corvette dealer in Munich to reprogramm my PCM for a special reason. He said he is not able to do that. He can custom tune, but as far as i know it will be something like a mail in tune from an US tuner . . . i bought HP Tuners and "did it my way"

We are having a growing Corvette Comunity in germany, and we too have a nice Corvetteforum. Check it out www.Corvetteforum.de

You can Email me any time if you have more questions.

Take care

 

I forgott: If you want to run your car on a german Dyno, we do have a lot of Dynamometers in germany. This year in May we had the first "Corvetteforum Dyno Day in germany". We had 17 Cars on the Dyno and got the highes number from a C3 @ 505 HP . . .

 

Thank you very much for your response, it was very helpful. I will definately make sure my car is totally modded and tuned before I bring it to Germany next year. I may look you up when I arrive to find out more info on what I need to do to make my car legal for the roads

 

I lived in Wiesbaden from 95 to 98, and one thing I recomend is that you get ADAC (something like our AAA). and do not take your Vette to the Opel dealer in Mainz-Kastel.( MK is the closest GM dealer from Wiesbaden.) Have your car taken to the Frankfurt Opel dealer instead.

 

Thanks for all the comments. I've decided that I can't leave it here and I'm going to take it to Germany. It won't be Florida weather and I won't have top down as much, but that's OK.

Can anyone tell me what I can do to get it ready to go. Tail lights, side lights, etc. I hope to get a German type plate so I guess the backup lights will have to go to fit the plate. I'm eventually going to sell it there so any changes made will not have to be undone.

Again, thanks for all your help.

 

Jochen will chime up but the Brit rules are very similar to Germany being Euro standards.

For UK I need side repeaters, a rear fog light and amber rear turn signals. Heavy tint is a no no. Also the DRLs need to be inhibited (pull the A2 fuse).

 

Can they dyno tune?

 

You need to buy all the parts to do the conversion here, because in Germany your going to pay four times the price and labor.

 

Just a word of caution, all parts for the conversion need to be "E Marked". Items such as GM Euro Taillights are E Marked but other lamps may not be. If they're not marked they wont pass the TuV Test. I had to source my fog light in UK.