Description
Book Synopsis In the 1970s, as car enthusiasts in the U.S. grew bored with models manufactured under tightening pollution and safety regulations, some innovative dealers exploited a legal loophole--designed to allow U.S. soldiers and diplomats to return from abroad with their vehicles--to import exotic cars never intended for sale in America. During the 1980s, a rise in the value of the dollar made car shopping in Europe a bargain hunter''s dream. A network of unauthorized gray market importers and conversion shops emerged, bypassing factory channels and retrofitting cars to meet U.S. regulations and emission standards--at least in theory.
These cars had to pass through U.S. customs, a system equipped to handle only a few independent imports annually. As applications ballooned, the regulatory system collapsed. This is the story of a misunderstood but fascinating period in the automotive industry, when creative importers found ways to put American motorists in new Ferraris while the E
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1. Congress and Cars
- 2. Small Importers and Their Reactions
- 3. The First Compliance Shops
- 4. Making Them Pass
- 5. The Stoichiometric Closed Loop Electronic Feedback Controlled Breakthrough
- 6. The Boom
- 7. More Fuel on the Fire
- 8. In the Workshop
- 9. The Independent Labs
- 10. The Shine Rubs Off
- 11. Meanwhile, at Lamborghini
- 12. The Factories Push Back
- 13. An Inaction of Congress
- 14. The Market Winds Down
- 15. Lessons of the Gray Market
- Chapter Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
