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agurkas
By agurkas | Community user | 1 Post | 13 November 2012 at 7:41am

Wife and I are considering move to New Zealand. We are both US citizens.

Question I have: one of my cars I really would like to bring to New Zealand is my LHD 2007 Porsche Cayman S (less than 15000 made per year worldwide). Would I realistically be able to get LHD Category A permit for this car?

Another option I looked at was to bring it on under "C5: LHD motorsport vehicles", since I have been competing with it for the last 4 years, but visually my car looks stock, since all modifications are done only to suspension and engine. To qualify for C5, does my car need to have race cage?

Anon
By Anon | Community Member | 14 November 2012 at 1:20pm

All left hand drive cars here in NZ need to be converted to right hand drive or need to be exempted. To get a left hand drive permit, the vehicle needs to meet certain criteria.

The first criteria is that the vehicle is of historic value or the make, model and submodel has never been built as a right hand drive.
Unfortunately for you, a 2007 Cayman S is not of historic value and the model has been manufactured as right hand drive. This means the car won't meet the criteria for a left hand drive permit.

You can't "bring in" the car under a C5 category. To get a car recognised as a C5 motorsport vehicle, it must be here and must have gone through the process of a low vehicle volume certification.
You would need to apply for a motorsport authority card and to get this card, you must hold a motorsport NZ competion licence.
If you import this vehicle in its present state, you run the risk that it can never be registered in New Zealand. Unfortunately at this stage the risk is very high.
We would advise to sell the car in the US and buy a right hand drive one here .