Not-Street-Legal JDM Cars

The US Government Is Auctioning a Bunch of Not-Street-Legal JDM Cars

You can buy an R34 Skyline GT-R from the Feds, but they won't let you register it.

BY CHRIS PERKINS
NISSAN

In Oklahoma, a collection of 29 cars seized by US Marshals are going up for auction after their owner, Kong Meng Vang, pleaded guilty to bringing around 1500 pounds of marijuana from California to sell near Tulsa. And there's something very unusual about the cars that make up the auction.


Vang owned a dyno shop, and apparently he's a big fan of Japanese performance cars—including a bunch that aren't yet legal to drive in the US. Among the cars up for sale are a 1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R, a 2000 Toyota Chaser, a 2000 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI Tommi Makinen Edition, a 1998 Subaru Impreza WRX STI, and a 1998 Toyota Celica GT-Four.


APPLE AUCTIONEERING CO

All cool cars—but none were originally sold in the US, and all are less than 25 years old, so they can't be legally registered here. Each auction listing comes with a warning that the cars don't comply with US EPA regulations, and thus, are only approved for off-road or track use. Additionally, each listing says the cars are "never to be titled, registered, or operated on US roadways." We reached out to the auction company to see whether any of these cars could be legally registered once they become 25 years old, the minimum age to legally import a non-US-market car and register it for road use.

Bidding has just opened, and the auction will close on April 1st at 11:00 AM ET.

So if you ever wanted to buy a non-street-legal R34 GT-R from the US government, this is your chance. As for us? We'll stick with Japanese classics we can drive on the street.

via Jalopnik